Feds Tell CRTC Not to Regulate Social Media Creators in Policy Directive for Online Streaming Act

The logos of mobile apps Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, Google and Messenger are displayed on a tablet on Oct. 1, 2019. (Denis Charlet/AFP via Getty Images)

The federal government is instructing Canada’s broadcast regulator not to include social media creators under a new regulatory framework for the country’s broadcasting system it is drafting in response to the recently passed Online Streaming Act.

Formerly known as Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act gives the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) authority to regulate digital streaming giants like Netflix and YouTube to ensure they are contributing to new Canadian content standards.

The CRTC is responsible for developing and enforcing the new framework in line with the Online Streaming Act.

The bill produced heated debate as it included a clause that left open the possibility of the CRTC regulating user-generated social media content. Both the broadcast regulator and Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said that would not be done.

Heritage Canada has now issued its policy direction to the CRTC informing it on how it should go about implementing a new regulatory framework to “support the production, promotion, and discoverability of Canadian music and audio-visual programs” and also to outline the “appropriate scope of regulation.”

In its policy direction issued on June 8, Heritage Canada informed the regulator to “exclude social media creators,” including independent and community-run elements from regulation.

Specifically, the federal department instructed the CRTC not to regulate “content made by social media creators,” like podcasters who primarily use platforms that allow them to upload their content “without exercising control over the selection of programs for transmission,” and also “any content on social media that is not also made available on a non-social media broadcasting undertaking.”

Heritage Canada also advised the CRTC not to regulate video games.

However, the department added that it still wants the regulator to control social media platforms “insofar as they are acting like broadcasters,” but not to regulate the “social media elements of their services, which include any content created and uploaded by everyday users.”

Policy Directions

Heritage Canada issued a number of other objectives for the CRTC to follow in its policy framework. Specifically, the department told the regulator to ensure that indigenous persons enjoy “meaningful participation” in the broadcasting system and also to support “greater inclusion of equity-seeking groups,” such as “Black and other racialized persons, Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds,” and “members of 2SLGBTQI+ communities,” among others.

Heritage Canada instructed the CRTC to consider implementing various means of online “discoverability and showcasing ... to promote a wide range of Canadian programs and creators” on streaming services to viewers within the country.

The department told the regulator to implement discoverability practices “in a way that respects and, where possible, increases choice for users while also minimizing the need to alter algorithms of broadcasting undertakings.”

Senior government officials said during a technical briefing on June 8 that the CRTC will not have direct power over streaming platforms’ discoverability algorithms.

However, officials added that the federal government “has indicated that there is a need, moving forward, to ensure that the CRTC does have appropriate discoverability powers to increase the visibility of Canadians music and television on streaming services.”