Stop Trudeau’s Censorship Bill! Contact your Canadian Senators & MPs NOW
(LifeSiteNews) –– A technology professor has blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s internet censorship Bill C-18 as a “terrifying” way to try and prop up Canadian legacy journalism.
Trudeau’s Bill C-18, called the “Online News Act,” would force social media companies to pay Canadian legacy media for news content shared on their platforms.
However, as noted by Brett Caraway, who works as an associate professor of information and technology at the University of Toronto, Bill C-18 is a pointless endeavor in trying to get social media giants like Facebook and Google to pay for hyperlinks.
Said Caraway, as noted by True North, Bill C-18 is “terrifying to me.”
“That’s not how you fix this problem,’ he noted.
Caraway said that he is so frustrated by C-18, that he would like to go in front of “Parliament and ask, ‘Do you guys even know how the internet works?’”
Bill C-18 is now in its second reading in the Senate. Late last year, the Trudeau government decided to fast-track Bill C-18, rushing it through the House of Commons.
Critics have warned that Bill C-18 is an attack on independent media, with some cautioning it could lead to the “death” of the free press in Canada.
Dr. Michael Geist, law professor at University of Ottawa and Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law, commented in a blog post today about C-18.
“Bill C-18’s dangerous approach ascribes value to links where there isn’t any, regulates which platforms must pay in order to permit expression from their users, and dictates which sources are entitled to compensation,” Geist wrote.
According to Caraway, instead of having Bill C-18, what should be done instead is to create a “public fund” to support Canadian journalism.
Last month, after Tech giant Google blocked access to some online news content for many Canadians in what it said was a test run to prepare for Bill C-18, Canadian MPs demanded the company’s CEO explain why this was done.
The House of Commons Heritage Committee in a unanimous vote said it is requiring a multitude of Google officers be summoned to testify for the news content-blocking fiasco.
Those being summoned include Google CEO Sundar Pichai; Richard Gingras, vice president of news; Sabrina Geremia, vice president and country manager; and Kent Walker, parent company Alphabet global affairs and chief legal officer.
Bill C-18 is not the only piece of legislation from the Trudeau government that deals with internet censorship. There is also Bill C-11, titled An Act to Amend the Broadcasting Act and to Make Related and Consequential Amendments to other Acts.
While Bill C-11 initially passed Canada’s Senate last month with 43 votes in favor and 15 opposed, it is only able to become law on the condition that multiple amendments added by the senators are adopted by the House of Commons.
Due to this, the status of C-11 is now uncertain, as the Trudeau Liberals rejected the changes made by senators.
All Conservative-appointed senators present in the Senate chamber had voted “no” to the bill, while only three senators appointed by Trudeau voted against it.
Stop Trudeau’s Censorship Bill! Contact your Canadian Senators & MPs NOW