“Bill C-11 would give CRTC power over user-generated content, but it won’t use it: chair”, reports CityNews Ottawa.
The chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission says a federal bill would give it power to regulate user-generated content, such as homemade videos posted on YouTube.
But Ian Scott predicted at a House of Commons committee that this would never happen as the broadcast regulator has no interest in overseeing content produced by individuals.
Even so, critics of the online-streaming bill have seized on his remarks, saying they contradict assurances by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez that it would not give the regulator power over homemade content, such as cat or cooking videos.
Bill C-11, now going through Parliament, would update Canada’s Broadcasting Act and give the CRTC power to regulate online platforms such as YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify and TikTok, along with traditional broadcasters. It would make digital platforms promote Canadian content, including films, music videos and TV programs, and contribute financially to their creation.
Scott Benzie, executive director of Digital First Canada, said the CRTC chair confirmed what digital-first creators have been saying since the bill was published. They have warned it could give the regulator power over their work, including posts by comedians, animators and gamers on platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Twitch.
Hat tip: Michael Geist via Ezra Levant.
Give us power. We won’t use it, honest. We just want to keep it to look at. [Checks notes] No, not even to look at. We have no interest in overseeing content produced by individuals. Really, if that doesn’t reassure you I don’t know what will. We are so chilled that power bores us. Now hand it over.
I mean, unless they are Nazis. Or trans-phobes. Or Trump supporters. Or right-wing radicals. Oh yeah, also if they support white supremacy.
But other than those obvious ones, we have no interest in overseeing content produced by individuals.
Oops, forgot people who push COVID dis-information. Have to block those too, of course.
Thanks!
Don’t forget the Truckers of Evil. The protests might be ended, but the government still needs to get revenge on those who used the right to protest TO PROTEST AGAINST THEIR GOVERNMENT!
Not for revenge of course, more as a warning to anyone else who tries it.
Apropos of nothing, In other news, an entrepreneur in Montreal is making guillotines (for display purposes only, obviously) with the wooden supports made from Canadian grown maple trees.
If (as I believe is the case), the bulk of Canada’s population lives close to the US border, how easy will it be for Trudeau to prevent his citizens from accessing unregulated content? In his desire to be like Xi, Trudeau may have forgotten that Canada’s relationship to the US differs geographically (and in other ways) from China’s.
Of course, Trudeau may be hoping that by the time the will-never-be-used power is used (“and they so deserved it”), the US will differ from its past.
Sure, Niall, but this is not some postwar configuration like East Germany where most could tune their channel in to a West German station and thus receive an opposing viewpoint from Communist propaganda, save for “Tal der Ahnungslosen” (“The Valley of the Clueless”)
Wikipedia Link
My expectation is that the broadcast TV stations on both sides of the Canada/USA border will increasingly broadcast the same woke drivel, simply tailored to different geographic audiences.
America’s very different freedom of speech protections will avail it nothing if the broadcasters voluntarily (and with apparent vigour), self-censor to deliver the same woke narrative, with the lunatics of the Democratic party passing no laws, but nodding maniacally from Washington DC.
State censorship by proxy.
“Give us power. We won’t use it, honest. Wait, does abusing count as using?”
(Insert picture here of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown.)
Much like the “Patriot” Act in the US after 9/11. “We promise we will only use these special extra powers against those really bad & dangerous terrorists” – but mission creep set in within 50 milliseconds.