New Content Laws in Canada
Canada is proposing new legislation in an effort to aid the country’s independent digital media. Bill C-11 and Bill C-18 are seeking to change the way established technology giants, such as Meta or Google, provide and navigate content in the country.
Bill C-11
Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act, aims to promote the growth of Canadian content. In relation to technology giants, it specifies that their algorithms must “clearly promote and recommend Canadian programming, in both official languages as well as in Indigenous languages”.
A similar requirement has already been introduced in the music industry. Under the “MAPL” system, various elements of a song, including its producers and performers, are scored against a scale to determine the extent to which the piece is “Canadian”.
However, determining “Canadian” content can be complex. For example, beyond content created by a single Canadian citizen, videos on platforms such as YouTube may stem from groups of multi-national creators.
Creators behind Linus Tech Tips, one of Canada’s largest YouTube channels, believe that the rules could limit how their content is served outside of Canada. Speaking on a podcast, the channel’s host expressed his concerns regarding the limits that the rules may place on algorithmic favourability outside of Canada.
In practice, this could mean that Bill C-11 will act against Canadian creators. Due to the secrecy of algorithms used on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, it is hard to determine whether these speculations are warranted.
Bill C-18
Bill C-18 focuses on news and its promotion, mirroring the Australian “News Media Bargaining Code” passed in 2021.
The proposed law would make platforms such as Google or Facebook pay news sources for stories that feature on their websites directly or by awarding them a greater share of ad revenues.
As a response, Meta and Google have begun to threaten the Canadian government with a news blackout. Google has removed the ‘news’ tab of its search engine for a couple of weeks but this only affected around 4% of the Canadian population. Meta has stated that it intends “to end the availability of news content in Canada permanently following the passage of Bill C-18”.
In 2021, the companies took up a similar stance in relation to the Australian Code. Google threatened to block its search engine entirely in the country. However, the firm position of the Australian government led to a full restoration of functionality and eventually resulted in a deal between the platform providers and news stations. As a result, local networks were offered a greater share of advertising revenue from the two tech giants.
What could this mean for the future?
Bill C-11 has already passed in April 2023 and Bill C-18 is expected to be voted on in the coming weeks. In theory, both should support Canadian content creators. However, the Canadian government is facing a strong backlash for the laws, both internally and externally. At the same time, the precedent set in Australia undermines the threats being made by the tech giants against Canada. It also appears likely that other countries will adopt similar legislation. The UK has previously suggested that it may follow Australia and force the providers of leading platforms to pay local news networks.
By Samuel Axford