After years of debate, the Canadian Senate has approved a bill (also known as the Online Streaming Act) that requires all digital platforms to prominently showcase Canadian programming to users in Canada. The new rule gives Canada’s broadcast regulator CRTC the ability to impose financial penalties for violations of the act.
The new legislation affects platforms like YouTube and Netflix and would require the reworking of existing platforms’ algorithms. This means that, if for example, a user in Canada would search for a video on YouTube, the results would display primarily links from Canadian content.
The rule is seen outside Canada as a form of censorship, and a way to discard consumers’ needs, since algorithms on digital platforms are designed to match content with users’ preferences.
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