CBC is grasping at straws trying to put the blame on Facebook for the very bill they pushed through, that had very predictable consequences. Canadians news publishers have no one to blame for this but themselves.

The article basically reads as though they're upset for not being paid by Meta during emergencies and sad they can't profit as much off people glued to watching emergencies (it's absolutely not because they're truly concerned for the actual ppl facing the emergency). It's quite tasteless for them to pull the misinformation card when news publishers aren't always known to spread accurate or helpful information -- they're mostly there for the fear mongering. And Meta's response on that front is the correct one: they're not blocking government sites and government sites should be considered the sources of truth and information during emergencies.

That said, unrelated to news link sharing, there's a larger discussion to be had around emergency broadcasts over the internet: should the government create legislation to have an emergency notification tool in place that can be triggered on Canadian websites and websites catering to Canadians (social media included)? Many institutions, including universities, have their own systems for doing exactly this so why can't the government?

Sensational news articles like this are also expected in the fallout. Most news companies in Canada lobbied for the change and simply hoped that big players would cave right away. But now that Meta and Alphabet have announced that they'll block news in Canada (a predictable response), news companies are realizing the impact it'll actually have on them and the amount of lossed revenue it'll entail if things don't work out the way the want them to. They're basically crapping their pants and writing up these types of headlines to pressure Meta/Alphabet as a last-ditch effort.

The amendments were passed and enacted before the Australian media code ever received royal assent. Meanwhile Bill C-18 already received royal assent in Canada, so amendments won't be anytime soon. You're right that it can happen, but if the government or our news publishers cared to avoid any fallout, then they would have negotiated on agreements and possible amendments prior to royal assent (which is what Australian news corporations did), not after.

And so as long as a difference exists, we can't expect the Canadian situation to develop in the same way as Australia. And the interim fallout in terms of lost revenue for our own news publishers is actually very significant, despite everyone saying 'good riddance to Meta and Alphabet'.

Australia implemented amendments that were sought by Facebook, not at all the same.

Why wouldn't they? Microsoft operates the largest search engine used in Canada after Google, owns LinkedIn which is one of the top 10 social media platforms with a heavy news aggregation focus like Facebook, provides a default news aggregation feed pre-installed on all Windows computers, etc.

By the wording of the bill, there's no reason they can't be labeled as having a "prominent market position" or "a strategic advantage over news businesses". And this applies especially so if Alphabet and Meta recuse themselves from the Canadian news market.

If the spirit of the bill is to get money from big corporations to support Canadian news organizations, then there's no reason not to target Microsoft. And the fact that MS has already been consulted on the bill and released a statement about it strongly suggests they'll be on the list.

DDG which uses Bing to power its results will also have to comply by the same law or drop Canadian news results if they don't want to negotiate and pay.

Have our premiers done anything themselves?

On Chrome/mobile, select the "Remember me" field before entering your account username and password. If you do the opposite, it'll start auto-signing you in and ignore any action you do after (like checking that box).

Of course it's Manitoba

I'm glad the story didn't go the other way with you lighting something on fire

I'm happy that clicking on the Kbin logo on mobile brings you back to the home page (as opposed to opening the hamburger menu).

Won't this just lead them to drop Canadian media from their platforms?