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> Social Media has every right to refuse to pay and refuse to redistribute.

Unfortunately Brazil is trying to take that right away, too. Hopefully they fail at doing so.

What leverage do they have? Companies can always pull out of the country entirely.

Well, the leverage is that some profit is better than no profit, in theory.

Assuming that you don't then become locked into mandatory "agreements" (and I use the term loosely given the inability to refuse) with rates that keep going up. Leaving aside that sometimes the principle outweighs the profits; a link tax, or any other restriction on linking, is an abhorrent constraint on the Internet.

If FB and Google both leave Brazil, it will put pressure on the lawmakers to rescind the law.

Yep true, it's a game of chicken really. This is probably what will happen in Canada anyway

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