The NWT government and city of Yellowknife are describing in tweets, Instagram messages etc. how to search key evacuation information on CPAC and CBC. The broadcast carriers have a duty to carry emergency information, but Meta and X are blocking links.
While internet access is reportedly limited in Yellowknife, residents are finding this a barrier to getting current and accurate information. Even links to CBC radio are blocked.
Can the Canadian government please just have an official platform for sharing this kind of information? Why are evacuation notices going on Facebook???
They do have these platforms, but many people have become dependent on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to link to information.
So the territorial government is literally posting on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter telling people how to search for CPAC Canada and CBC Radio so they can find the sites.
Compare that to the duty of all broadcasters in a public emergency to carry the key evacuation information on radio and television and tell people where to get more detailed emergency instructions.
@StillPaisleyCat @ImplyingImplications
It’s not a dependence in an addictive way. It’s in a community way, where all news is shared on community pages for the benefit of the community because they rely on each other for survival every day.
Agreed. But this is a societal dependence.
Too many clubs, churches and communities organizations, and small businesses found Facebook easier to maintain than websites, so many people became dependent on that platform.
The challenge is that governments have a duty to meet their constituents where they are, especially in emergencies. So they send out Tweets, ‘grams and posts directing people to the information on official sites.
Before the Internet, people would turn on their radios or televisions. That’s why in most jurisdictions (including the United States) broadcasters and cable carriers MUST carry emergency broadcasts, superceding regular programming. The wave of climate-related emergencies raise the question of whether internet aggregator platforms should be required to do the same.
As an aside, governments and public new sources maintain websites that are accessible. Due to a Canadian Supreme Court decision requiring government platforms to be accessible to persons with disabilities, Canadian new sites have user interfaces that are adaptive.
Remote communities in northern Canada operate differently than everything along the 49th parallel.
Stop using a wide brush to describe two completely different societies.
We can agree on remote communities having different circumstances, and social networks.
That said, I doubt that this would apply any less in the Okanagan communities where there are many people living on backroads and off the grid or in most of Canada outside the major metropolitan areas.
Not really. I’ve lived in Kelowna and also in remote Ontario regions. The only similarity is that there’s lots of trees.
Can the Canadian
government please just have an official platform for sharing this kind of information? Why are evacuation notices going on Facebook???citizens stop getting their news from social media while they’re in a life and death situation???FTFY
My opinion is no, they shouldn’t be beholden to paying for links and having to share certain links. That’s not good policy.
The real issue is whether these apps should carry emergency alerts and information, which is a much better way to frame it because that’s the actual issue here.
My bet is if there were an emergency broadcast protocol Facebook would adopt it, it would increase the legitimacy of their platform and build up some political equity they sorely lack right now.
So they shouldn’t compensate the people whose work brings them profit? Know what we call that in the physical world?
Stealing.
If the government is willing to make an exception for emergency news, that Meta proved they’re able to do it in Australia and even told the Canadian government it’s something they could do, then who’s in the wrong here?
So Lemmy instance admins should be paying for all the links on their sites too?
Are they directly making profit from it?
They may be.
Well then, you’ve got your answer.
It is sad there are people like you who think everything is a transaction. Posting a link is a recommendation, it is no way stealing.
It’s sadder that there’s people like you who don’t understand that there’s a difference between posting a link and copying the whole article or a bot generated shorter version of it.
Whose work is bringing who profit?
The cruel reality is that the Canadian media need Facebook more than Facebook needs Canadian media.
Journalists and media company produce content, journalists are paid by media company that profit from their work and pay taxes on that profit.
Facebook is used to share content from media companies and make profit from it, they don’t compensate media companies or pay taxes in Canada.
Media companies receive a small bump in traffic compared to the total number of views, they get a small bump in profit from ads revenues on their website and they pay taxes on it.
In the end the majority of revenues generated from views on Facebook doesn’t profit the content creators/owners in any way nor does it profit the country in which the owners are established.
So you need me to make it even simpler than that? You’re arguing that medias should settle for the scraps when Facebook is feasting by exploiting their work.
The reality is that the Canadian media need Facebook more than Facebook needs the Canadian media.
If the “bump” is so small, why is everyone complaining when this “exploitation” is removed? They should be cheering!
So what’s the situation on Lemmy? Who will pay for this article’s link to CBC?
If an instance is running ads on article summaries then it would be the owner of that instance
Don’t let people post links to Canadian news unless you’ve paid the publisher.
No, not like that!
Like what?
Meta and X are acting preemptively before the government has even finalized how the system would work.
The law hasn’t even come into force. The regulations haven’t even been Gazetted and put through the public consultation period.
Meta and X feel that they shouldn’t be subject to the law of any other country. That’s what’s at the foundation of this.
Demonstrating what your response will be before the law goes into force seems like a good idea to me - the cost to Facebook is minimal and if people are going to change their minds, the earlier they do the easier it’ll be to return to the status quo.
There’s nothing above-the-law about this. The law sets the terms which Facebook must comply with if it wants to do business in Canada, but the law can’t make Facebook keep doing business in Canada.
But Facebook is doing business in Canada while refusing to be subject to Canadian law or courts while doing it.
It’s platforms are up in Canada, recruiting members, collecting and monetizing data on Canadians.
There have been court cases and orders in Canada where both Meta and Google have refused to comply with judicial decisions on the grounds that only California and US federal courts have jurisdiction over them.
The law in this case could require Meta, Google and X to carry emergency information and links to it without monetization, just as it does for private broadcasters and cable carriers.
@StillPaisleyCat @ArbitraryValue
Looks like they’re following the law pretty well here.
In return for being asked to pay for making links, they no longer make links.
Sure, Meta and Google can be nasty on other grounds (and fighting C-11 isn’t nasty), but they’re being quite law-abiding here.
Flouting the law would be sharing links and refusing to pay.This is coming across like sealioning at this point.
THE LAW HAS NOT YET COME INTO EFFECT.
The law can come into effect whenever they want it to and the sites need to have their filtering systems ready and tested before that happens for them to be effective:
