A new law aimed at assisting Canadian content creators has officially passed in Canada after two and a half years of legislation debate.

Bill C-11, or, “The Online Streaming Act” is a reform of the Canadian Broadcasting Act which was put into place in 1991.

The new bill has been met with heavy opposition from Canadian influencers, content creators, and even YouTube as a way for the government to gain more control.

Many fear that the Canadian Government is overstepping boundaries with this new piece of legislation which gives authorities more power over the content citizens consume.

Bill C-11 will ultimately force media companies such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, TikTok, and more to increase support for Canadian-made content.

This means that the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will have the authority to regulate the entertainment provided by these platforms.

Many see this as a form of censorship that will block content based on viewer preferences and replace it with Canadian Content chosen by the government.

The CRTC already has control over radio and television broadcasters with certain regulations these companies must follow.

 

This includes setting quotas for the minimum amount of Canadian content that must be broadcast as well as forcing creators to spend at least 30% of revenue making Canadian content.

With Bill C-11, many of these same narratives are likely to transfer over to streaming platforms such as Spotify, Netflix, and YouTube.

As noted in a press release by the Canadian Government, the bill itself does not apply to Canadian citizens, but instead to these various streaming platforms.

 

Online streaming has changed how we create, discover, and consume our culture, and it’s time we updated our system to reflect that.

Our proposed approach is flexible, fair and modern. It will lead to increased investments in Canadian culture and support jobs in the industry, while ensuring Canadian stories continue to be shared for generations to come in Canada, and across the world.

This is outraging many as a way for the Canadian government to have more control over what content is created and what viewers are able to watch.

In fact, YouTube even launched a public campaign against the Online Streaming Act with ads on Canadian subways and more.

Shubha Ghosh, Professor of Law at Syracuse University and director of the Syracuse Intellectual Property Law Institute noted the following on Bill C-11:

Bill C-11 is open ended regulation that gives the Canadian government potentially unlimited control of the content of media on existing and emerging digital platforms. National content may be difficult to define in industries with cross-national and multicultural production and tale

Popular YouTuber and Canadian Psychologist Jordan B Petersen titled the bill as “Dystopian” in a YouTube video regarding the legislation.

 

While the bill has been approved and officially passed, it is not yet in effect and will likely take a couple of years to iron out the full details.

We have seen similar legislation presented by US Lawmakers with US Bill S. 686 also known as “The Restrict Act”.

This seems to be a continuing trend of censorship and government authority that many are worried could spiral downhill quickly.

We will have to wait and see when this law is put into place how the landscape of Canadian content will change.

Ultimately, Canadian viewers can always bypass geo-restrictions of various streaming platforms and more with the use of a VPN.

You can view the entire C-11 Bill from the official source by clicking the link below.

Bill C-11 – House of Commons of Canada