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Canada vows to be next country to go after Facebook to pay for news

34 Comments
By David Ljunggren

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34 Comments

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Good, Eh.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

Great news, well done Australia and Canada!

11 ( +13 / -2 )

While I don't think print companies/news should get bailed out and be protected simply for the sake of protection, while print is becoming less and less relevant, I agree even less with Facebook paying nothing while it profits from the use of others' work. The companies that did the work and print/broadcast the news deserve the credit and to be paid for the rights to use said work. Facebook may be able to somewhat control and bully ONE country doing this, but with Canada joining in, and no doubt others to follow, it won't be long before Facebook starts paying something, at least.

10 ( +14 / -4 )

Time to Flush facebook and the zuckerburg anyway, they had it all their own way for too long.

Google is way past its use by date too, and its old slogan of for good or what ever , yeah right its been busy as hell whitewashing the damn internet for years of anything it didnt think was politically correct ! Dump em all

8 ( +8 / -0 )

Agree. All countries need to make sure all media companies are properly compensated for their content.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

It looks like Japanese system is different. I do not check FB and Google for news. There are many web sites we can check for news such as Yahoo, Biglobe, Goo, Livedoor, Infoseek etc. I think they have contracts with news services Kyodo and Jiji as well as newspapers and magazines. I presume they are paying money for their uses of news and stories.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

get rid of facebook.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

Here is a write-up by the Guardian Australia on the topic that is a good read:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/19/facebook-is-gambling-australia-cant-live-without-it-imagine-if-we-prove-them-wrong

This whole facebook thing is very American. They have decided it's their way or the highway, and that the world needs to do business the way they say. Typically American. But Facebook needs the users more than the users need facebook, and Australia is throwing it right back in their face.

Facebook screwed up on this. Now when other countries see how it works for Australia, they'll want to follow suit. Like they are now. These big tech companies need to understand that they serve us, the people, NOT the other way around. Good on Australia for being the first to stand up and say that.

6 ( +12 / -6 )

The Murdoch oligarchy is feeling pressure and looking for ways to make money. These are the death throws of a dying industry.

The industry is dying in part from the big tech platforms having pulled all the users to their platforms, using the publishers' content, without adequate compensation. You're blaming the industry for getting murdered. Remember, without these publishers, the big tech platforms have nothing. They are not content generators, they are content aggregators.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

Don't they simply provide links to the story?

No they dont. They provide headlines and snippets containing basic information on each article. People read those snippets and move on and occasionally when they want more information they follow a link. The longer Facebook can keep people on facebook the longer they are exposed to advertising, subjected to data collection on what interests you so they can target the advertising and maximize their income.

Facebook gets money from having people read "snippets" and staying on their site.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Apart for business purposes, FB , Twitter & instagram are purely for narcissists.

Please press ‘like’ , pleeeaaase !!

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Google needs the content so they are paying for it.

Facebook doesn't need the content and, of course, doesn't want to pay for it so they removed it from their system.

What's the problem with that?

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Shouldn't the news outlets be paying Facebook for bringing extra readers to their sites? Or am I missing something?

Well. Facebook makes big money with their users' data. Maybe the company should be paying something back, too.

Facebook itself is also a business. Do you seriously think it provides free services to the public? I am no fan of some of those media companies. However, I do not like another Murdoch incarnation.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

I hope more countries join in to take down Facebook and the other out of control tech behemoths including Google. They are using their near monopoly status to violate their user’s privacy and freedom of speech. This brazen effort to dictate to the Australian government should be a warning to us all.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

Australia having a good year on the integrity and standing up to wanna be tyrants scale! There’s a few floating around.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

I don't get what this is about, Don't they simply provide links to the story? I can't see how media companies can demand revenue for links that bring traffic to their sites.

I think the true story is news services are not profitable and using "their" platform to squeeze some money out of Google and Facebook. Newscorp can suck an egg before I ever give them another cent.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

I think I am missing something. Are they talking about the links we get when we follow news outlets on Facebook? So for example, I follow The BBC. When a link to a story appears in my feed I have to click on the link which takes me to the page for the full article. Surely this is giving the media companies extra coverage? I know I am far more likely to visit these pages via links in my Facebook than I am to go directly to their sites. Shouldn't the news outlets be paying Facebook for bringing extra readers to their sites? Or am I missing something?

