• I Cast Fist@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    This paragraph here is probably the real meat of the question:

    Gizmodo spoke to half a dozen student journalists and station managers who say the ban on news links, intended to hurt big-name publishers, has instead hamstrung their vital ability to fundraise, recruit volunteers, or engage in community outreach. (…) And the Online News Act, intended to boost Canada’s local news, seems instead to have increased the hardships of the nation’s most local outlets.

    I can see this going in one of two ways:

    1- The numerous small companies push the government into giving in to Meta 2- The small companies are ignored by both sides and, sooner or later, migrate to new platforms to stay in touch with their communities.

    My dream is that 2 happens, because that’d lead to zuckerbot having less power in Canada, as less people would rely on meta stuff, but I’m afraid 1 is more likely to happen. A very harsh wakeup call to what a lot of privacy-minded people were preaching for years, to not “depend so much on social media” (which was always easier said than done for smaller companies who needed reach) and something I wish could’ve been avoided

    I wish the govt went a step further and deleted its facebook and instagram presences.

    • FlickOfTheBean@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I wonder if this is an issue that a different centralized app could solve. Like if there was a government funded platform that just linked out to news sources… I can make an app like that, but who gets the power in this case? My best guess would be the Canadian government, but the im not really in the know in that regard…

      • prodigalsorcerer
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        1 year ago

        Isn’t that just a list of digital news organizations?

        Not sure why it needs to be government funded or controlled.

        If you’re looking for a list of all articles from each of those websites, you may be alone in that desire (though something could probably be put together with RSS). If you are looking for a curated list of articles from those websites, there’s always going to be some sort of bias in the curation, but that’s pretty much what Lenny and Reddit do in various communities/subreddits (like this one).

        • FlickOfTheBean@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It is, but I’m spinning out about moderation and neutrality in allowed articles. I don’t trust anything to do that well, but the closest candidate I think would be a nonprofit gov org most likely. I have no idea though, this is one of those things you’d have to convince someone to spend a lot of money on a leap of faith that has a decent chance of not working out

          • prodigalsorcerer
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            1 year ago

            Now you’re just describing the mandate of the CBC. They also have opinion pieces, but those are well labeled and avoidable.

            I’m sorry, I’m really trying to wrap my head around what you’re describing, but it seems to me like the thing you want probably already exists.

            • FlickOfTheBean@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              That’s entirely possible, it’s not like I did any research into feasibility or to see if anyone had done it already.

              If the CBC is what I’m looking for, then all I’m saying is there needs to be a bunch more of institutions like that and a bunch less of the entertainment “news” networks