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When the Canadian government instituted Bill C-18, mandating that social media giants pay for hosting news links, Meta — which runs Facebook, Instagram and Threads — responded by banning all news content from and for Canadian users.
Foreign consumers can still freely share news links, so often, feeds from my out-of-Canada friends carry the message “This content isn’t available in Canada.” Try posting a news link, and the following appears.
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Facebook knows where every one of its users is located at the time of connection. If I’m out of Canada, I can see news links as if Bill C-18 never existed.
There’s an illogic to Bill C-18 I still haven’t got my head around. The government’s reasoning is that by sharing news links, a social media provider is unjustly enriching itself on the backs of content creators such as the Free Press.
Here’s the disconnect: if people posted links to our content, nobody benefited more than we did. Such a link would, to a certain extent, drive traffic to winnipegfreepress.com. If we, or anyone, posted a link to a Free Press story, all the viewer got was a tiny preview: viewers would have to click through to our site to see it. The reader would either be a subscriber or we’d have a chance at selling them a subscription.
Bill C-18 has more importance now that AI will poach content creators’ material and present it as fresh material in response to questions, but the illogic around social media posts remains.
I bring this, and its asides, up in response to the Manitoba government’s proposed ban on social media access for children. Premier Wab Kinew is threatening fines in the billions for violations.
You can call Mark Zuckerberg’s response to Bill C-18 the equivalent of a corporate hissy fit if you wish. I might not disagree, but if that’s how he responds to an invoice that would be a rounding error in Meta’s bookkeeping, how would he respond to the threat of billions in fines for infractions he might not be able to prevent?
Is the sports book at Caesar’s Palace taking bets on a complete blackout of Facebook for Manitoba IP addresses? Maybe it should.
It’s certainly within the technical ability of Meta to do that.
Someone on Premier Wab Kinew’s staff uses an iPhone to record his comments for social media. Could the premier lose that communication channel? (Mike Deal / Free Press)
It is important to help kids navigate the perils of social media: while some are clearly more intelligent and discerning that some adults, others often lack the life experience and critical-thinking skills to be able to reject false narratives.
I would argue it’s just as important, perhaps even more so, to help people who should know better identify fake content. These people vote and their inability to distinguish fact from fiction carries real-world consequences for the rest of us.
This is my primer for anything on social media: if you see something you disagree with, take it with a grain of salt. If you see something that aligns perfectly with your position, take it with a mountain of salt. There’s a good chance the information is false and is just using your agreement to drive a narrative.
Facts don’t care about your feelings: something is either true or it’s not. Or, as Ronald Reagan said, trust but verify.
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