3 ( +8 / -5 )

FB benefited from the perception of being a one-stop shop - check your posts and likes, peruse the news FB knows you are interested in, examine a few sales for items you recently browsed or purchased. I prefer to actually get my news by visiting multiple websites and not logging in; the sites still get a fee for my eyeballs viewing adjacent ads when I click on a story, and those will fund continuing efforts at journalism.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Why do people get the news from Facebook? There’s the problem. It’s as if they want to be told what to think and they’re addicted to it

3 ( +3 / -0 )

It's not being trafficked, the media companies are voluntarily making facebook websites or putting Facebook links on stories. Facebook is not asking or taking their content. This is media outlets using Facebook for dissemination and then asking Facebook for money.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Are you Missing the Point Here?:

All the News now is nothing more than regurgitated Propaganda by whatever organization creates it.

Who CARES if FBook shuts off their "News" links ?

2 ( +2 / -0 )

The bad news is google will most probably be paying only for the news they want

The news services that they don't want, theyre forced to cut them off if they re not paying

1 ( +2 / -1 )

There's a well-known rule on the internet.

If you aren't paying for a service, then you are the product being sold.

The idea that people voluntarily use FB, Tweeter, Gram-Google, or any other "free service" still doesn't make any sense to me.

JT makes money from us posting. The articles are the honey. The crazy things other people post (it is always other people who are crazy) get a few here engaged - overly engaged.

Driving traffic. Traffic == advertising revenue.

But at least JT doesn't track everywhere we visit on the internet, doesn't take GPS information, and isn't THAT addictive.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Every Facebook user generates unique content. Why not mandate a fairer social media revenue sharing system for everyone, including news media, independent commentators, and cat video creators? Why are politicians only interested in laws which benefit their friends in the establishment news media? This is what corruption looks like.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

I hope more countries join in to take down Facebook and the other out of control tech behemoths including Google.

Wait, you righties usually whine incessantly upon any regulation to business. Why is the canary suddenly changing its tune? You're starting to sound awful leftist there...

And on that note, as I leftist, I don't think that these companies should be taken down. They provide valuable services. I enjoy using Facebook to share images with my friends and family around the world - it would be a lot more effort to do so without it. That said, I also don't like that they've run rampant, with little regulation, and only self-oversight. I strongly support governments in stepping up and putting some regulation on them to ensure that they are of benefit to society, and not a drag.

So I do agree with more regulation. Which is the standard leftist approach. I'm just really surprised to see our right-wingers agree with me on regulating companies for the betterment of society. America could use a lot of that.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@WA4TKG

All the News now is nothing more than regurgitated Propaganda by whatever organization creates it.

Well, ya got THAT right but your "now" is naive. All public news is slanted toward the interests of the publishers and has been since before Rome. And FB is a master at it. "Honest Journalism" (see: editors and publishers) is in the same set as "Honest Politician", "Honest Lawyer", "Honest Corporate Executive", and as we are learning day after day, "Honest Police Officer". Any organization or individual whose sole activity is exporting 'information' requires SPONSORS. And there is the rub. What do they get in return for allowing you to eat? Well, it's a spectrum, lots of emotional adjectives, for starters, on the mild end. Sometimes that's all and sometimes just complete horse pucks without any validity whatever. But, if you start early enough reading the 'news', by the time you're 12, you should be able to see at least some of the lies because 'news media' has an appallingly low target audience comprehension level which I understand to be about the 4th grade of grammar school. By the time you're thirty, you have already read every story 'news' can write and it becomes just repetition with different words and subjects but the same sell. And it's the 'sell' which gives it away. And, if you know WHAT they're selling, you should then know who is trying to sell it to you, why, and who it is designed to benefit or hurt. Sadly, if the 'news. confuses a person, there are no remedial "interpreting the pathological lies of psychopaths" classes to help. There is one place, though, where some understanding may be had: "Propaganda" by Edward L. Bernays, 1928 (Freud's nephew). This is their Bible.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There is no TRUTH in the 'news', just shreds of it to hold the lies together. And no one lies more to you and your own personal prejudices than your personal 'trusted source'.

American news maybe. Plenty of good quality news in the rest of the world. There's even some in America, but it's hard to find it.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

addendum:

There is no TRUTH in the 'news', just shreds of it to hold the lies together. And no one lies more to you and your own personal prejudices than your personal 'trusted source'.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Or am I missing something?

The Murdoch oligarchy is feeling pressure and looking for ways to make money. These are the death throws of a dying industry.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Go Facebook!

-13 ( +2 / -15 )

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