Meta Uses News Links on Facebook and Instagram Users as a Negotiating Tactic in Canada ⇥ theglobeandmail.com

Marie Woolf, the Globe and Mail:

The bill would make Google and Meta compensate news organizations for posting or linking to their work.

A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said the company is planning to remove Canadians’ access to both written and broadcast news after Bill C-18 becomes law, if changes to the legislation are not made. The tech giant said it would warn Canadians of changes to its services in advance.

Regardless of how you feel about this bill — and I am not fond of it — it is worth remembering Meta used the same negotiating tactic in Australia when its government was working on the same kind of law, which it passed. It has threatened to do the same in the U.S. if Congress moves forward on a similar proposal. The bill may be bad, but Meta’s scare tactics are feeling a little stale.