(Montreal) The Canadian Senate voted on Thursday a long-debated law that will force the platforms of streaming such as Netflix, YouTube or Spotify to further support Canadian content, under penalty of financial penalties.
There Online Streaming Act creates a legal framework to regulate digital platforms and oblige them to contribute financially to the “creation, production and distribution” of Canadian content such as music, TV shows or series, but also to its promotion.
More specifically, the platforms must “clearly highlight and recommend Canadian programming, in both official languages as well as in Indigenous languages,” specifies the law.
The new measure then received royal assent in the evening, the final step required to be signed into law.
Long promised by the government of Justin Trudeau, this new legislation gives more power to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the broadcasting regulatory authority, to force the web giants to follow the same rules as Canadian media at the risk of being financially sanctioned.
The government wants to “level the playing field and support Canadian creators by increasing investment in Canadian culture,” says a press release.
Debated for nearly 18 months and considered one of the longest considered bills in Senate history, the measure was particularly criticized by the conservative opposition as an attack on freedom of expression on the Internet. .
Some fear that its lack of precision in defining the actors covered could lead to regulation of those who publish amateur content on the web.
For its part, YouTube has launched an online campaign, arguing that the new law could force it to offer “content that a Canadian government regulator has deemed a priority, rather than content that interests” its users.
In response to this, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, who brought the bill forward, has repeatedly said that independent creators of podcasts or videos, for example, would not be affected.
Mr. Rodriguez should announce the specific directives he will give to the CRTC in the coming weeks.
The new Canadian law is part of a set of measures taken by the Liberal government to better regulate web giants. Parliament is currently considering a bill that would require them to pay a license fee when they use Canadian media content.