Canada has an organization called the CRTC, kind of similar to the FCC, that determines what is allowed to go on the public airwaves.
One of the CRTCs rules is around Canadian Content. So if you own a radio station in Canada, something like 10% of the songs you play have to be by Canadian artists. The idea is to stop the airwaves from being totally dominated by popular American music, given our proximity to the US.
Now, I think those laws are retarded. but I do understand the point of not allowing people to use the public airwaves to shout nigger over the radio over and over.
So the government is trying to sell bill C-10 to the people as a means to allow the CRTC to put rules in place governing content provided to Canadians by companies like Netflix similarly to the current rules they are allowed to put in place for traditional TV and Radio broadcasters. It also allows the federal government to collect HST on subscriptions to streaming services.
So the bill is stupid to being with, but that's not why people are freaking out.
The government says the bill is not intended to regulate user generated content and is intended to keep companies like Apple, Spotify, Netflix and Amazon in check. However The bill is written in a way that gives the CRTC discretion when deciding what content to exclude from regulation.
It also put the onus on companies streaming video to apply for that exemption or face a fine.
So for example, what if the CRTC decides Tik-Tok is not exempt? Does Tik-Tok have to regulate all videos uploaded by users to meet CRTC standards or face a fine? Will smaller companies not want to go through the rigmarole of playing grab ass with the CTRC and just block streaming to Canada altogether. Do you really think, for example, BitChute, Trovo or Dlive are going to fuck around with getting CRTC certification? They're just going to block their content in Canada.
It's not a big deal to someone who knows how to use a VPN, (it's kind of a joke, actually,) but your average user does not know how to use a VPN.
I don't think text specifically falls under the bill, it's specifically streaming media, so a site like Kiwi Farms would be OK anyway for now.
Don't be mistaken though, this is not a SJW communist takeover thing. This is about making big telecom in Canada happy. They've been after this kind of thing for years and years.
Consider this, another thing the CRTC does beside regulating what gets broadcast is deciding who gets to operate cell-phone networks and the like. The CRTC does
not allow outside telecoms to compete with Canadian ones, which leads to Canada's notoriously high cell-phone and internet prices. What I'm saying here is the CRTC is in Canadian big telecom's back pocket.
We have a handful of huge telecoms here in Canada, the biggest is Bell, others include Rogers, Telus and Shaw. Bell is an ISP, they own a cable sports network called TSN, they own a nation-wide broadcast network called CTV, they own a cell-phone and landline network, they own a bunch of specialty cable channels, they own a radio network, they own their own streaming service called Crave TV, they have a cable and satellite TV service, etc. These telecoms are immensely powerful in Canada, something along the line of how powerful big tech is in the US. When you stream something from Netflix, or even free content from Youtube, Twitch, Trovo, Bitchute, etc, it hurts these big powerful companies that own everything in Canada because it enables you to entertain yourself without watching their TV networks or radio stations or their cable or satellite TV services. When you use an illegal stream to watch something they have the Canadian broadcast rights for like hockey, or WWE of Game of Thrones, it really sticks in their craw and they've been trying to shut that down for years. It's true that they are the ISPs as well, but that's just a portion of their business, they want to sell you an internet subscription
and a cable TV subscription.
This bill is about making big telecom in Canada happy by essentially making non-regulated streaming illegal in Canada.
*Edit*
Here's a good FAQ about it.
