I mean, this is what everyone warned would happen.
My bet: This law gets repealed in six months after the Canadian government realizes it’s actively killing the free press.
I want journalism to get supported too, but this ham-fisted approach just makes the gatekeepers mad.
I don’t have all the solutions, but good places to start:
- Instead of “taxing links,” encourage big companies to financially support the ecosystem through philanthropy
- Build noncommercial sources for accessing information, so we don’t need Google or Meta
- **EDUCATE LAWMAKERS AND THE MEDIA INDUSTRY ON WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS**
Democrats in 2016: I’m moving to Canada!
Canadian researchers in 2023: I’m getting a VPN!
That’s the other thing. Laws like this and the ID checks for porn sites in some U.S. states, all they’re going to do is make VPNs better by making them cheaper, more mainstream, and harder to detect.
It will become harder to regulate the internet thanks to bad laws like these.
@ernie Whoops, your cogent and correct argument has suddenly made me *extremely* pro-ID-checks-for-porn-sites. #unintendedconsequences
