THE DANGER OF MONOPOLY POWER:

Related: Blowback: Canada to follow Australia’s lead in charging Facebook for links. “After blocking links to all news content in Australia, Facebook has reportedly ‘friended’ the country again by coming back to the negotiating table, at least according to Prime Minister Scott Morrison. That doesn’t mean that Mark Zuckerberg has dropped his objections to Austrailia’s pending legislation that would force the social media giant to pay for links to Australian news content, however. Neither side seems to be backing down at this point. Australia may not be in this battle alone, though. We’re learning this weekend that Canada is drafting a similar measure and basically daring Facebook to impose a blackout on them as well. . . . This whole “everyone hates Facebook” theme is turning into a trend. According to Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, he was recently in talks with representatives from Finland, France and Germany to discuss what to do about Facebook. He further indicated that the total number of nations considering joining such an alliance could quickly reach 15.”

Background: Facebook may regret blacking out news in Australia. “As the Associated Press notes this week, however, this ‘power move’ on the part of Mark Zuckerberg may wind up backfiring on him. What he’s really accomplished here is a demonstration of just how much power Facebook has over public access to journalism. The Australian government, rather than backing down, may wind up taking the war right to Zuckerberg’s doorstep. And they may not be alone.”

People start to notice monopoly power when you throw your weight around too obviously. Amazon used to refrain from that. So did Facebook.