Commentary
Just when you thought Canada’s digital misadventures couldn’t get more chaotic, it appears they could be about to.
First, let’s take a quick look at the record. Then we’ll take a peek at the problems.
It was three years ago this month when Meta responded to the Online News Act by banning posts to news links on Facebook and Instagram. It did this because the legislation, which was based on the false premise that by allowing news producers to post their content for free on its platforms, Meta was “stealing” their content. The act, which was promoted by its backers as world-leading, demanded that Meta pay, in exchange for giving publishers free access to billions of eyeballs, what would have amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Conscious of the global implications of compliance, Meta chose to ban news links. In the end, Canada became an object lesson in what not to do….