Recently the Canadian Government passed a law requiring large tech firms like Meta and Google to negotiate deals with news providers for their content. The argument was since these large corporations that are pretty darn good at what they do, demand the lion's share of advertising dollars, they should be paying to use content that has been traditionally funded by these advertising dollars. To a simpleton, this looks like a good idea. The politicians who brought forward the law did not expect what happened next.
Meta and Google stopped allowing Canadian news on their platforms.
These companies are not public utilities. They did not require a charter to operate in Canada and they are free to manage their organization as they see fit.
News was not a big part of their platform traffic. However, it could be argued it was the most annoying part of their platform. Articles would get shared. Since most news agencies don't really give us the news anymore but in fact are trying to tell us how to think, inane arguments would break out that would solve nothing. The public discourse would not be for the greater good and it all would help feed the unreasonable tribalism that is growing in Canada.
If you think about what Facebook was when it changed the internet forever. It was a place for people to share their life and connect with people they knew. It exploded because you could keep people in your life that were not in your close proximity. That isn't what Facebook is today. Most people don't share original content. In fact most don't share any content but if they do, it is something that resonates with them but was created by someone else. I think it was inevitable that we would get to this place. Most people are not very good at expressing themselves.
Since the news has disappeared from Facebook in Canada I have found it to be a better online platform. I'm seeing more from people I know. I'm not sure if they are sharing more or if what they are sharing is cutting through the noise but it really doesn't matter. No longer are people posting news articles trying to bait others into arguments. With news out of the way, I'm more likely to be shown content that I want to consume. I know the algorithm looks at everything I do and tries to find me things I'll read but for a long time a lot of it wasn't worth reading. Too much news, not enough fun. Now there is more fun.
Facebook can still be a huge time suck. There are better things to do with my time than scroll on social media. However, I like to be connected and have a bit of a finger on the pulse. Because there is no editorial standard you encounter a lot of garbage but you also encounter some very raw truths. You end up seeing some of the best of people and of course you see the bad in people as well.
The Canadian Government inadvertently made Facebook better and over time I think that more and more Canadian will not want to go back to what it was.
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