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   Guy Berger (guyberger@mastodon.online)'s status on Saturday, 03-Aug-2024 08:31:26 JST Guy Berger

   • Mike Masnick ✅

   @mmasnick Isn't this a self-fulfilling thing? 1. After a history of making money in part from news, they don't want to pay; 2. so they downgrade news (along, indeed with all links), and 3, they then cut news entirely, and 4. finally claim (without independent verification) that they lost no user engagement.

   • Embed this notice
     Mike Masnick ✅ (mmasnick@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 03-Aug-2024 08:31:25 JST Mike Masnick ✅

     in reply to

     @GuyBerger are you replying to a specific point or just in general?

     1. They never made money from news. That's made up.

     2/3/4: They only removed news when forced to by gov'ts It was outside researchers who showed no loss of engagement, not them.

     Try harder.

     Bigger point: linking should ALWAYS be free. They were giving FREE DISTRIBUTION to an industry that historically paid a ton for distribution.

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     Mike Masnick ✅ (mmasnick@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 06-Aug-2024 01:27:00 JST Mike Masnick ✅

     in reply to

     @GuyBerger "independent evidence"? Google News has no ads in most countries. Meta makes money from people using the site no matter what, and has nothing specifically around news.

     "Common cause" does not mean what you think it means.

     And honestly, I cannot parse the rest of your comment. I don't think you understand anything about this and I am coming to the conclusion discussing this will be a waste of my time.

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     Guy Berger (guyberger@mastodon.online)'s status on Tuesday, 06-Aug-2024 01:27:01 JST Guy Berger

     in reply to

     • Mike Masnick ✅

     @mmasnick Let's turn this around to ask what is the independent evidence you have that platforms never made money out of news? Second, it's common cause that platforms downgrade posts with links... to bolster their walled gardens, no? That's what I am talking about, not removals. Lastly, if links have disproportionate benefit to the extent that the linkee is not sustainable then the ecosystem is dysfunctional. The issue is less one of links per se, but of using links as one indicator of value.