By David Farrell
No Drama, just fun
– Again, thanks to RL for bringing this to my attention.
Heritage Minister fights back against misinformation campaign
Monday night, Steven Guilbeault tweeted out a blog post that suggested opposition to the legislation was not a reflection of the bill’s shortcomings, but was instead part of a “deliberate campaign of misinformation” orchestrated by “web giants”:
“We are now witnessing public opinion being manipulated at scale through a deliberate campaign of misinformation by commercial interests that would prefer to avoid the same regulatory oversight applied to broadcast media.”
The blog post itself was authored by Gord Dimitrieff, CIMA vice-chair government relations and president and founder of Toronto-based Aporia Records.
Heritage, Justice ministers called to defend Bill C-10 changes to Broadcasting Act
The Heritage committee has called for Justice Minister David Lametti and Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault to address new questions about Bill C-10 at its next meeting tomorrow (Friday). – The Canadian Press
Competition Bureau, not CRTC can bring Big Tech to heel
C-10 will give web giants new leverage, as grand patrons and protectors of Canadian content and cultural sovereignty, backed up by their millions of subscribers, major investments, and ability to block.
So, we need to ask why, in the grand scheme of public policy priorities, has the government given precedence to Bill C-10 and its implicit dependency on foreign platforms and streamers, instead of strengthening the Competition Act – something C-10 can only make more difficult to do. – Len St-Aubin, CARTT
Legal battle between Bell and Videotron heats up (again)
A long simmering turf war between Videotron, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media, and Bell has resulted in numerous CRTC adjudications that have resulted in mountains of paperwork and man hours to sort out legal imbroglios between the two telcos. In a recent shareholders meeting, Quebecor boss Pierre Karl Péladeau again struck out at his adversary, stating that Bell is significantly underpaying for the distribution of its specialty channels, in particular its headline news channel LCN and TVA Sports. In the latest salvo, Bell is suing Videotron for $50M for neglecting to ensure subscribers were not roaming permanently on Bell’s network when travelling outside Videotron’s home territory. – CARTT
Attention web giants: 'Recess is over'
A small group of nations, led by Canada, have been quietly preparing to take on the tech giants. Inside their battle to rein in the most powerful companies on Earth. – Alec Castonguay, Maclean’s
Is Epic Games’ showdown with Apple turning into a mismatch?
If Epic Games hopes to dismantle the fortress surrounding Apple’s iPhone and its App Store, the video game maker probably will need to roll out some heavier artillery heading into the second week of a trial threatening Apple’s $2-trillion empire.
So far, at least, Epic has been having trouble proving its allegations that the iPhone maker’s 13-year-old App Store has turned into an illegal monopoly. – Michael Liedtke, Associated Press
News Bytes
The Globe and Mailreports on wealthy hedge fun managers benefiting from the emergency CEWS subsidy.
– People’s Party of Canada founder and leader Maxime Bernier is a controversial figure in Canadian politics. He was a guest on Krystal Nation, Andrew Krystal’s popular noonday current affairs show on SiriusXM.
– The EU’s digital czar Margaret Vestager is arguably the most powerful regulator of big tech in the world. Euronews has an in-depth interview with her that focusses on the Union’s plans to regulate data harvesting.
– Australia’s new federal budget includes an investment of $1.2B to foster a digital economy with much of it targeting homegrown AI tech.
– Kathmandu is open again, but concern about Covid transmission has reached the highest peak of the highest mountain as China has sought to establish a “line of separation” on Everest’s summit to prevent the mingling of climbers from Covid-hit Nepal
– Facebook is testing a new pop-up encouraging users to read articles before sharing them
– After explosive user growth in 2019 and 2020, TikTok will reach a pivotal milestone with respect to its youngest users. By the end of this year, video app TikTok will have a larger number of Gen Z users in the US than that of Instagram. And it will surpass Snapchat in terms of total users by 2023.
– Serbian authorities are offering food coupons as an incentive to revive a vaccination drive that has slowed down in recent weeks amid widespread anti-vaccination and conspiracy theories and in western NY State’s Erie a Shot and a Chaser program is offering free beers.
– A catchy headline trumpets dinosaurs returning to Assiniboine Park Zoo. The event opens May 20 and features 17 animatronic dinosaurs along a forested trail in the northwest area of the zoo.
– And, finally ,for those too young to remember Boss Radio and for those who love to relive that '60s golden era in radio, comes this CHUM Radio artifact that was mailed out as part of Warren Cosford's Warren's List earlier this week. Doug Thompson masterfully edited the reel.
