The Senate Transport and Communications Committee is rewriting cabinet’s latest attempt at regulating legal internet content, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. .“There are numerous sources of uncertainty related to this bill,” said Conservative Sen. Denise Batters. .“Some of them are fundamental.”.Bill C-11 would permit the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to regulate commercial internet programming, such as YouTube videos. Cabinet tried to pass similar legislation since 2020 amid protests regulation must not affect user-generated content..Members of the Senate Transport and Communications Committee proposed 100 amendments to Bill C-11, which passed the House of Commons in June. .Batters said concerns are “grounded for example in the considerable confusion that the bill generates when it comes to the inclusion or exclusion of user-generated content.”.YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, and other companies petitioned the committee to fix the bill or adjust its scope. Directors of the Internet Society Canadian chapter criticized it as federal overreach..“C-11 is based on the tragic illusion all audio and audio-visual content on the internet is a program and that any person who transmits a program on the internet is a broadcaster rather than a communicator,” said the Internet Society. ."Internet streaming services are simply not broadcasting.”.Former CRTC commissioner and Internet Society Chair Timothy Denton called the bill a “power grab over human communications.”.“It captures virtually all online audio and video,” said Denton. .The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) filed a memorandum with the Senate Transport and Communications Committee on Wednesday denouncing Bill C-11. .READ MORE: Justice Centre proposes amendments to Bill C-11.“I am sure the CRTC cannot wait to begin censoring the government’s dissenting political opponents on the internet — a power it can wield if C-11 is passed in its current form,” said JCCF Legislative Counsel Keith Pridgen. .The memorandum contains five amendments by JCCF lawyers which would protect Canadians from the worst aspects of C-11 if implemented.
