I hit my first instance of Meta blocking Canadian news content.
Rachael sent me a story from #CBCVancouver via Instagram messages.
The thumbnail is visible in messages (1), but when I click, I get the restricted message (2)
I wasn’t following the CBCVancouver account, and when I search for and visit the profile, I get a different message (3)
I guess Rachael hasn’t had this rolled out to her account yet.
Remember, there are no good guys in this #BillC18 debacle.
Not true at all. Being from a small community, news is pretty well only reported by the local CTV news reporter. Said reporter was maintaining his own Facebook page, and through that I could zero in on his content that is relevant to where I live.
If I go to CTV directly, there is no way to get only the local news. It's mixed in with news about places hundreds of kilometres away. News about a place hundreds of kilometres away has little relevance to my life. If you dig deep you can find the local news somewhere in there, but unless you work as a full-time researcher, who has that kind of time?
Maybe said reporter will create his own website in the wake of this – but at the same time, maybe he doesn't have means to do so. There isn't a lot of money in being a small town reporter. Facebook made that accessible to most with little investment and to those with little technical knowhow.
Maybe CTV will smarten up and build a website that is more usable. But not likely, as why bother trying when you can just go crying to the government?
But as it stands right now, the only thing keeping us abreast in the local news is that he is posting to X. But presumably it will go the same way, or, more likely, end up bankrupt in the near future.
Ping him to start RSS/Mastodon/Lemmy, then?
Then we're back to needing technical knowhow. These are not approachable services to the common man. Lemmy is hilariously unusable. Us nerds are willing to put up with it because it is something to geek out on, but why would a small town CTV reporter who has better things to do than fumble around on a computer all day? I'm sure he gets paid the same whether or not he markets his work independently of CTV.
Moreover, what's the point? Even if he has the technical knowhow, or is willing to put in the effort to gain it, the rest of the population doesn't. And they are going to care even less. It is not like news is exactly seen as being valuable. If it were, we wouldn't be here talking about how the news industry is suffering. If it is just for me, he may as well give me a phone call when he has something new to share.
He's a journalist, not some average Joe. Adapt or die.