The report of the group of experts who advised the Minister of Culture and Communications of Quebec, Mathieu Lacombe, for an intervention aimed at countering the domination of digital giants and its impact on culture is right. Indeed, the ability of the Quebec public to access cultural content in French is limited, if not ignored by digital platforms and their algorithms. However, Quebec rightly has an essential role to play with regard to the language and culture of the French-speaking population.
Our films, our television series and our musical creations in French are not easily accessible there. In fact, our cultural content is no match since only the big bosses of the digital powers, mainly Americans, impose theirs. This is what I wrote in my book The digital barbarians. Resisting the GAFAM invasion. The situation is alarming, underline the authors of The cultural sovereignty of Quebec in the digital age: report of the advisory committee on the discoverability of cultural content.
How can we convince those under 35 to immerse themselves in French-speaking culture if the platforms rarely offer them content from here at the top of the lists? We see, the future of the French language and culture is threatened, because what YouTube, Netflix, Amazon, Prime Video, Apple TV and Disney+ impose on us is the avoidance route. Soon, connected television offered by Sony, Samsung and other giants will join the dance to bury and limit, once again, access to French-speaking content. And that’s without taking into account the impact that artificial intelligence (AI) will have on the fragile ecosystem of our media and our culture. Is it necessary to remember that AI is controlled by American digital giants?
The advisors’ report cites implacable data: “among the 10,000 most listened to tracks in Quebec, the share of recordings performed in French was only 8.6%, or 5.3% coming from Quebec and 3.3 % from outside the province. Conversely, the share of recordings in English rose to 85.7%. Obviously, the dominant Taylor Swift wins hands down over Roxane Bruneau and her colleagues who create and perform French-speaking music.
In addition, we produce magnificent media and cinematographic works in Quebec. But how can you be sure of discovering them?
There is no doubt that action is urgently needed. This is why it is proposed in the report to legislate to ensure Quebecers a “fundamental right to access and discoverability of original expression content in the French language”. This is an important first step.
But Quebec cannot act alone.
The authors of the report therefore specify the broad outlines of a strategy for the future: at all times, favor the promotion of cultural content of original expression in the French language with well-targeted interventions. On the international level, strengthen France-Quebec collaboration, develop more joint initiatives within the Francophonie and with the European Union.
It is also emphasized that it becomes necessary to add this linguistic dimension to the UNESCO Convention for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions adopted in 2005, because it did not explicitly integrate it. This is a good thing.
I also salute Quebec’s commitment to contributing to the discoverability of First Nations and Inuit cultures within the framework of genuine consultation with their representatives.
In my opinion, it seems to me that all political and cultural forces, regardless of partisan allegiances, should support the government of Quebec so that it plays a vital role in the defense of language and culture. This is called cultural sovereignty.
However, the big challenge is to include such a strategy in relations between Quebec and the federal government. Minister Pascale St-Onge played a key role in passing Bill C-11 on online streaming. Ditto for Bill C-18 on online news. I salute his persistent effort and sincere commitment in this regard.
On the other hand, culture and communications historically constitute skills shared by the two levels of government. In the past, the federal government was responsible, for example, for telecommunications throughout Canada, radio and television, Radio-Canada, the NFB, Telefilm and the Arts Council. from Canada. For its part, Quebec created SODEC, Télé-Québec and the National Council of Arts and Letters. Recently, he intervened to support the written media, severely shaken by the voracity of Facebook and Google in terms of advertising revenue.
However, these shared skills correspond to another era. Today, everything is interconnected in the digital world. All creation and production in the cultural field, video, audio and writing, all of this forms a whole. In short, everyone now shares the same… digital screen. Who has jurisdiction over what?
This is why it is essential that collaboration be established between the two levels of government in order to establish a concerted strategy aimed at countering the domination of culture by the superpowers of the Web.
In this sense, the call launched by the advisors of this report for a bilateral agreement aimed at organizing consultation, coordination as well as the participation of Quebec in the development of the new regulatory framework is legitimate. This collaboration is essential. No one can go it alone anymore.
Following the publication of this report, Quebec Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, has already announced his intention to legislate to protect the discoverability of French-speaking content on platforms. He thus extends a pole to his counterpart, the federal Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, to align his policy with the sustained efforts developed by her.
The two ministers have no other choice but to collaborate to develop a strong strategy to counter the inevitable “digital barbarians”.