Thought this warranted its own thread, since what is proposed in Bill C-10 stands to greatly impact the whole internet in Canada. If it needs to stay in the Federal Politics thread, please move it, and my apologies.
Link to the latest published version of the Bill is here:
https://parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43.../first-reading
The "Command Broadcaster Content" (CBC, as I call it - see what I did there?) section is below (Act refers to the Broadcast Act)
Quote:
7 The Act is amended by adding the following after section 9:
Conditions
9.#1 (1) The Commission may, in furtherance of its objects, make orders imposing conditions on the carrying on of broadcasting undertakings that the Commission considers appropriate for the implementation of the broadcasting policy set out in subsection 3(1), including conditions respecting
(a) the proportion of programs to be broadcast that shall be Canadian programs and the proportion of time that shall be devoted to the broadcasting of Canadian programs;
(b) the presentation of programs for selection by the public, including the discoverability of Canadian programs;
(c) a requirement for a person carrying on a broadcasting undertaking, other than an online undertaking, to obtain the approval of the Commission before entering into any contract with a telecommunications common carrier, as defined in the Telecommunications Act, for the distribution of programming directly to the public;
(d) a requirement for a person carrying on a distribution undertaking to give priority to the carriage of broadcasting;
(e) a requirement for a person carrying on a distribution undertaking to carry, on the terms and conditions that the Commission considers appropriate, programming services specified by the Commission;
(f) terms and conditions of service in contracts between distribution undertakings and their subscribers;
(g) access by persons with disabilities to programming, including the identification, prevention and removal of barriers to such access;
(h) the carriage of emergency messages;
(i) the provision to the Commission, by corporations that are licensees or that are persons exempt from the requirement to hold a licence under an order made under subsection 9(4), of information related to (i) the ownership, governance and control of those corporations, and
(ii) the affiliation of those corporations with any affiliates carrying on broadcasting undertakings; and
(j) the provision to the Commission, by persons carrying on broadcasting undertakings, of any other information that the Commission considers necessary for the administration of this Act, including (i) financial or commercial information,
(ii) information related to programming,
(iii) information related to expenditures made under section 11.#1,
(iv) information related to audience measurement, other than information that could identify any individual audience member, and
(v) other information related to the provision of broadcasting services.
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Any legal minds want to comment?
Seems to me that the Government isn't outright banning any content, but will command websites that constitute a broadcast undertaking to favour some content over others (thereby suppressing some content), and to set conditions on licenses, as well as provide whatever information it wants. The last seems particularly insidious since no doubt it allows Government to demographically profile audiences. It seems impossible that it won't use such information to run targeted political ads. Would an opposition party have access to such data?
Surely internet content praising the government is Canadian content that must be "prioritized" No?
I am reading this wrong? It's atrocious.