Bill 100 (100): Last News

Naman Ramachandran Google has joined Meta in blocking access to Canadian news links after Bill C-18 AKA the Online News Act that will eventually make the tech giants pay local media outlets for news was passed. C-18 was set up to ensure “fair revenue sharing between digital platforms and news outlets”; provide for “collective bargaining by news outlets”; promote “voluntary commercial agreements between digital platforms and news outlets, with minimal government intervention”; and “as a last resort,” establish a “mandatory arbitration framework when digital platforms and news outlets cannot reach commercial agreements,” according to the Canadian government.

Campbell Brown, Meta Platforms Inc.’s head of media and sports partnerships, is stepping down from the post, according to multiple reports.

EXCLUSIVE: Meta and Alphabet will pull back from news distribution in more countries if forced to pay for content, the CEO of leading Canadian public network CBC/Radio Canada has predicted.

Amber Dowling Stephanie Azam is no longer the head of content for Disney+ Canada, Variety has learned. The executive was let go as part of the company’s recent reorganization after less than a year on the job, and amid news that Disney+ has paused original commissions in Canada. Several other positions were eliminated as a result of the reorganization. Jason Badal remains in place as the VP and general manager of Disney+ in Canada. Sources indicate the company is still looking at Canadian originals, although the timeline surrounding any such commissions is unclear. Last September at a Content Canada conference, Badal indicated the streaming service was in search of Canadian content for the Star component of Disney+ (an amalgamation of Hulu, FX and Fox content that hasn’t been distributed to other Canadian broadcasters). Azam was in the audience at the time and still new to the role. Still, Badal revealed her email for those in the room who wanted to send pitches.

Canada has brought its Online Streaming Act into law after years of heated debate.

Manori Ravindran International EditorThe moody mountainscape surrounding the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel may have been tailor-made for the British Columbia-shot thriller “Yellowjackets,” which was honored at this week’s Banff World Media Festival, but the real survival drama was raging between Canadian broadcasters and the streaming giants.The tension was palpable among the country’s legacy broadcasters and the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, both of which were prominent at the 43rd edition of the festival. While this fraught dynamic — which has ramped up as the digital platforms launch originals divisions in Canada — is nothing new, relations are coming to a head as the much-ballyhooed Bill C-11, the proposed update to Canada’s dated Broadcasting Act, is fiercely debated in Parliament.

under fire for using his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, to spread COVID-19 misinformation. Spotify, which exclusively hosts Rogan’s podcast, has refused to censor him — leading multiple artists to pull their catalogs from the streaming audio service in response.But in a recent episode, Rogan once again turned his attention to transgender people, after previous episodes in which he and his guests have compared being trans to having anorexia, have pushed debunked claims about medical procedures on trans youth, and decried that they can’t use anti-trans slurs.Speaking to former psychology professor and right-wing provocateur Jordan Peterson on Jan.

controversial host appeared to endorse Peterson’s theory when he suggested that acceptance of the trans community is a sign of “civilizations collapsing” during the Jan. 25 episode of Spotify’s “The Joe Rogan Experience.”Critics are now, once again, calling out the podcast host for having “peddled harmful anti-trans rhetoric.”Rogan, 54, implored the controversial, pundit and author to share his thoughts on what made an individual trans.Peterson, 59, described it as a condition of a “sociological contagion,” comparing it to “the satanic ritual abuse accusations that emerged in daycares in the 1980s.”The former psychology professor at University of Toronto also used his time on Rogan’s popular platform to oppose Canadian federal Bill C-16, which amended the country’s human rights protections to also cover trans and non-binary citizens.