Will the new culture secretary repeat the feat she did at Hockey Canada against Meta?
The founder of Facebook will certainly be a lot harder to “knock” than all of Hockey Canada’s management combined. The minister must have realized that last week when she met two of the billionaire Zuckerberg’s henchmen. She wanted to convince her that her boss would comply with the new online news law (Project C-18). The meta representatives didn’t give in an inch.
The minister did not long for the sea and the world. Except that Meta is involved in drafting the rules that the CRTC must put in place for the law to go into effect. The law will force Facebook, Instagram and Co. to negotiate compensation with Canadian news agencies for the news they publish on their platforms. If they disagree with the media or refuse to negotiate with them, the CRTC will unilaterally determine the compensation to be paid.
IN THE ARENA AGAINST JUSTIN?
I don’t have to tell you that we give our all at Meta, Google and Co. We don’t mess with tech billionaires and they don’t mess with each other. Didn’t Elon Musk and Zuckerberg want to settle the matter of creating Treads (new competitor of X, the ex-Twitter) in a mixed martial arts match under the eyes of cameras around the world? That Georges St-Pierre fight in an iron cage was canceled, but Zuckerberg didn’t give up on keeping Musk’s shoulders on the ground. So far, Zuckerberg hasn’t challenged Justin to boxing, but he certainly needs to think about it.
Didn’t Zuckerberg develop his Facebook in secret from the three friends with whom he had started working on a similar project? Friends that he ended up paying almost 100 million Canadian dollars to get rid of it! Instagram wasn’t even two years old when Zuckerberg bought it for $1 billion rather than make it a competitor.
Message blocking is expanding
Prior to the passage of Bill C-18, Zuckerberg had threatened to block access to Canadian news on Facebook and Instagram. Then, much to the chagrin of Ottawa and all of our media, he carried out his threat. But Facebook and Instagram not only block access to news from Canadian media, but also access to news from major foreign dailies such as Le Monde, Le Figaro and even the New York Times.
It is against this warrior “who takes no prisoners” that the new Minister for Cultural Heritage must win. She didn’t leave the arena.
But he who kisses too much hugs badly, as the saying goes. Eventually, if Meta’s blocking extends to foreign media outlets, they will support the offensive Canada is currently leading to make the internet giants pay their fair share of information gathering. Maybe Zuckerberg is learning how difficult it is to keep the whole world on the ground.
WHAT DO I DO NOW?
Yvon Pedneault, who didn’t know much about hockey, was my secret reference for years. I picked up my best points from him when talking about the Canadiens with some of my grandchildren, who knew hockey a lot better than I did. What should I do now that the specialist himself, Mr. Pedneault, left us so suddenly?
