The Consequences of Facebook's Carbon Tax

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In Canada, the federal carbon tax went into effect on July 1st. Some people thought they were going to be paying a crazy amount more for gasoline because of it. But actually what happened was the provincial carbon tax of 11 cents came off of gas. And if you consume less and drive less, you get that money back as an incentive to be more efficient. A couple of pushbacks against that is one, which is to say, framing it as a charging for hosting media is kind of a non sequitur.

Paris Marx is joined by David Moscrop to discuss Canada’s plan to make Google and Meta pay news publishers, and what might happened now that they’re threatening to pull Canadian news from their platforms.

David Moscrop is a freelance writer and the author of Too Dumb for Democracy?: Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones. Follow David on Twitter at @David_Moscrop.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

The podcast is produced by Eric Wickham and part of the Harbinger Media Network.

Also mentioned in this episode:

David Moscrop wrote about the larger context of the Online News Bill in his Substack newsletter.
Paris also wrote about Google and Meta threatening to pull news in Canada and why Canada should take a hard line with them.
Sandy Garossino wrote about how much money Google and Meta extract from Canada.
Media conglomerates Postmedia and Nordstar are in talks to merge.
California is also looking at a similar process to force Google and Meta to pay media in that state.
On Wednesday, the Canadian government pulled advertising from Facebook and Instagram, but said Google was still talking to find a way forward. The government said it won’t back down, and two opposition parties — the New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois — voiced their support.

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