US Republicans Table Bill Challenging Online Streaming Act

The pressure is mounting again over Canada’s Online Streaming Act as US Republicans tabled a bill asking for a USTR investigation.

Canada’s Online Streaming Act is, once again, under fire. Already, the Canadian regulator, the CRTC, has been sued not once, not twice, not three times, not https://www.freezenet.ca/crtc-incurs-fourth-lawsuit-over-online-streaming-act-mpac/>four times, not https://www.freezenet.ca/crtc-sued-a-fifth-time-over-the-online-streaming-act/>five times, but at least six times now over it.

Of course, all of this pressure was something the lobbyists and Canadian government has long denied would happen. For them, the law is perfect in every way and in no way shape or form could it be criticized, let alone challenged in anyway. Anyone who says otherwise must be part of some grand conspiracy by “Big Tech” to undermine Canada’s ability to force the platforms to “pay their fair share”. Yup, you read that right, all the experts out there are totally wrong about this one and the Canadian government has it right. I mean, pssh! What would experts know anyway?

Another thing that those silly experts is that this legislation is going to spark an international trade challenge from the United States. The Canadian government pretty much spent all of their time just repeatedly saying that the legislation is in line with “all of our international trade obligations”. The problem, of course, being that reality would beg to differ. After all, that was made very clear from all of the warnings and letters from the US saying that this violates the USMCA/CUSMA. The US even went so far as to specifically list this law (along with the Online Streaming Act and the now repealed Digital Services Tax) as a trade barrier.

After all of this, it’s kind of amazing that the legislation hasn’t been rescinded by now given how much the up and coming renegotiation of USMCA/CUSMA puts pressure on the law in the first place. It doesn’t come as a surprise, though, that lobbyists are freaking out about the possibility that their scheme to rip off a whole industry could collapse before making it out of the CRTC regulatory process.

Well, here’s another story you probably won’t see broadcast on mainstream media here in Canada. It turns out, Republicans have introduced a bill in the US to push for a Special 301 trade investigation into the Online Streaming Act. From representative Lloyd Smuckers site:

House Republicans introduced legislation Thursday to investigate Canada’s Online Streaming Act, adding to the U.S. pressure on Ottawa to drop the controversial law amid ongoing trade negotiations.

The bill, introduced by Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) and co-sponsored by five other Republicans on the House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade, would direct the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office to launch a Section 301 trade investigation into the new Canadian law, which requires tech companies, mainly from the U.S., to contribute to the creation of Canadian content, including Canadian news. It passed Canada’s Parliament in 2023, but is not in force yet because Canada’s broadcasting regulator hasn’t determined how much money tech companies would have to pay.

The lawmakers want USTR to determine if the law constitutes an unfair trade practice targeting U.S. businesses, a finding that could lay the groundwork to impose higher tariffs on Canada.

“Digital trade plays a critical role in America’s economy, supporting high-paying jobs and exporting American values,” Smucker said in a written statement. “Canada’s unfair policies stack the deck against U.S. companies, creators, and workers. This bill would protect American creators and companies while permitting mutually beneficial competition and innovation.”

Context: U.S. officials have objected to the Canadian legislation as discriminatory and have raised the issue as part of trade negotiations between the two countries over the past year, according to two people familiar with the Canada-U.S. trade talks, who were granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter.

It’s one of a number of flash points over digital trade that has arisen between the two North American neighbors. Last June, President Donald Trump threatened to terminate all trade discussions with Canada unless it eliminated its digital service tax, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney ultimately gave in to the demand.

So, while the media attention in Canada has long since turned their attention to different issues, it seems that the Americans hasn’t forgotten about this trade issue. They are still fighting against this bill. This should be of precisely zero surprise given how long they have been rightfully complaining about this. The Online Streaming Act is, in fact, discriminatory legislation against US companies given that the companies that it targets is American. This regardless of how much the Canadian media and their respective lobbyists continue to deny it. What’s more, I don’t see how Canada can really effectively defend itself against such a challenge. It’s a slam dunk win for the US here.

The funny thing in all of this is the fact that Canadians are much better off without this awful law. By its very nature, it orders platforms to prioitize government certified speech over everyone else including Canadian made content. In other words, if you are one of those stupid YouTubers posting your own content, the legislative system is designed to treat you as American as apple pie and deprioritize you for Canadian audiences. This in a cynical bid to force feed Canadians with government certified “Cancon” because Canadian audiences wouldn’t be willing to consume that content willingly.

Even the certified “Cancon” faces an uphill battle. If people’s viewing choices are overridden by an interventionist government demanding you watch the abomination that is Family Feud Canada (among other things), it’s going to piss off those viewers who will review bomb it, thumbs it down, and otherwise send the platform signals that it is poor quality content because it’s not what they are in to in the first place. Literally no one wins with audiences here. Independent producers have to rely on non-Canadian audiences for their traffic while government certified “Cancon” is busy getting review bombed by an angry audience who never wanted that unrelated garbage to show up in their feeds in the first place.

Canada would be much better off without this law on the books. It’s a fantastic thing this has yet to get implemented since the negative impacts aren’t yet visible. With any hope with the up and coming negotiations, this law will get rescinded so the damaging effects never will get seen by Canadians.

(See also @MGeist)

Drew Wilson on Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook.