The entire city of #Yellowknife is being evacuated. This is unprecedented and terrifying.
And thousands of citizens aren’t aware because Meta continues to block news in the country.
This is what happens when citizens are convinced to use an American multinational corporation as their community’s primary communications channel — a corporation that couldn’t give two shits about anything except its “fiduciary duty” to shareholders.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nwt-wildfire-emergency-update-august-16-1.6938756
Regarding the blocking of Canadian news, can we at least place the #blame where it belongs?
#Canadian #Legacy #Media convinced the #government of #Canada to pass a law forcing #Facebook and #Google to pay to show snippets of, and #link to, Canadian news articles.
So Facebook and Google had a choice: they could continue to do this, and pay for the privilege, or they could stop linking to it. There was no third option.
We forced the choice on them; blame our #politicians.
Imagine if the law said you had to pay the postage for every letter or parcel that arrived at your doorstep. And you have no control who sends them, when or how many will arrive each week. I wouldn't be amused.
The link tax is equivalent. They have no control if people post ten links a day or a million.
I don't blame them for bailing. I'd have made the same decision in their shoes.
@mackaj @reneestephen @cazabon @tod Not a good analogy. I cannot monetize these imaginary unsolicited deliveries. If I was selling advertisements on the side of the delivery trucks, that would be closer to what happens. The fact of delivery generates income for me!
@AmatAnand If they're making so much money off of them, then why did they just shut off their access? That sounds like it would be bad for business.
@LouisIngenthron Short and long term will be different. Right now FB is trying to make a point, but we'll see who the lack of engagement hurts more. Already my FB feed is full of promoted crap and really hilariously untargetted nonsense to fill the void, and I'm using it less as a result. We'll see who blinks first I guess.
@AmatAnand