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Comment by regimeld | Hacker News Reader

As a Canadian, I find the current government's policy on the internet to be very 1990's. I fully support Google's and Meta's decision to remove Canadian news from their platforms. This is a complete "own-goal" by the government.

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Probably the biggest self-own in recent memory.

I feel bad about the journos/web teams who have to suffer as a consequence of the current gov and the rich Canadian media aristocracy who pushed this through. But I can't say it's going to immediately impact my life. I'm not a particular fan of any of the Canadian media sites besides maybe the hyper local ones like CP24. Nor would I touch the Canadian subreddits with a ten foot pole to go discuss them (some of the worst parts of Reddit).

Canadians are already obsessed with American news/politics anyway. They will just be fed slightly more of that than before on social media.

I feel similarly, but I do actually like CBC content usually. It's deeply ironic in my mind that one of the meme mantras of the PCs is defunding the CBC, good job literally every other voting MP except the PCs

Instead of defunding it the Liberals created a situation where the CBC will essentially need gov gibs to survive in it's current state, which will certainly be deemed essential for publicly funded Canadian culture projection (that essential part of modern society). Economic self-owns via gov policy driven by the same small set of private school kids in Ottawa and whining about Americans is Canadian culture 101.

The CBC gets a billion a year of taxpayer dollars, plus other perks, so large parts of the CBC do already depend on this largess to survive.

Though a billion does seem high, I'm happy with some of my tax dollars going to the CBC

It didn't used to be, but under the current Canadian government the CBC is intolerably biased towards the governing party

Meh, I've heard this claim but it escapes me how that's true. If anything it seems closer to the opposite. Most of the CBC content I see makes the current Liberal government look quite monstrous. Fifth Estate, Marketplace, current events, and almost every debate or interview with a Liberal representative.

Simply take a look at the CBC’s latest debacle [1], where the CBC published an incredibly defamatory article against the premier of Alberta in the middle of an election. They of course just recently retracted it, but they will suffer no consequences. The CBC literally tried to pick the premier of Alberta themselves. This is just the tip of the iceberg. See also the Rosemary Barton lawsuits during the 2019 campaign for further evidence of CBC bias towards the current governing party.

The reason why the current liberal government looks quite monstrous even on the CBC tho is because they really are quite monstrous in reality and it’s finally starting to show. Just look at Bill C-18, who’s interests are they looking out for? Not everyday Canadians that’s for sure.

This is a government that on one hand says Meta is an evil foreign owned corporation interfering in our democracy and therefore will end all ads on Meta platforms, but on the other hand, made an exception for itself such that the Liberal Party of Canada will actually continue running ads on Meta because after all nothing is too evil if it helps get them elected. Rules for thee but not for me. A classic Canadian liberal party dynamic. Story as old as time.

[1] https://www.nationalnewswatch.com/2023/07/05/cbc-news-retrac...

You ignore all the instances of similar and worse under Harper though, eh?

What were the instances of similar and worse under Harper though? There's nothing comparable to the current liberal government - to say nothing of the $600 million slush fund for media organizations (so much for an independent press eh)

Seems like they're probably referring to muzzling Environment Canada

https://rsf.org/en/harper-years-tough-times-reporters-canada

https://academicmatters.ca/harpers-attack-on-science-no-scie...

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/canadian-scien...

They silenced Truth so they could push lies in order to maintain a war that was literally Criminal. They did the same to prop up the oil industry in the province Harper held history with and from which he personally profited and continues to profit.

They said "You're either with Us or with the Pedos" when people criticized an over reaching "justice" bill.

Again, those who oppose Trudeau now are almost exclusively those who were willfully ignorant and silent during the Harper years, mostly because they profited from the injustices which far exceeded those of Trudeau's government.

Oh and in case anyone didn't notice:

I left out the G20 protest response where they brutalized people who were being 100% peaceful, in complete opposite to the treatment of far right insurrectionists that were the convoy cucks...

I was there and hurt so it felt too personal to include as I presumed self bias, but on reflection it definitely should have been included.

Where were all these conspiracy theorist shit heads back when there was a real problem to fight against?

Oh that's right, they were trading heroes for gold, mistaking hot air for a cool breeze and exchanging a walk on part in the war for a lead role in the cage....

Meh, that doesn't look good, but it does seem like due process was more or less followed, and it's not really unreasonable to think it wasn't a conspiracy imo, it's no National Post or Toronto Star, and they even posted a rather favourable piece on Pollievre last year.

While there is still some degree of bias, that seems like a reach to me, and I'm nothing but a lousy centrist.

I'm also Canadian and feel the same. I don't like Google or Meta but this is just the media trying to be greedy. If the incoming likes from Google were harmful they would have configured a robots.txt. They are just trying to lobby laws to get extra money. But they were too full of themselves to realize that they need Google and Meta at least an order of magnitude more than Google or Meta needs them.

The same thing happened in Australia and as soon as Facebook blocked links they cried uncle. Maybe if these news articles actually did research rather than focusing on clickbait headlines they would have learned about that.

> The same thing happened in Australia and as soon as Facebook blocked links they cried uncle.

Australia didn't blink, Google and Meta did .. after that brief shutdown of Facebook news feeds in the country, both Google and Facebook agreed to pay:

    Since the News Media Bargaining Code took effect, the tech firms had inked more than 30 deals with media outlets compensating them for content which generated clicks and advertising dollars, said the Treasury department report, published late Thursday.

    "At least some of these agreements have enabled news businesses to, in particular, employ additional journalists and make other valuable investments to assist their operations," said the report.

    "While views on the success or otherwise of the Code will invariably differ, we consider it is reasonable to conclude that the Code has been a success to date."

Australia says law making Facebook and Google pay for news has worked

https://www.reuters.com/technology/australia-says-law-making...

Australia pressured Google and Facebook to pay for journalism. Is America next?

https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/australia-pressured-goo...

    The legislation, known as the News Media Bargaining Code, has enabled Australian news organizations to extract more than $200 million (almost $150 million US) in the year since it went into effect.

    As a result, the public Australian Broadcasting Corporation can place at least fifty new journalists in underserved parts of the country, while the McPherson Media Group, which publishes such papers as the Yarrawonga Chronicle and the Deniliquin Pastoral Times, expects tech money to fund up to 30 percent of editorial salaries.

> Maybe if these news articles actually did research rather than focusing on clickbait headlines they would have learned about that.

Perhaps if certain HN commenters did research they would not be making false statements.

Australian media's successful extortion only serves to prove such a model works.

Perhaps you've strengthened certain HN commenters' arguments that incentive exists with a proven case.

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