Canada's plan to make tech giants pay

You guys, it's foolproof. I've figured out a way to make tech giants pay their fair share!

You know how tech giants make a lot of money? And news companies...not a lot of money?

Well, we make the tech giants pay to link to news sites!

I mean, you guys! You guyyys! What could possibly go wrong?

Okay, maybe the narrative in the smoke-filled rooms didn't go exactly as the above, but that's essentially what Canada's Online News Act does.

Well, Meta's platforms have ended news sharing. Google will no longer show news results in Canada before mandatory "negotiating" starts with Canadian news companies. 

Whoops.

When Canadian news agencies' ad revenues tank further with lessened incoming traffic from two of the internet's largest domains, will the politicians rightly point at themselves or will they try and deflect blame to the tech giants, calling them "greedy" for not benevolently losing money to support another industry. If Canadian politicians are anything like US politicians (and considering the incentive structure for politicians. they are), I'm going to guess the latter.

If I were the dictator-for-life of Google and Facebook, I would put in place of every news link a message that says: "The Canadian government made it infeasible for us to link to news sites, due to the Online News Act. For a list of politicians that voted to make this happen, see [here]. VPNs are virtual teleporters. Virtually teleport yourself to a country that has stronger protection of rights. [Here] is a list of VPNs you can subscribe to so you can view news links."