OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Internet censorship Bill C-18 has become law despite warnings that it will end free speech in Canada.
On June 22, Canada’s Senate voted 56-22 in favor of Bill C-18, titled the Online News Act, which will block news content for Canadians on social media platforms. It received Royal Assent the same day.
Bill C-18 says it “establishes a framework through which digital news intermediary operators and news businesses may enter into agreements respecting news content that is made available by digital news intermediaries.”
The law is presented as an attempt to keep journalism alive in Canada by providing outlets with “fair compensation” if their content is published on social media platforms.
However, Bill C-18 gives the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) the power to determine which news content Canadians are permitted to view.
According to the bill, to be considered “eligible” for sharing, a news outlet must be “a qualified Canadian journalism organization” and produce “news content of public interest that is primarily focused on matters of general interest and reports of current events.”
It is up to the Canadian government to decide which news outlets are to be considered “eligible.”
Upon the bill’s approval, Meta, the parent company of social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced it would begin to censor content for Canadians in anticipation of the bill taking effect.
“We have repeatedly shared that in order to comply with Bill C-18, passed today in Parliament, content from news outlets, including news publishers and broadcasters, will no longer be available to people accessing our platforms in Canada,” Meta stated.
RELATED: Conservative MP denounces Trudeau’s internet censorship bill: ‘Canadians deserve unbiased news’
Prior to the bill being passed, Facebook ran a test which blocked news content for about 5% of Canadians.
Bill C-18 comes on the heels of the Trudeau government passing Bill C-11 in April, which Senator Marc Gould explained “would amend the Broadcasting Act to modify Canada’s broadcasting policy, bring into the act ‘online undertakings’ that transmit content over the internet, and change the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) regulatory powers, among many other things.”
Bill C-11 will, in effect, force social media companies and others to promote more Canadian content but could regulate user content as well.
Bill C-18 was passed despite many prominent Canadian politicians and experts warning it will bring an end to free speech in Canada.
RELATED: Facebook plans censorship test run in Canada to block users from sharing news posts
Retired Canadian colonel David Redman recently testified that legacy, or government-funded, media outlets are “ministries of propaganda.” The federal government’s research shows that Canadians do not want members of the cabinet deciding what news is “fake” or not.
Canadian Dr. Jordan Peterson lamented the Senate’s decision, warning, “The free exchange of information in Canada is dead and our bloody Charter of Rights–the hypothetically crowning achievement of Pierre Elliot Trudeau–has been absolutely undermined by his own son @JustinTrudeau.”
The free exchange of information in Canada is dead and our bloody Charter of Rights–the hypothetically crowning achievement of Pierre Elliot Trudeau–has been absolutely undermined by his own son @JustinTrudeau https://t.co/dlZENESsbA
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) June 23, 2023
Similarly, a few days ago, Alberta Member of Parliament (MP) Rachael Thomas warned the bill would prevent the Canadian government from being kept accountable to Canadians.
Campaign Life Coalition’s Jack Fonseca previously told LifeSiteNews the new law has “nothing to do with ‘promoting Canadian content’ or ‘safety.’ It’s about power.”
According to Fonseca, Canadian mainstream media outlets are “keeping the people ignorant about Trudeau’s alarming consolidation of government power.”
Fonseca warned that the push for increased online censorship is because “Trudeau knows he is so despised by Canadians, that Liberals cannot win the next election without cheating, and so they plan to cheat, massively.”
He argues that Trudeau is attempting to “suppress all voices of opposition” to crush any reports of “widespread election fraud, voter suppression and Chinese foreign interference.”
READ: Trudeau and the CBC cannot keep ignoring the increased Muslim opposition to LGBT ideology