Latest / Radio Baloney - The Richie Baloney Show! / FACEBOOK Blocks Canadian News Over Trudeau Internet Law
Transcript
- 0:00Well, I don't think it's any secret that Justin Trudeau wants to control the
- 0:03Internet and what people can say about him on it, and of course he's
- 0:08going to legislate this. We just had another bill pass, Bill C eleven,
- 0:13the Online Streaming Act, and the purpose of that is to have a
- 0:18government regulator, the CRTC, tell social media companies what they can promote and
- 0:24what they shouldn't promote. What's authentic Canadian content. Yes, it's done under
- 0:29the guise of promoting Canadian content, but only the content that the government regulator
- 0:35themes Canadian content. See, I wonder if there's any possibility that there might
- 0:40be some bias happening there. And now we've got another one, Bill C
- 0:44eighteen. Here's the headline. Facebook Instagram set to shut down news content in
- 0:49Canada after new Trudeau law comes into effect. Meta, the parent company of
- 0:55Facebook and Instagram, announced Thursday that it would follow through on plans to block
- 1:00Canadians from posting news on the platforms in Canada after Parliament passed the law earlier
- 1:07this year requiring the companies to pay media outlets to share their stories. So
- 1:12you post a link onto Facebook and then Facebook has to pay the company that
- 1:18the link goes to. This really doesn't make any sense because if you click
- 1:23on the link, it takes you to their website, that brings eyes to
- 1:26their website and advertising revenue. So what it really is is a cash grab
- 1:32to try and prop up a failing industry. And I think there's something even
- 1:37deeper going on here, but we'll get to that in a second now.
- 1:41According to the Hill, the new Canadian law follows the design of a twenty
- 1:45twenty one Australian regulation. At the time, Meta made similar threats to restrict
- 1:51the platforms in the country, but later yielded to the Australian government. California
- 1:57is considering passing a similar law. Out do you think that Facebook is going
- 2:00to do this with every single country? Pay them on hundreds of millions or
- 2:06billions of dollars. At some point they're going to draw a line in the
- 2:09sand, And that line in the sand looks like it might be Canada,
- 2:15probably is Canada. And if that's the case, well, news outlets in
- 2:19Canada are gonna be denied all of those clicks, the many, many clicks
- 2:23they get from Facebook. And according to polling, at twenty five percent of
- 2:29Canadians get news get their news from Facebook. So that's a lot less clicks,
- 2:34that's a lot less advertising revenue. And I guess it's just lucky for
- 2:38the big companies that are going to be losing money because of this, that
- 2:42they've got Justin Trudeau to look out for him and hand him a bunch of
- 2:45cash like he's been doing all along. And I can't imagine that Trudeau would
- 2:50want anything in return, would he. I'm sure he's just concerned about jobs,
- 2:53just like he is in the energy sector. Oh wait a second,
- 2:57now, just scrub that. Scrub that. As a result of the new
- 3:00law, the companies will have to negotiate distribution deals with media outlets in order
- 3:06for their content to be linked in the platform's news feeds. If negotiations fail,
- 3:12the tech companies can go to arbitration. Well, arbitration, that sounds
- 3:15fair, but is it really. Let's I want to show you this article.
- 3:19As Sue Gardner, Bill C eighteen is bad for journalism and bad for
- 3:23Canada. From the Max Bell School of Public Policy, What would happen if
- 3:28C eighteen became law. C eighteen will require Google and Facebook to make agreements
- 3:34with news publishers to compensate them for Google and Facebook quote making available publisher's material
- 3:40to increase fairness in the marketplace. Yes, and as always with the modern
- 3:46left, fairness is a euphemism for favoritism. If a publisher can't reach an
- 3:52agreement with Google or Facebook that satisfies them, they will be able to ask
- 3:57the CRTC to appoint a mediator to help them reach a deal, and if
- 4:01that fails, to appoint an arbitrator. This process will benefit big legacy media
- 4:06companies at the expense of startups and indie publishers. Big legacy media companies have
- 4:14deal making capacity and lobbying power and presence in Ottawa. The platforms will make
- 4:19deals with them first. Indeed, they have already been doing so in anticipation
- 4:25of this legislation because they know that if they don't, they risk getting dragged
- 4:30in front of a regulator. Yeah, surprise, surprise. So the big
- 4:33corporate media that's run by people who like Trudeau and who are already richly rewarded
- 4:41by the federal government with subsidies, Yeah, they're going to benefit the most.
- 4:45And the little guys, these small news outlets that are reporting on things
- 4:48that the big guys don't, Well, it's going to be trouble for them.
- 4:53We know the big guys will benefit because that's what's happening elsewhere. Last
- 4:57February, Australia broad in the News Media Bargaining Code upon which the Canadian legislation
- 5:03is modeled. Since then, it's estimated that about ninety percent of revenues negotiated
- 5:10as a result of the new law have gone to Australia's three largest media companies.
- 5:15Just like what will happen in Canada, we can expect things to play
- 5:18out similarly here. In fact, they already are in anticipation of this or
- 5:24similar legislation. Google has struck deals with The Globe and Mail, the Toronto
- 5:29Star, led Devoir, and Winnipeg Free Press, as well as some smaller
- 5:32organizations. Meanwhile, many small and indie publishers are actually excluded from C.
- 5:40Eighteen. The bill excludes operations that employ fewer than two journalists and excludes those
- 5:46quote primarily focused on a particular topic in favor of those that make general interest
- 5:51news. Yeah, this isn't about saving the industry. This is about getting
- 5:58rid of all those pest ski smaller outlets who don't care about winning Trudeau's favor
- 6:03or any politicians favor. This is about having a few big corporate news outlets
- 6:10where the people who run them all go to the same dinner parties and all
- 6:14think roughly the same thing and are incentivized not to get on the wrong side
- 6:18of the power at the top, who ultimately controls their destiny. And if
- 6:24Canadians end up not being able to access news on Facebook or even Google,
- 6:29if you know, the legislation becomes absurd enough, which I don't think that's
- 6:33unlikely in Trudeau's Canada. So even if that happens, I'm sure Trudeau will
- 6:39be just fine with that as well, because financially that would put the major
- 6:43media companies even more in his pocket, or for that matter, any leader's
- 6:47pocket going forward. That may be good for them. That may be good
- 6:51financially for the media companies because they're just going to get bailed out anyway.
- 6:57But Canadians, regular Canadians who are interested in things like truth, well you
- 7:00know how it goes anyway. Please subscribe, like and share sharing It really
- 7:04helps me out. I thank you for that. I will see you next time.