- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
Canada demands Meta lift news ban to allow wildfire info sharing::The Canadian government on Friday demanded that Meta lift a “reckless” ban on domestic news from its platforms to allow people to share information about wildfires in the west of the country.
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Canada should run it’s own official mastodon or lemmy instance to post canadian news/communications and whatnot. I never undestood how we still depend on American corporations like Twitter and facebook to share news. Like, even for my local govt, if I want to know if there is any road works, water issues and so on, it ends up on facebook only! This is dumb.
Canadian governmental entities (at all levels) aren’t known for their innovative thinking. Throughout the pandemic, regardless of your position on vaccines, the main fact that it was a group of volunteers in a discord channel that were responsible for the information shows the archaic state of digital communication in Canada. Frankly embarrassing by global comparison.
Wait is this for real? Source? I have not heard of this, it would be great if this is open to the public during and even after pandemic.
They go by Vaccine Hunters. I don’t think they are active anymore but you can find their history here: https://vaccinehunters.ca/about
As much as I love clowning on Zuck it’s unreasonable to expect foreign companies to act as your nation’s means of emergency notifications.
Not really emergency notifications but news, which tbh isn’t as important in this case because non-Canadian news orgs aren’t affected and are covering it too. So there isn’t an immediate risk I don’t think.
As for the main point: The problem is that a subset of the population ONLY gets information through one platform. The only way to reach them is through that platform, and not reaching them means excess costs when you have to rescue/treat/otherwise deal with the fallout. It’s also the government’s job to inform people and keep them safe.
At the same time, the companies need to be regulated by the government. Can’t just let them have free reign because they seized control
💀
I wouldn’t trust my country to competently run anything internet related
Did he stutter?
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It’s unreasonable for a social media platform with almost 3 billion people to be privately owned.
Facebook isn’t privately owned. It’s a public company.
Publicly owned and publicly traded are different.
how is that unreasonable? build your own network get it to 3 billion people on it and then tell me what you think if the government take it from you. Or even better go and live in CUBA, CHINA, RUSSIA Or NORTH COREA that where that type of thought belongs.
Capturing lightning in a bottle is more about luck than about skill.
People with no skills, don’t build a social media such as Facebook, I don’t like the dude at all but I can’t fail to recognize his achievement. I dare you become a programmer and build your own idea may be you can capture that lightning you are talking about.
Didn’t he steal the idea from two other guys though
I really don’t know that, but even then steeling an idea and taking it to where Facebook is right now is not easy feat to do, and again I don’t even like the dude but can’t deny his accomplishments.
Its so easy being the idea guy. Everybody wants to be the next idea guy.
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from your mouth to the outside yes you will live in cuba, is not that hard to move there and yet you still outside cuba. I visited the country long time ago and from what I heard no much have change. I don’t know where you from don’t care either but unless you are from a 3rd world country you won’t last a month in cuba.
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I meant it in a sarcastic way the way that anyone that has not live in a country with that kind of political system, adapt to unless they are in some kind of mission but not to move and live the rest of their live, there are reason why people from Cuba AND the likes cuba try to get out of there in masses. But anyway reply to me when you move there.
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Or, and hear me out here, just don’t use Facebook, especially if it doesn’t have the features you say you need?
The internet is gigantic, there’s so, so, so so many other ways to get and share information.
Can we get someone from https://social.network.europa.eu/explore to comment?
This is so ridiculous. It’s sad that people need to rely on social media to find “news”.
Is CBC that hard to find?
Journalism is so fucked in Canada.
Apparently only 3% of FB feed is news related
TIL, that is so small how is this even an issue.
Oh no, I’m facing the consequences of my actions
~Canada
Governments are terrible at legislating in the tech and information space. It almost always results in terrible laws that don’t even come close to doing what they intended.
I don’t like facebook and i certainly don’t give a shit if they lose money but you can’t force them to buy news articles and deliver them to non-paying users.
Yes the government can force them because theyre the government. Thats how governments work. If youve bought into the propaganda that governments have no right to regulate facebook then I guess facebook is the ultimate authority to rule the world? Perhaps we should hand the military over to zuckerberg? Zuck as unelected dictator president? Governments have authority and a duty to control corporations within their borders no matter what their ceo’s have convinced you through the media outlets they have bought up. Yes, governments have ultimate power and authority on planet earth not “business”.
Sure, Canada can regulate Meta/FB, but they can’t force them to offer the service in the country. If Meta wants to completely cease operations in Canada they’d be perfectly within their “rights”.
Meta hasn’t chosen to cease operations there, and realistically they aren’t going to do it, unless they’re willing to take a massive hit in stock value that would result from taking out a rich country from the revenue stream.
Gov ask companies to pay for sharing news. Meta is complying with the regulation. They’re sharing zero news, which is within their rights.
But they have ceased serving news from canadian outlets, in compliance with the local laws. There’s no way the government can force them to pay out for news links if they won’t serve them at all
Issue is Canada can’t force them to do business there. If they continue introducing flawed legislation that is awful at doing what it’s supposed to do, then Meta’s just gonna get tf outta there. Canada aren’t big enough to have that much of a dent on their income, so it’s just not worth it.
That’s the traditional model, but I don’t think it applies anymore. We seem to be living in a post-nation state era. People are fully reliant on the top dozen or so companies, so those companies have tremendous power over government. Some governments are only just now realizing that fact and are trying to push back, but it’s way too late.
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I’m perfectly fine with shitting on Meta/Facebook/Instagram for gestures broadly at the last 10+ years, but Canada instituted a link tax for news. They added a fee to a fundamental part of the Internet: linking to something. I can’t blame Meta for refusing to play that game.
Be me, the Canadian government
Decide that making social media companies pay news organizations to host their links is a good plan that will help struggling news sites.
The social media sites stop hosting links in order to avoid the payments, hurting said struggling news organizations.
Wait they weren’t supposed to do that.
Canadians are not able to find out critical information about the wildfires due to your law.
Blame social media companies for being reckless.
Crisis averted.
Australia tried it and gave in.
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This administration writes legislation like kindergarten students.
Oh no. The leopards are eating their face. Someone do something. Help.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
OTTAWA, Aug 18 (Reuters) - The Canadian government on Friday demanded that Meta (META.O) lift a “reckless” ban on domestic news from its platforms to allow people to share information about wildfires in the west of the country.
Some people fleeing wildfires in the remote northern town of Yellowknife have complained to domestic media that the ban prevented them from sharing important data about the fires.
“Meta’s reckless choice to block news … is hurting access to vital information on Facebook and Instagram,” Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said in a social media post.
Chris Bittle, a legislator for the ruling Liberal Party, complained on Thursday that “Meta’s actions to block news are reckless and irresponsible.”
In response, a Meta spokesperson said by email that the company had activated the “Safety Check” feature on Facebook that allows users to spread the word that they are safe in the wake of a natural disaster or a crisis.
Canadians can use Facebook and Instagram to access content from official government agencies, emergency services and non-governmental organizations, the spokesperson added.
The original article contains 314 words, the summary contains 176 words. Saved 44%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Canada, it’s called parasitising a symbiotic relationship. Evolution tries this from time to time. Now we see if your law is fit to survive.
I have no idea which side has better arguments for doing what they do, but this is like Mega-tech/Zuck doing this:
