Controversial Bill C-11 to overhaul the way information is accessed in Canada passed through legislation and into law on April 27th as it cleared the Senate and secured royal assent shortly after. Also known as the Online Streaming Act, it will now require streaming services like Netflix and Spotify to comply with broadcasting laws under new changes to the Canadian Broadcasting Act.
With this new change, these streaming services will be required to pay to support Canadian content creation of things like movies, music, and television shows. They will also be required to promote Canadian content extensively. Stating “Online undertakings shall clearly promote and recommend Canadian programming, in both official languages as well as in Indigenous languages.”
It also will now give the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), Canada’s broadcast regulator, tremendous influence in these digital media companies no matter where they are based. This can mean fines and other penalties for violations of this act. When imposed this will go on top of the 30% of revenue broadcasters are already spending on supporting Canadian content.
A move like this is dangerous as it sends an implicit message that the Canadian government will not allow their people to see the truth without it going through government redactions first. As we have seen, this kind of move makes it impossible for the people to get the realities of life and how their economy and government are doing.
Some Canadian content creators are lauding the idea of potentially getting an extra push and rub for their efforts in their home country, but many fear the censorship and filtration the Canadian broadcasters will put it through. Given the amount of streaming content being made, it is also difficult to distinguish what will be pushed and not be unless they play with favoritism, which has already been proven in their other forms of media.
Other creators who are working independently worry that this would only serve to silence their voices even further, and instead promoted the agendas and political movements of the moment to Canadian viewers. Given the silence many have found their movements being saddled with, their concerns are valid. For people to get behind the Canadian government making something censored and promoted on their whim instead of allowing the authenticity and free will of the people to reign is insane.
Given President Biden’s similar viewpoints to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s we the American people need to be concerned. While it has long been known that the American government has greatly censored and limited the webpages being made available to the American public, they haven’t taken this bold of a step to limit content themselves.
Instead, companies here in the US have censored their content, through rules and regulations. While many aren’t happy about them as many of the changes have meant numerous highly rated and monetized clips were now not generating the same income they once were. As a result, many people moved over to different platforms to try and get their content seen and paid better.
This never-ending cycle now has content creators running accounts on as many as 10 different streaming platforms to keep the bills paid and the money coming in. While they can certainly share one clip across all platforms, what works well on TikTok might not make the grade for YouTube. This is where cross-promotional advertising as content like making a TikTok of highlights to get someone to watch the full video on YouTube comes in.
Should Biden take the torch from Trudeau and run with it, he will be doing it horrifically, as that’s all the man seems to know for such actions. The American people need to be on the lookout for the different ways Biden likes to play games with our rights. He has already attacked the creation and printing of 3D firearms, he has challenged the 1st Amendment at nearly every turn, and all the while welcoming in unvetted and unknown illegal aliens.
We need to keep every right and sense of freedom we have. If not we’ll be no better than the countries that are invading us.
