It looks as if both Meta and Google are going to go ahead and block Canadian news to Canadian users. This is in reaction to the Government finally taking a stand on these companies ripping off content from Canadian media organizations without compensation (and arguably in violation of all sorts of copyright laws), and forcing them to pay something for it. Without this type of content, these social media companies would have much less value, at least in Canada.
Various Canadian governments (at the Federal, Provincial and Municipal levels), as well as organizations, are withdrawing advertising from those sites in retaliation. That will be a financial hit for Meta, Google et al. But they don't care - there's a bigger issue at stake. If Canada succeeds in getting them to pay for content, this model will be repeated everywhere in the world, and these social media companies will lose big bucks.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I don't particularly care, as I don't look at news through the social media filter. Why does anyone need this kind of app to aggregate the news and then decide, on their terms, what to show me? I'd rather go directly to the source(s) and think for myself. You know, the old-fashioned Internet way of typing in a site address, such as cbc.ca.
Social media is directly responsible for most of the misinformation and conspiracy theories that run rampant these days. Far too many people are of the 'give me convenience or give me death' mentality, and like things spoon fed to them.
Twitter has also been in the news recently. They've rebranded themselves as 'X', which I think is particularly appropriate. I just put an 'X' through their app, and ignore anything coming from that source. Perfect.
And as for the argument that Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Twitter, Google etc. can be used to promote things such as a Part 15 radio station, I say, poppycock (actually, I say something a lot stronger, but this is a family site). There's so much out there, how can anyone find you? Particularly when the companies behind these apps take money to promote particular sites and brands.
I think a decent website is an important part of any Part 15 station, if only to show to your target listener base (which is probably very small). But to think that it will reach a global audience is foolish - it will be luck more than anything else if it's seen outside of the small group (maybe even of one) that already listens.
It does occur. I've had emails from around the world about the station, but they're few and far between (I've been doing this for 17 years, so it's just the law of averages that someone would stumble on the site every once in a while).
I do Part15 radio for the love of it and the enjoyment (and the learning) - not to garner tons of listeners.
In yesterday's world the audience sat in massive auditoriums facing one main stage, making it easy to promote the current show and fill all the seats. But with the internet everyone in the audience each has their own main stage and there's no chance of building audiences when everybody's busy running their own show.
Which is my way of agreeing with Artisan Radio.