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   Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@writing.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 16:28:21 JST Ian Betteridge

   Disappointing to see people trot out Meta’s “antithetical to the open web” talking point re Canada’s so-called link tax. We do not have an open web. We have a web which is controlled by large monopolies. Canada’s law is a reaction to that.
   Now is it the right approach? I don’t think it is. But the key question is how to break Meta and Google’s monopoly power, not pretending that reactions against monopoly power are breaking something which doesn’t exist.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 16:28:20 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     @ianbetteridge This.

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 17:29:38 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     @ianbetteridge But Ian, as their directly of policy in Europe, Lord What-What, stood up and said after one of my talks “What Aral told you is rubbish: Facebook is open. We allow anyone to join.”

     🤔

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     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 18:11:04 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     @ianbetteridge So did I, at the time, to his face.

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     Ian Betteridge (ianbetteridge@writing.exchange)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 18:11:05 JST Ian Betteridge

     in reply to

     • Aral Balkan

     @aral LLOLLOLOLLOLOLLLLLLL

     (Literally laughed out loud at that one!)

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     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 18:15:21 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     @ianbetteridge I mean, that’s the extent of their defense, as provided by the British aristocracy and ex-political party leaders in their employ. And still the clueless hacks in policy positions swoon over them.

     (That incident took place at the Insafe conference and I was the one chastised – by the head of the organisation tasked with keeping children safe online in Europe – and told that Facebook and Google were unhappy with my talk.)

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     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Wednesday, 02-Aug-2023 18:16:20 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     @ianbetteridge Here’s some of what I wrote about it at the time:

     https://ar.al/notes/europe-we-need-to-talk-about-institutional-corruption/