Former commissioner laughs at idea that CRTC is capable of handling C-11; PIAC advocates for static discoverability

The idea that the CRTC is capable of handling the regulations to implement the Online Streaming Act is laughable according to a former national commissioner who literally guffawed at the idea Wednesday evening as the Senate studied Bill C-11. “Is the inquisition capable of being an inquisitorial agency?,” Tim Denton said in response to a question from Senator Pamela Wallin regarding the CRTC’s capabilities. “I’m sorry, the idea is riseable.” Denton, who is now the chairperson of the Internet Society Canada Chapter, said the CRTC is composed of, at the bottom, “ordinary reasonable human beings trying to do a good job,” but trying to regulate communication over the internet is not humanly possible. “Even if this CRTC were composed of double doctorates in communication, law and philosophy for them to do the job that is being called upon for them to do and the staff themselves are not capable. And this is not because they're dumb or are bad or misled. It's because they're human beings. And there is no sufficiently enlightened body of people able to carry out the delicate and subtle tasks that are required,” he said. Matt Hatfield, campaign director of OpenMedia, agreed with Denton’s remarks saying the idea that the CRTC “can take up on magnitudes more in complexity and scope, and really knock it out of the park” is unlikely. “They have really floundered in recent years even to do the basics in a timely manner of their current duties,” Hatfield said. Bill C-11 has not yet passed its second reading in the Senate, but Senators decided to conduct a prestudy of the bill in order to meet the deadline imposed in the House of Commons. Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) executive director John Lawford urged senators to address the user-generated content issue in the bill by redefining discoverability as two concepts: static and dynamic discoverability. The bill is currently written to state that online undertakings shall promote and recommend Canadian programming in both official languages and Indigenous languages “and ensure that any means of control of the programming generates results allowing its discoverability.” “Consumers naturally resist the insertion of CanCon in their automated plays or algorithmic suggestions of platforms such as YouTube, and digital first creators are concerned that such discoverability tools will backfire and reduce their audiences,” Lawford said. Lawford said static discoverability requirements can be satisfied by, for example, by a banner on Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube platform which links consumers to Canadian content. “It’s static, it's unobtrusive and very likely unobjectionable to consumers, but still clearly promotes and recommends,” he said. Dynamic discoverability requires artificial intelligence prediction tools to insert a CanCon video or song into users' autoplay feature. “It is intrusive, it is disruptive to the consumer's expectation and experience. It is overkill to achieve the goal of promoting and recommending CanCon. It is even more intrusive than the exhibition requirements on traditional broadcasters. Because in the online world, there is an abundance of consumer choice and not scarcity,” he said. Lawford said the bill should only mandate static discoverability and require any exempted creator of Canadian content who wishes to have their content promoted by static discoverability to apply to a new CanCon authorization authority – which he said will likely be the CRTC. “This will allow the smaller digital first creators the choice to continue to operate untouched by the entire regime, which PIAC believes they want, or to have their content promoted in the limited sense of static discoverability,” Lawford said. Lawford said the whole regime favors incumbent broadcasters, whereas consumers and small creators resist the insertion of CanCon in their automated plays or algorithmic suggestions because it may backfire and reduce their audiences. Len St-Aubin, former director General of Telecommunications Policy at Industry Canada, agreed and warned senators that users have ways to avoid regulation, such as uploading their content outside of Canada. “Essentially, if you make any money, either directly or indirectly, from your user generated content through any social media, you are potentially regulated under this act,” he said. Hatfield said uploading content outside of Canada “is definitely something” that some producers are looking at doing. “I think it really speaks to the impoverished vision this bill has of what the market for Canadian cultural content is – this vision that ‘only people within Canada could possibly be interested in what we're doing and we have to fight so hard to preserve that little bubble,’” he said. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Former commissioner laughs at idea that CRTC is capable of handling C-11; PIAC advocates for static discoverability

Broadcast | September 15, 2022

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Former commissioner laughs at idea that CRTC is capable of handling C-11; PIAC advocates for static discoverability

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