The head of the CRTC says that individual users and content creators will not be regulated by Bill C-11, seemingly contradicting recent news that streamers and podcasters making more than $10 million will have to register with the administrative tribunal.
“The first consultation looked at which online streaming services need to register and which will be exempted,” explained Vicky Eatrides, chairperson and CEO at the CRTC in a speech before the C.D. Howe Institute on Oct. 3.
“In other words, which foreign services need to provide basic information to us so that we can account for them in the broadcasting system, and which ones do not. And to be clear, we will not be regulating individual users and content creators.”
The CRTC has said the bill will give it the “proper tools to put in place a modern and flexible regulatory framework for broadcasting,” including the ability to “make rules, gather information, and assign penalties for non-compliance.”
Michael Geist, the Canada research chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, said while the decision likely surprised many Canadians, it was “entirely expected given that the bill adopts an approach in which all audio and video content anywhere in the world is subject to Canada’s Broadcasting Act.”
According to Mr. Geist, the CRTC intentionally limited public participation in the consultation process by giving “exceptionally short timelines for public participation” for the first three consultation phases.
Consultations Underway
During her address to the C.D. Howe Institute, Ms. Eatrides said Parliament had given the CRTC an “enormous mandate” with the passage of the bill, and called the changes needed to implement it “substantial and complex.” She added that the CRTC had received over 600 submissions during the consultation process, “many of them long and detailed, and all of them showing that people are highly engaged.”Ms. Eatrides said the first stage of the CRTC’s consultation on Bill C-11 examined which streaming services would need to register, and which would be exempt.
Second, the CRTC set conditions for certain online streaming services to operate in Canada, effective immediately. These services are to provide the commission with information related to their content and subscribership.
“The decision also requires those services to make content available in a way that is not tied to a specific mobile or Internet service,” it said.
The second consultation looks at the “basic conditions of service” that might be imposed on certain streaming services.
A third consultation is ongoing. It considers contributions “traditional broadcasters and online streaming services will need to make to support Canadian and Indigenous content.” The CRTC will hold a three-week public proceeding starting on Nov. 20, and will hear from 129 intervenors representing a broad range of interests.
Online News Act
Ms. Eatreides said the same “quick and consultative approach” is being taken when it comes to Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act. She noted that in August the CRTC shared its plan for establishing the bargaining framework for “fair negotiations” between Canadian news outlets and large social media platforms.“We will launch a public consultation in the coming weeks to gather views. I encourage everyone who is interested to check out the CRTC’s plan and to participate in the upcoming consultation,” she said.
The Online News Act mandates that major tech companies pay Canadian media outlets for news content linked to their platforms. The legislation also gives the CRTC the power to require media organizations to follow a “code of ethics” in order to be eligible for news-sharing negotiations with digital platforms.
Meta ended news availability in Canada on its Facebook and Instagram platforms, calling the bill “fundamentally flawed legislation that ignores the realities of how our platforms work, the preferences of the people who use them, and the value we provide news publishers.”
Google also said it would respond to the new law by removing links to Canadian news from its Search, News, and Discover products.