The CBC, financed to the tune of around $1.4 billion by taxpayers, has imposed potentially "bogus" copyright claims on political content creators.
The Pleb Report, Northern Perspective, This Guys Garage, PortuguesePai, Made Great Canadian Media, and Unacceptable Fringe have been challenged by the national broadcaster, it is said.
"The CBC is so desperate for money, they are now attacking content creators for their monetization," said the creator of Youtube channel PortuguesePai.
"I've been personally dealing with this for over a month, and it's kind of been a little sporadic here and there — they'll hit me with a claim every so often, and I usually am able to deal with it and get it off my channel. However today, as I was finishing work, I got hit with back to back copyright claims on (my) latest two videos."
Calls to defund the CBC are increasing among Canadians, including Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre after it was announced the money losing behemoth would give $18.4 million in bonuses to employees in the context of layoffs.
"I can’t wait to defund the CBC and sell off the headquarters for housing," said Poilievre.
In response to the copyright claims, one critic said, "They've been doing this to conservatives for years."
The CBC has also challenged commentator Brian Lilley with copyright claims related to Youtube videos.
"So, basically the government's public news agency is now doing pseudo social media policing," said another angry critic. "This is f_cking preposterous. Fight it tooth and nail."
Another X user responded, "CBC is owned by all Canadian taxpayers and should have no claims to copyright infringement laws if used by Canadian taxpayers. They do not own the content. The Canadian taxpayers own the content."