Canada has been left out of a recent expansion of Google's artificial intelligence-powered chatbot known as Bard as the big tech giant continues its fight with the federal government over the Online News Act.
Canada has been left out of a recent expansion of Google's artificial intelligence-powered chatbot known as Bard as the big tech giant continues its fight with the federal government over the Online News Act.
Don't care. Google is also being a baby and blocking Canadians from Canadian news.
Perhaps we should all move away from Google? They clearly can't be trusted when their response to pay Canadian journalists for rehosting their content is "nah, we instead are going to block Canadian news".
I don't think it's unfair to pay someone when you're rehosting their stuff or driving away clicks by giving an article summary. Especially when there's no Google without links. Just like Reddit doesn't work without users submitting content. Not to mention it's bold to play this game when there are plenty of Google alternatives now.
I switched to duck duck go a year ago and honestly I get my news quicker and more reliably from Lemmy, TikTok, and previously Reddit.
It's actually scary how much I see from 50 different angles on TikTok before any news outlet even covers it, if even. Saw a stabbing in Toronto from multiple angles a few HOURS before I even seen an article about it.
I know Lemmy hates TikTok, but can't deny it's great for being up to date ASAP when it comes to news. At least for right now.
DDG which uses Bing to power its results will also have to comply by the same law or drop Canadian news results if they don't want to negotiate and pay.
The bill itself doesn't name any specific company. It has a clause saying that the CRTC will publish and maintain a list of "digital news intermediaries" to which the contents of the bill apply. The official list isn't yet available.
The official list of digital news intermediaries hasn't yet been published by the CRTC. Although Alphabet and Meta have been in the news, it's very likely Microsoft will also be impacted and by proxy all services that use Bing (including Yahoo and DDG).
Why wouldn't they? Microsoft operates the largest search engine used in Canada after Google, owns LinkedIn which is one of the top 10 social media platforms with a heavy news aggregation focus like Facebook, provides a default news aggregation feed pre-installed on all Windows computers, etc.
By the wording of the bill, there's no reason they can't be labeled as having a "prominent market position" or "a strategic advantage over news businesses". And this applies especially so if Alphabet and Meta recuse themselves from the Canadian news market.
If the spirit of the bill is to get money from big corporations to support Canadian news organizations, then there's no reason not to target Microsoft. And the fact that MS has already been consulted on the bill and released a statement about it strongly suggests they'll be on the list.
"Reposting" as in linking to their content? Most other companies pay Google for that service.
How are those companies going to drive views to their site? Do you think Microsoft and Meta are going to play ball? They aren't. Do you expect Lemmy instances to pay whenever someone uploads a Canadian news article?
Our country is a literal South Park meme right now. We're just waiting on the bubble gum and Bennigans coupons.
This is borderline fascist legislation. Restricting the flow of information on the internet so that Canadians are forced to turn to traditional mainstream media for their news. It was never about money.
“Reposting” as in linking to their content? Most other companies pay Google for that service.
Google has apps that rehost content instead of linking to it. Also, many people only view the headline or the brief description, driving views away completely.
How are those companies going to drive views to their site? Do you think Microsoft and Meta are going to play ball? They aren’t. Do you expect Lemmy instances to pay whenever someone uploads a Canadian news article?
Like I said, search engines rely on content to work. You can already request your website be removed from Google, and prevent it from ever being crawled again. Imagine if everyone did this, Google would literally be useless. Google needs content to work. Google shows ads in their search engine, so they are getting paid by simply linking to your website.
Who said Meta and Microsoft wont play ball? Who said Lemmy is going to have to, is Lemmy a search engine? You're losing the point.
Our country is a literal South Park meme right now. We’re just waiting on the bubble gum and Bennigans coupons.
Ya, because people like you are okay with Google censoring and blocking news to Canadians for... some reason? Not sure why.
This is borderline fascist legislation. Restricting the flow of information on the internet so that Canadians are forced to turn to traditional mainstream media for their news. It was never about money.
Oh, there's the south park coming out. It's clear you've never created content online. What Google is doing is wrong, and Canadian journalists aren't wrong for wanting to be paid for views that are taken away. It's quite literally Google that is restricting the flow of information, so not sure why you're blaming Canada.
All Google needs to do is pay pennies per click, just like they do with everything else. They are being a greedy American company who will slowly learn that they can't treat the rest of the world like they do Americans. Look how great Google is. https://youtu.be/cA_cJAFF8Ss