This submission is to the CRTC’s consultation on the implementation of the Online News Act. Details on the Commission’s efforts in this regard can be found here, while all interventions to the consultation can be found on the CRTC’s website here.
The submission engages with and makes recommendations with respect to the following four key themes:
- It argues that the Commission should clarify the criteria used to designate digital news intermediaries like Google and Meta and explicitly reject their claims that certain wording later in the act gives them an escape from the law’s reach by abandoning the distribution and sharing of news via their search and social network services, respectively.
- It encourages the Commission to insure that any potential exceptions to the Act are limited to only the mandatory bargaining framework, while fleshing out and applying the regulatory framework anticipated by the Act.
- It encourages the Commission to take an expansive and muscular view of s.51 of the Act which bans platforms from giving their own services undue preference or unreasonably discriminating against any news service. The CRTC should use this consultation to breathe life into the elements of the “fair carriage” regime found in s.51.
- Finally, it encourages the CRTC to take a broad, public interest view of its data collection and publication powers under the Act. It should also provide verified researchers with the fullest possible access to information regarding platform-to-news-business relationships conducted under the Act.