That's not just a hypothetical risk: in #Canada, Big Tech entered into negotiations with the *#TorontoStar* - the country's widest-circulating paper - ahead of a proposed #NewsBargainingCode that was working its way through Parliament. Once that settlement was reached, the *Star* abruptly killed "Defanging Tech" its *excellent* critical series on the tech giants it had just climbed into bed with:

https://www.thestar.com/news/big-tech.html

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Meanwhile, in #Australia, the #NewsBargainingCode stampeded tech giants into "voluntary" negotiations with the media companies, allowing #RupertMurdoch's #Newscorp to claim the lion's share, and then conduct layoffs across its newsrooms.

While in #France, the link tax depends on publishers integrating with #GoogleShowcase, a product that makes Google *more* money from news content and makes news publishers *more* dependent on Google:

https://www.politico.eu/article/french-competition-authority-greenlights-google-pledges-over-paying-news-publishers/

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