OPINION: Online News Act edges Canada closer to a splinternet

by Natalie Campbell, Senior Director of North American Government and Regulatory Affairs, Internet Society Ottawa’s successful passage of the Online Streaming Act and Online News Act marks a dark new chapter for the internet in Canada: fragmentation. Canadians are understandably upset over Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platform Inc.’s announcements to stop news sharing services. People south of the border will soon have easier ways to access, share, and discover Canadian news than we do. But Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez gaslighting the problem as big tech bullying and intimidation is misguided. The blame for splintering people and businesses in Canada away from the open internet falls squarely onto Ottawa’s shoulders – and the consequences are about to get even worse. A fractured internet is what you get when governments and businesses make decisions that chip away or ‘fragment’ the foundation the internet needs to exist in the first place. Eventually, it can shatter this global, seamless resource into a collection of networks–or splinternets–that no longer interoperate or talk to one another so easily. Ottawa first tipped the scale away from an open, decentralized internet last April when it delegated powers to the CRTC to impose Canadian broadcasting content rules on streaming services via the Online Streaming Act. So not only can we expect media companies to struggle to promote their news content and hire journalists as platforms ‘nope’ out of the Online News Act and find ways to block Canada from news sharing services. Creators could find themselves in the same boat if large streaming services follow the same path to avoid penalties in the Online Streaming Act. It’s no exaggeration to say Ottawa is taking a page out of China’s regulation playbook – albeit we’re heading toward a Canadian version of a splinternet at a slightly slower, death-by-a-thousand-cuts pace. China’s access to the internet is highly controlled and restricted by its government. Its ‘great firewall’ blocks foreign internet tools (Google Search, Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, etc), restricts and heavily moderates access to foreign information services, and requires foreign companies to adapt to domestic regulation. The result: people in China only have access to the parts of the internet and content the government allows them to see and use. Ottawa is increasingly following Beijing. While Canada may not be directly blocking foreign internet tools and services (yet), Canada’s recent laws will have similar effects. Large companies certainly understand the economic and reputational risks of doing business in a highly regulated and diminished version of the internet (think of Google’s Dragonfly experiment). While some might see the business value of altering their services to cater to China’s enormous user markets, the potential return on investment in Canada pales in comparison. Even for Google, Meta and other large ‘digital news intermediaries’ that would fall into scope of the Online News Act, the uncapped financial liability for enabling people to share links to news content online is unthinkable. Furthermore, folding to Ottawa’s demands would have given a green light to larger, more lucrative jurisdictions like the U.S., India, and Brazil, who are also exploring legislative options to fund a flailing industry by putting a price tag on links to news content. As the standoff between Meta, Google and the Government of Canada continues, California’s Senate Judiciary Committee announced just today it would delay moving forward the California Journalism Preservation Act (which would also force mandated news link payments) to further study its potential impact. Coincidence? Ottawa’s current regulatory trajectory will translate into massive loss of opportunity for people and businesses in Canada. And it could have been avoided had legislators placed more due diligence on assessing the impact of their actions on the internet than scoring political points. As if the rising cost of living, broken healthcare system, and housing crisis weren’t enough, Canadians will now also carry the burden of Ottawa legislating away our access to the open, globally connected internet. It may be too late to turn the clock on the damage done, no matter what the outcome is in the CRTC’s poor attempts at consultation on the implementation of the new rules. That is, unless a future government scraps the Online News Act and Online Streaming Act completely. But the time is now to urge the government to live up to its promise to resist internet fragmentation and start conducting internet impact assessments to stop pushing Canada closer to a splinternet. Coming soon to a Parliament near you is the Online Harms Act. And if the Department of Heritage’s first attempt back in 2021 and track record of ear plugging is any sign of what’s to come, there is vastly more potential for damage to the internet and every sector of the economy that relies on it. Ottawa needs to shift its focus away from boosting a political score card to start protecting our increasingly connected society’s access to the greatest enabler of opportunity of all time before we find ourselves home to the next splinternet. Natalie Campbell is the Internet Society’s Senior Director, North American Government and Regulatory Affairs, and a co-author of the Internet Society and Internet Society Canada Chapter’s Internet Impact Brief on Canada’s Online News Act. The Wire Report accepts submissions by outside contributors who are knowledgeable on the subject matter discussed. Submissions can be sent to jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

OPINION: Online News Act edges Canada closer to a splinternet

News | July 7, 2023

by Natalie Campbell, Senior Director of North American Government and Regulatory Affairs, Internet Society

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OPINION: Online News Act edges Canada closer to a splinternet

News | July 7, 2023

by Natalie Campbell, Senior Director of North American Government and Regulatory Affairs, Internet Society

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

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