Thank you very much for a very good question.
I think this is really at the heart of what preoccupies a lot of people beyond the platforms. Simply put, links are the lifeblood of the Internet. Obviously, links connect people from one site to another. It effectively facilitates the free flow of information and, therefore, freedom of expression.
We have never seen, anywhere else in the world, an attempt to regulate the free flow of information by putting into scope, effectively, a toll for links. That is wholly unprecedented, globally. It runs counter to any notion of what a link is and how it operates.
I would also say that it runs counter to a decision made by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2011, which I printed out earlier: “The internet cannot, in short, provide access to information without hyperlinks. Limiting their usefulness...would have the effect of seriously restricting the flow of information and, as a result, freedom of expression”.