Fix Bill C-11: Hands off our content!

The Online Streaming Act is moving rapidly through Parliament - and it STILL gives the CRTC power to regulate YOUR videos, podcasts, Netflix recommendations and more. 

Legislation that gives the CRTC the power to manipulate our feeds and apply broadcasting standards to our video posts is the last thing Canada needs.

We only have a brief window to convince Members of Parliament that this version of Bill C-11 is disastrous to our online freedom of expression and must be fixed. Join us in demanding that your MP fixes Bill C-11!

 

To: Your Member of Parliament 

Use the box below to start crafting an email to your member of Parliament!

Your MP's name will replace the placeholder {contact_data~firstName} {contact_data~lastName} text based on the postal code you enter in the form below.

This campaign is hosted by OpenMedia. We will protect your privacy, and keep you informed about this campaign and others. Find OpenMedia's privacy policy here.

Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, gives the CRTC breathtakingly broad authority to regulate ALL audiovisual content on online platforms as broadcasting content.1 Your Netflix favourites, the TikToks you make, and the podcasts you listen to are all at risk under the current version of the Bill of being regulated as ‘broadcasting’, subject to the full scope of CRTC broadcasting control. Your favourite content, and even your own uploads could be automatically downranked in search results and feeds in favour of content that the CRTC deems “Canadian enough,” according to their 1980s era CanCon criteria for what’s Canadian.2

While the government has introduced amendments in-between Bill C-11 and last year’s disastrous Bill C-10 to try to limit these harms, the reality is that the job is still not done; our user content and feeds are still squarely under CRTC control, with huge areas left open for them to interpret as they see fit.3.4

That’s the same CRTC that has been siding more and more in recent years with big business against Canadians and small businesses, given tremendous discretionary power to pick winners and losers on Canada’s Internet.5 Their legacy media buddies who have profited from our broken CanCon for YEARS will remain at the top, but the interests of Canadians and digital-first creators? Not so much.

Passing this legislation as it stands would have an irreversible negative impact on the everyday content we share and view online. 

The clock is ticking, and we’ve got just days left to be heard. Speak out now: tell your MP #HandsOff our content and our feeds!

Sources

  1. ​Online Streaming Act Bill C-11 Repeats Bill C-10's Mistakes- OpenMedia 
  2. Everything you didn't know about CanCon- OpenMedia
  3. The Government’s Gaslighting of the Online Streaming Act (Or Why Bill C-11 Regulates User Generated Content)- Michael Geist 
  4. Bill C-11’s Foundational Faults, Part Three: Why the Discoverability Rules Are a Flawed Solution in Search of a Problem- Michael Geist
  5. 5t’s time for a public interest champion to take over at the CRTC- OpenMedia

Press: Matt Hatfield | Phone: +1 (888) 441-2640 ext. 0  | [email protected]