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Canadian here. I'm cheering on the insane government. Crazy like a fox. I listened to a statement on Front Burner the other day where some facebook homunculus

by jtode 3y ago

Canadian here. I'm cheering on the insane government. Crazy like a fox. I listened to a statement on Front Burner the other day where some facebook homunculus said they are "ending access to news in Canada," which brought forth a real guffaw. I listened to the news yesterday while working in the yard on an AM radio. The only delusion here is on Facebook's part, where they think they are punishing us by removing their heavily-filtered hate machine from our media pool. They believe they have "captured" our ability to find the news. Anyone who pays attention knows what kind of crap they've been pulling on media outlets since the start, and I frankly don't care that it's Rupert Murdoch benefitting here - better him than Zuck, because we have had Murdoch for half my life and things didn't get really bad till Facebook. ANYTHING that gets their hands off the media is a good thing.

gspencley 3y ago
What about small independent news outlets that rely on social media by creating pages in order to voluntarily post links to their content, so that people can follow them in order to see their content in their feeds? Those are gone now. I used to think like you. I'm not a big social media user and it's easy to think of social media as a cesspool of clickbait and rage, but now that Meta has pulled even the pages of these outlets I realized that I'm suddenly not getting severe weather alerts and updates on local events that I was used to getting from a particular small indie outlet. How exactly was Facebook hurting that indie outlet by giving them a platform and free traffic?
simondotau 3y ago
You're delusional if you think that many Canadians won't still "get their news" from Facebook, et al. Some will add more bookmarks to their daily web pit stops. Many won't. The only difference for most is that the ratio of nominal reporting to unhinged "opinion" pieces they see is going to be worse than it already is.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- lucasyvas 3y ago
  Also Canadian - rip the Band-Aid off. Fuck those users honestly. Some would likely be family members to most, but it's not an excuse to defend an unnecessary middle-man. Social media as a profit center is a failed experiment and it must be dismantled (simple news delivery or not) - distributed communities will make a return as it should be. I respect your opinion, but to me the situation is more akin to a random algorithm distributing a whole manner of both healthy and junk foods together with no labels. Now we're worried about that the people will no longer know how to get food at all, or that it'll all be junk. Facebook helped create that problem (accident or not) and that now needs to be undone - staying the course is not a preferable solution. The news outlets also deserve a chance to deliver directly to their readers and viewers - if they're no better off financially that's the outlet's problem. Potential financial extortion of the Canadian government aside, I think it's a net positive having news links off the platform. Maybe there should be more government funding tax dollars to support outlets people respect - the sooner we find out the result of this the sooner we can try a next step. Maybe we got it wrong.
  - 31337Logic 3y ago
    Well said. Thanks.
mannerheim 3y ago
>where they think they are punishing us Do they? Or are they simply making the most logical business decision for them? If it costs Facebook more to allow links than it does to not allow links, why should they allow them? Is Facebook really made that much of a better product with the inclusion of news?
- jtode 3y ago
  You need to look into their history of how they've dealt with traditional media. They are consistent about one thing, which is, they operate on bad faith. Their bad faith operations have had a hugely detrimental effect on real media; I am proud that my government does something rather than nothing, and I think it's fantastic that Facebook has "made the most logical business decision," because it gets them the fuck out of our business lol
  - mannerheim 3y ago
    Maybe if the government wants to do something, the parties in government should take their ads off Facebook. You know, put their money where their mouths are.
    - jtode 3y ago
      When does the world you live in stop getting shittier and shittier?

by jtode 3y ago

gspencley 3y ago

What about small independent news outlets that rely on social media by creating pages in order to voluntarily post links to their content, so that people can follow them in order to see their content in their feeds? Those are gone now. I used to think like you. I'm not a big social media user and it's easy to think of social media as a cesspool of clickbait and rage, but now that Meta has pulled even the pages of these outlets I realized that I'm suddenly not getting severe weather alerts and updates on local events that I was used to getting from a particular small indie outlet. How exactly was Facebook hurting that indie outlet by giving them a platform and free traffic?

simondotau 3y ago

You're delusional if you think that many Canadians won't still "get their news" from Facebook, et al. Some will add more bookmarks to their daily web pit stops. Many won't. The only difference for most is that the ratio of nominal reporting to unhinged "opinion" pieces they see is going to be worse than it already is.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
lucasyvas 3y ago
Also Canadian - rip the Band-Aid off. Fuck those users honestly. Some would likely be family members to most, but it's not an excuse to defend an unnecessary middle-man. Social media as a profit center is a failed experiment and it must be dismantled (simple news delivery or not) - distributed communities will make a return as it should be. I respect your opinion, but to me the situation is more akin to a random algorithm distributing a whole manner of both healthy and junk foods together with no labels. Now we're worried about that the people will no longer know how to get food at all, or that it'll all be junk. Facebook helped create that problem (accident or not) and that now needs to be undone - staying the course is not a preferable solution. The news outlets also deserve a chance to deliver directly to their readers and viewers - if they're no better off financially that's the outlet's problem. Potential financial extortion of the Canadian government aside, I think it's a net positive having news links off the platform. Maybe there should be more government funding tax dollars to support outlets people respect - the sooner we find out the result of this the sooner we can try a next step. Maybe we got it wrong.
- 31337Logic 3y ago
  Well said. Thanks.

mannerheim 3y ago

>where they think they are punishing us Do they? Or are they simply making the most logical business decision for them? If it costs Facebook more to allow links than it does to not allow links, why should they allow them? Is Facebook really made that much of a better product with the inclusion of news?

jtode 3y ago
You need to look into their history of how they've dealt with traditional media. They are consistent about one thing, which is, they operate on bad faith. Their bad faith operations have had a hugely detrimental effect on real media; I am proud that my government does something rather than nothing, and I think it's fantastic that Facebook has "made the most logical business decision," because it gets them the fuck out of our business lol
- mannerheim 3y ago
  Maybe if the government wants to do something, the parties in government should take their ads off Facebook. You know, put their money where their mouths are.
  - jtode 3y ago
    When does the world you live in stop getting shittier and shittier?