> My personal hunch is legacy media is largely driving this, due to them seeing the writing on the wall and knowing 'social media' is their biggest threat
For anyone that thinks this is tin foil hat stuff, remember the Australian government passed a law that Facebook and Google MUST pay Rupert Murdoch money everytime someone clicks a link on one of those sites to a Rupert Murdoch owned media company (basically all of them).
Yes, really. It only applies to Google and Facebook, and money must be paid to only Rupert Murdoch.
Utterly lost the plot.
Goals
Seriously though. While I don't like him even slightly, Murdoch is legit a business genius.
Imagine being powerful enough that you can bend an entire country to your will. That's amazing. Sociopathic probably, but amazing nonetheless.
Just a reminder that you can do this on municipal and state levels with relative ease
And in microstates too
A random municipality in the US may have more commerce or highly valued property to tax than many countries, and they draw less attention than big municipalities
A mayor or board decision from a 200 person town in Los Angeles County, for example, may never garner any challenge or news by being next to Los Angeles City which takes all local and national press time