Big tech giants YouTube and Apple urged Canada’s senate to stall the passing of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Bill C-11, which critics have warned will stifle free speech online.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, executives from YouTube and Apple wrote in a letter to Canada’s transport and communications committee that they “urge this committee to pause” passage of Bill C-11.
Executives from the Digital Media Association who represent YouTube, Amazon, Spotify, and other large tech companies wrote in the letter that Trudeau’s bill, if passed, would have a “significant impact on music streaming services.”
“Together these services connect millions of fans across Canada and around the world with tens of millions of songs and podcasts providing unique listening experiences,” it concluded.
According to executives in their letter, having a government regulator oversee interest streaming services is “antiquated.”
“Bill C-11 attempts to impose a system of regulation that is designed for traditional broadcasters onto streaming services,” the letter noted.
“Imposing this antiquated system onto innovative streaming services in an era of consumer choice, where there are no gatekeepers to content as there are in the broadcasting context, is the wrong approach.”
Dr. Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who is the Canada research chair in internet and E-commerce law, commented that Bill C-11 will allow the government’s broadcast regulator, the CRTC, a “virtually limitless reach” in what is deemed acceptable or not for programming.
Both Bill C-11 and Bill C-18 seek to regulate the internet and force Big Tech companies to champion selected media outlets based on a special designation given by the federal government.
It is feared that Bill C-11 might force websites under the CRTC – including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook – to remove content deemed “harmful” within 24 hours and compel services like Netflix to have more Canadian content.
Bill C-11 passed the House of Commons in June by a 208-117 vote with support from the socialist NDP party and separatist Bloc Québécois.
The bill is now before Canada’s Senate for second reading, and it is anticipated the upper house vote on it this fall.
Some senators have said they will vote against Bill C-11.
Open hearings on Bill C-11 will start Wednesday, when critics of the bill, including many groups such as the Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) and the Directors Guild that called the bill “disastrous,” will speak out against it.