Senate won’t define discoverability in Online Streaming Act definitions

Supporters and opponents of the Online Streaming Act alike have their eyes on the Senate’s Transportation and Communications committee as it begins to sift through the 98 amendments senators proposed on Bill C-11. A clause-by-clause review of the bill began Wednesday evening with a series of minor Conservative amendments to the definitions set out in Clause 2 of the bill discussed. One amendment, which failed to pass, might have addressed the discoverability and algorithmic concerns brought up throughout the process by the bill’s critics. Conservative Senator Dennis Batters brought forward a motion to add a definition for discoverability in the legislation. The motion, if passed, would have stipulated that “discoverability means the ability for Canadians to search for and find Canadian content.” Batters brought forward the motion to narrow the scope of discoverability, and as a consequence what types of regulation the commission would be able to impose. The bill, as currently drafted, states that “the commission shall not make an order under paragraph (1)(e) that would require the use of a specific computer algorithm or source code.” CRTC chair Ian Scott has also appeared before the House of Commons Heritage committee and the senate committee to clarify that the commission cannot order an undertaking to change its algorithms. If an undertaking manipulates its algorithms to meet discoverability requirements imposed by the CRTC that would be of its own choosing. “I know there's been a lot of discussion about this, in particular, whether this legislation actually gives the CRTC the authority over algorithms, whether that's their intention or not. But it's clear that for some platforms, there is no way other than our algorithm manipulation,” Batters argued. Canadian Heritage associate assistant deputy minister for cultural affairs Thomas Owen Ripley, who was at the meeting to answer questions regarding the impact of the amendments, told senators that the government intentionally did not include a definition of discoverability. “Right now it's a concept that would be understood in, kind of, the ordinary understanding and meaning of the term at any given point in time. And that was to allow the concept to continue to evolve as those techniques and tools and opportunities to showcase or promote content on online services evolve,” he said. “There’s been a lot of focus, I would argue, on this question of social media services. One observation I would make to the committee is that it's important to remember that the concept of discoverability and showcasing is not limited to social media services.” The provisions related to discoverability will also apply to online streaming services like BCE Inc.’s Crave and Netflix Inc.

Senate won’t define discoverability in Online Streaming Act definitions

Brief | November 24, 2022

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Senate won’t define discoverability in Online Streaming Act definitions

Brief | November 24, 2022

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