Australia is very interesting, because Canada’s plan here is somewhat derived from what Australia did (and Meta and Alphabet did get onboard there). Here’s the

Australia is very interesting, because Canada’s plan here is somewhat derived from what Australia did (and Meta and Alphabet did get onboard there). Here’s the slightly different timelines that make all the difference. Australia: - parliament drafts this legislation and starts debating it (public record) - Meta blocks Aus news for 4 days and says “we have some changes we’d like to see if we’re going to play ball” - bill is amended, Mets gets on board - bill is passed Canada: - parliament starts debating the draft of the bill - Meta says “we’d like some changes and we’ll stop doing Canadian news if we don’t negotiate this” - Parliament passes the bill as-is - Meta blocks Canadian news, as promised - Parliament goes on holidays - Media companies are sitting there going “oh noooooo not like this” as a significant amount of their traffic disappears When an insanely profitable multinational company says “if you do X, we will do Y” to the parliament of a country of 35-odd million people, that government has to be insane or incompetent to think “they’re bluffing. Let’s call their bluff and go on holidays”