Justin Trudeau Fights to Censor the Internet By Chris Knight (Florida)

Whether he be the biological son of Castro or not, Justin Trudeau is certainly following in the Cuban communist dictator’s cigar smoke. Following on from this use of force to smash the truckers’ protest, and the banning of most firearms, this dictator has now moved to something, which at first glance seems almost nationalistic in spirit. Canada’s Online Streaming Act, or Bill C-11, will make online streaming services prioritize Canadian content. While thtseems fine, in reality what it means is according to one critic that “when viewers come to the YouTube homepage, they’re served content that a Canadian Government regulator has prioritized, rather than content they are interested in.” Wee can only imagine what priorities an ultra-woke Canadian government is going to swing to. Better to allow free expression and let people choose, but tht does not seem to be the way things are going to be played out.

https://www.thefp.com/p/trudeaus-battle-against-a-free-internet

“In January 2007, Justin Bieber’s mom, Pattie Mallette, posted a video of her son, then 12, covering R&B star Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” at a kids’ singing competition in a little town near Toronto. 

“I told him, ‘Okay, you’ve never sung in front of anybody before, and you’ve never had singing lessons,’” Mallette told me. ‘Let’s adjust our expectations.’ ” Bieber finished third. “One of the judges actually left because she was upset that he didn’t come first,” Mallette said.

Encouraged by his strong performance, Mallette started posting more videos on YouTube—mostly so Bieber’s grandmother could see him—and soon he had a fan base, and that blew up, and, well, here we are 70 million albums, $485 million, and two Grammys later. 

“It all happened organically,” Mallette said.

Canada’s Online Streaming Act, or Bill C-11—which is now being debated in Parliament and would make online streaming services prioritize Canadian content the same way Canada’s television and radio stations are regulated—would curtail that kind of organic growth, sharply limiting the rise of future Biebers.

“I believe in God,” Mallette said, “and I think that if it’s His will for him to be known worldwide, then He would have found a way to make that happen. But I don’t know that YouTube would have been the vehicle that would have been used.”

Canada’s Liberals insist the point of Bill C-11 is simply to update the 1991 Broadcasting Act, which regulates broadcasting of telecommunications in the country. The goal of the bill, according to a Ministry of Canadian Heritage statement, is to bring “online broadcasters under similar rules and regulations as our traditional broadcasters.” 

In other words, streaming services and social media, like traditional television and radio stations, would have to ensure that at least 35 percent of the content they publish is Canadian content—or, in Canadian government speak, “Cancon.” 

The bill is inching toward a final vote in the Canadian Senate as soon as next month. It’s expected to pass. If it does, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said in an October blog post, the same creators the government says it wants to help will, in fact, be hurt.

Bill C-11, Mohan explained, would mean “that when viewers come to the YouTube homepage, they’re served content that a Canadian Government regulator has prioritized, rather than content they are interested in.”

That doesn’t bode well for creators, he said. 

That’s because users often give a thumbs-down to content that the algorithm steers them toward and that they don’t want to watch—and that leads the Search and Discovery systems at YouTube to limit visibility of that content. “[G]lobally,” Mohan said in his post, “Canadian creators will have a harder time breaking through and connecting with the niche audiences who would actually love their content.” (According to Mohan, more than 90 percent of the “watch time” on content produced by Canadian YouTubers comes from outside Canada.)

Bottom line: had Bill C-11 been the law of the land back in early 2007, Justin Bieber would probably have encountered more Canadian viewers who didn’t want to watch him, many would have given him a thumbs-down, and YouTube would have limited the number of viewers who ultimately saw him. 

Meaning no My World 2.0. No “Ghost.” No Beliebers. (Try imagining a world without any Beliebers.)

Meddling with the algorithm, Canadian officials claim, is meant to create more—not fewer—superstars. The Heritage Ministry’s statement said Bill C-11 would “ensure that online streaming services showcase Canadian music and stories.” The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, for his part, said the goal is to “protect the future of our culture as Canadians.” 

But the most prominent people and organizations behind Bill C-11 are, for the most part, unwilling to defend it publicly. 

I contacted the Writers Guild of Canada; Friends of Canadian Broadcasting; Peter Harder, a senator and former deputy foreign affairs minister; Pablo Rodriguez; and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau—all of whom want to see Bill C-11 become law. No one felt obliged to explain why the 29.1 million Canadians expected to stream video content this year need a little nudge to make sure Canadian culture isn’t diluted by “foreign online companies,” as Bill Skolnik, copresident of the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, put it.”