By Canadian Press

YouTube, TikTok say Liberal online streaming bill fails to protect digital creators

Sep 21, 2022 | 4:52 PM

OTTAWA — Online streaming giants YouTube and TikTok are asking Canadian senators to take a sober second look at an online streaming bill that they say would cause significant harm to Canadian digital creators. 

TikTok executive Steve de Eyre said in a Senate committee meeting that the federal Liberals’ Bill C-11 doesn’t just fail to protect digital creators from regulation, but makes them collateral damage.

He says the Senate should more explicitly exclude user-generated content from the bill and consider rules around how Canadian content is identified, saying much of the content that Canadians create on TikTok wouldn’t qualify as such.

YouTube executive Jeanette Patell told senators that the bill gives far too much discretion to Canada’s broadcasting regulators to make demands around user-generated content.

She says the provision that the regulator can consider whether someone has directly or indirectly generated revenue from the content would affect “effectively everything” on the platform.

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She also warned that the regulator could require changes to the company’s algorithms, echoing concerns that music streaming giant Spotify raised during a hearing last week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 21, 2022.

The Canadian Press