What even is the “intimidation”? FB and Google threatening to stop hosting news in Canada? I thought that was literally the intended effect of the law. How is it intimidation?
It’s like if you made playing hopscotch illegal and then people were like “If you don’t change that law back, we won’t play hopscotch anymore. Then you’ll be sorry!” That’s literally the point my dudes.
The intended effect was to create a revenue stream for traditional media players, so saying “our way or we’re out” is, in fact, an attempt to coerce the outcome they want.
tbh I’m kind of hoping fb and google stick to their guns if only so that it solidifies their reputation as a source only for misinformation.
You make a good point in that it could open the doors to better alternatives for search engines/social media as a news source, similar to how Reddit’s management is causing many users to seek out alternatives (ie Lemmy).
I’d be curious to know if there are any solid decentralized search engines and if that’s even feasible.
Fair enough, but I feel like part of the intended implication of the law is that if Meta and Google are unwilling to pay, that they would leave.like that outcome was definitely anticipated before the law was signed. They even did the same in Aus.
