Prominent Canadian political commentator Aaron Gunn called Bill C-18 “nothing more than an attempted government shakedown of tech companies to reward their favourite media outlets — who already remain almost universally dependent on government financing.”.“The consequences of this move were entirely predictable,” tweeted Gunn on Thursday. .Gunn started off by saying many people have asked him why news content has disappeared from their Facebook feeds and who is to blame. .The Canadian government passed Bill C-18, which would coerce Meta and Google to pay government-accredited media every time one of their links is shared on their platforms..For example, people who share a link from the CBC or the Vancouver Sun on Facebook would be forced to pay the publisher a legislated amount of money. .Rather than abide by C-18 and place themselves on the hook for millions of dollars, Meta and Google decided to block the sharing of news links altogether. While Google has not yet acted, Meta has begun to restrict people’s news feeds. .They have voiced their opinions for months and have followed similar paths in other countries where comparable legislation has been tried. .Gunn said this “fundamentally makes no sense.” News and media companies profit from the free advertising generated from social media platforms. .They use these platforms at no cost to distribute links to their content, which directs back to their websites to sell advertising and subscription services. .“To then attempt to receive coerced payment for that free advertising is the height of arrogance and hubris that has rightly blown up in their face (and the government’s),” he said. .“Unfortunately, it’s also produced collateral damage, as Canadians have been left without easy access to news (although you can still navigate to all these sites directly) and some media companies, such as True North, have also been negatively affected despite not supporting the legislation.”.Meta made good on its threats to restrict access to news sites on July 18. .READ MORE: Meta begins throttling Canadian news outlets, including Western Standard.If people were trying to access the Western Standard on an iPhone, they might have received a message which read: “In response to Canadian government legislation, news content can’t be viewed in Canada.”.The restrictions appear to be selective at this point, depending on platform, device, and operating system.
Prominent Canadian political commentator Aaron Gunn called Bill C-18 “nothing more than an attempted government shakedown of tech companies to reward their favourite media outlets — who already remain almost universally dependent on government financing.”.“The consequences of this move were entirely predictable,” tweeted Gunn on Thursday. .Gunn started off by saying many people have asked him why news content has disappeared from their Facebook feeds and who is to blame. .The Canadian government passed Bill C-18, which would coerce Meta and Google to pay government-accredited media every time one of their links is shared on their platforms..For example, people who share a link from the CBC or the Vancouver Sun on Facebook would be forced to pay the publisher a legislated amount of money. .Rather than abide by C-18 and place themselves on the hook for millions of dollars, Meta and Google decided to block the sharing of news links altogether. While Google has not yet acted, Meta has begun to restrict people’s news feeds. .They have voiced their opinions for months and have followed similar paths in other countries where comparable legislation has been tried. .Gunn said this “fundamentally makes no sense.” News and media companies profit from the free advertising generated from social media platforms. .They use these platforms at no cost to distribute links to their content, which directs back to their websites to sell advertising and subscription services. .“To then attempt to receive coerced payment for that free advertising is the height of arrogance and hubris that has rightly blown up in their face (and the government’s),” he said. .“Unfortunately, it’s also produced collateral damage, as Canadians have been left without easy access to news (although you can still navigate to all these sites directly) and some media companies, such as True North, have also been negatively affected despite not supporting the legislation.”.Meta made good on its threats to restrict access to news sites on July 18. .READ MORE: Meta begins throttling Canadian news outlets, including Western Standard.If people were trying to access the Western Standard on an iPhone, they might have received a message which read: “In response to Canadian government legislation, news content can’t be viewed in Canada.”.The restrictions appear to be selective at this point, depending on platform, device, and operating system.
