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  • [OT] Labour government plans to force their preferred media outletsto be favoured in social media algorithms

    From Rhino@no_offline_contact@example.com to rec.arts.tv on Sat Jul 4 19:29:52 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    It seems that Britain's Labour government has drafted legislation that,
    if passed, will force outlets like Google News and YouTube to push their preferred media outlets to the top of the "recommended" algorithms.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaqUN4lHzWs [17 minutes]

    Honestly, I'm not that alarmed by this since it doesn't appear to force
    me to watch the recommended content nor does it seem to suppress other content. But I'm not awfully fond of any government putting their thumb
    on the scale to manipulate what gets recommended. It's a bad precedent
    and like most stupid government initiatives, it seems likely to get
    imitated by other governments, especially stupid ones.
    --
    Rhino

    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From Adam H. Kerman@ahk@chinet.com to rec.arts.tv on Sun Jul 5 00:33:02 2026
    From Newsgroup: rec.arts.tv

    Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:

    It seems that Britain's Labour government has drafted legislation that,
    if passed, will force outlets like Google News and YouTube to push their >preferred media outlets to the top of the "recommended" algorithms.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaqUN4lHzWs [17 minutes]

    Honestly, I'm not that alarmed by this since it doesn't appear to force
    me to watch the recommended content nor does it seem to suppress other >content. But I'm not awfully fond of any government putting their thumb
    on the scale to manipulate what gets recommended. It's a bad precedent
    and like most stupid government initiatives, it seems likely to get
    imitated by other governments, especially stupid ones.

    What's one more illiberal law?

    That's compelled speech, generally against the First Amendment but
    courts have carved out a confusing set of exemptions in commercial
    speech and professional speech.
    --- Synchronet 3.21d-Linux NewsLink 1.2