Links are what make the web! When you're talking paid links, you're talking about breaking the foundations of the net and limiting the free flow of information. It's that simple.
Content you see will be limited to whatever companies have made agreements with each other. Organic search would just be broken.
As paid links are in complete opposition to the way the net works, government intervention is required to dictate the rules of information. Politicians will decide what we see, what services will be given benefits and who misses out.
Without paid links, neither Google nor Facebook would exist. A Google ad is a paid link. The only difference in this case is that Google is the one getting paid. Ditto for Facebook. Both have become much more agressive in recent years in making sure that any clicks off their platforms are being paid for. Organic search no longer really exists for any search that can be monetised by Google, especially on mobile and some Governments are waking up to this.
There is a difference between advertisement and mandated government legislation that forces businesses to pay for links. Google still uses organic search, it simply places clearly marked ads in obvious places. If they embedded search results with hidden ads, that would be another story,
Content you see will be limited to whatever companies have made agreements with each other. Organic search would just be broken.
As paid links are in complete opposition to the way the net works, government intervention is required to dictate the rules of information. Politicians will decide what we see, what services will be given benefits and who misses out.