How Will Bill C-10 Affect Canadian Creators?

AIR Creators Ecosystem and the Buffer Festival Hosted a Special Meetup.

To many experts, Bill C-10 does seem like a threat for Canadian creators. 

On October 7th, AIR Creators Ecosystem hosted a special Meetup to shed more light on the Bill and to address the most frequently asked questions, as well as how this Bill may affect Canadian creators if passed.

Presenters Scott Benzie, CEO of the Buffer Festival, and Serhii Serhiienko, Business Development Director with AIR Creators Ecosystem, Canada, addressed the main issues. Scott also helped answer burning questions from the creators community. 

One of Scott’s main concerns is that this legislation was written without any consultation from digital creators and instead, by people who do not understand how platforms work and how discoverability happens. 

In Scott’s opinion, the main threat is that if the Bill passes as-is, it may jeopardize many creators who produce content in Canada but rely more on an international audience. One of the main markets for creators in Canada is the USA. The new regulation may affect all user-generated content and enforce all major platforms — YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. — to promote Canadian content (CanCon) first. Most likely, platforms would prioritize CanCon or CAVCO approved content over individual channels and give them preferential treatment over current algorithms. Artificially prioritizing one content over the other means demoting someone else’s content. Ultimately, the CRTC would determine what viewers want rather than letting viewers decide for themselves.

The proposed legislation in its current form is very vague which can lead to misuse of the mandate. And interfering with the current platform’s algorithm can lead to a negative impact on the discoverability of the content creators in Canada produce. 

While answering a key question, “How can creators diversify their content to continue to earn income?” Serhii Serhiienko from AIR Creators Ecosystem presented services that can help Canadians do just that. 

If the Bill is passed as-is, creators can secure their income from other revenue streams. AIR’s complex solutions — Go Global with Translation, Cross-platform Distribution, Content ID, and Game Development — are designed to help creators enter new language markets and develop new revenue streams with no extra effort on their part. These solutions are now available for Canadian YouTubers.

If you missed our Meetup and want to learn more about Bill C-10, you can watch the recorded event video here.