Canada set to censor internet porn to ensure it’s 'Canadian' enough
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada...anadian-enough
Canada could be on the cusp of a bizarre new era in which federal regulators will be empowered to figure out whether our online porn is sufficiently Canadian — and levy the requisite punishments if it isn’t.
Bill C-11 — the Liberal push to subject much of the internet to CRTC control — has passed the House of Commons with NDP and Bloc Québécois support. Absent any major revisions by the Senate, the likes of Netflix, YouTube and even Instagram will soon be forced to subject their content to Canada’s famously onerous strictures on Canadian content.
But less discussed is how Bill C-11 will also apply to the internet’s vast wilderness of streaming pornography.
The legislation applies to all programs broadcast via “online undertaking.” During committee hearings this was commonly understood to encompass streaming services such as YouTube, Netflix or Disney+, but there’s nothing in the bill to prevent it from extending to the millions of hours of streaming adult content regularly consumed by Canadians.
No less than Peter Menzies — former CRTC vice-chair and a fierce C-11 critic — has said online porn will almost certainly fall within the bill’s purview.
“The final decision regarding who’s in and who’s out is to be made in a future CRTC hearing, but it’s difficult to imagine Commissioners giving Pornhub and its many hours of user-generated content an exemption,” he wrote in a column earlier this month.
Regulating porn would be nothing new for the CRTC. Canada’s many adult-oriented cable channels must already adhere to stringent Canadian Content requirements enforced by the CRTC.