Extreme critics of the Liberal bill have received funding from web giants

A vocal critic of the Liberal online broadcasting bill admitted that his organization received funding from the two web giant.

Scott Benzie, founder of Digital First Canadatold the Commons committee on Monday that his organization, which describes itself as a voice for online content creatorsis partially funded by YouTube and TikTok.

This revelation prompted Liberal MP Chris Bittle, Parliamentary Secretary to Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, to argue that Mr Benzie was in a major conflict of interest.

The MP compared Mr Benzie’s position to the position of someone who wants to start a union by pocketing money from management. The elected official also accused the witness of trying to hide the fact that he was supplied with major platforms during the previous intervention before the committee.

Scott Benzie assured that he informed the Ministry of Heritage that he had received funds from these platforms.

Mr. Bittle used his time to attack our organization for something he already knew and was not secretly, Mr. Bittle lamented. Benzie in an interview. This is not something we are trying to hide.

Bill C-11 seeks to modernize the Canadian Broadcasting Act in order, in particular, to take into account the new context of digital streaming platforms. Mr. Benzie expressed concerns about the application of these new rules to user -generated content.

Lobbyist

YouTube and TikTok claim that Digital First Canada Offered a voice to online content creators, who these giants said were not adequately represented in Ottawa in the debate on Bill C-11.

Mr Benzie has registered as a lobbyist to lobby the Department of Heritage on a bill that would affect online content creators. He insists he created the organization before YouTube and TikTok gave him money – an amount of less than $ 100,000, he says, and doesn’t pay a salary.

He maintains that most of his organization’s funding comes from buffer celebration of Toronto, an annual event showcasing online video creators.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said content creators in Canada are incredible intellectbut that It’s sad the livelihood of these self-employed workers remains at the mercy of platforms that can order at any time to suspend their activities, terminate monetization, ban or censor users.