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The Case Against the Bell Coalition's Website Blocking Plan, Part 16: The CRTC as the Internet Content Regulatory Authority - Michael Geist
In Canada, services that broadcast over the Internet don't need a licence from the CRTC, as we exempted them from this obligation. We do not intervene on content on the Internet. This statement - we do not intervene on content on the Internet - appears on the CRTC site at the very beginning of a page devoted to TV shows, movies, music and other content online. It may not be a regulatory statement, but it reflects how the CRTC sees itself and how it wants to be seen. Bell and other companies associated with the coalition have regularly tried to drag it into various forms of content regulation under the Telecommunications Act. Yet the Commission has rightly rejected those efforts, emphasizing that it does not licence or judge Internet content nor is it empowered by legislation to do so.
Michael Geist