Trudeau’s heritage minister has a chance to reset social media regulations. Will he take it? – National

Justin Trudeau’s new heritage minister has an opportunity to reset the Liberal authorities’s controversial plans to manage social media and web giants. The query is whether or not he’ll take it.

Trudeau tapped veteran MP and cupboard minister Pablo Rodriguez to guide the heritage portfolio Tuesday, a part of a wider reset of his cupboard after September’s common election.

The heritage file has introduced stunning political dangers for Trudeau’s ministers. Melanie Joly bumped into bother over a take care of Netflix that noticed the streaming large promise a $500-million funding in Canadian content material, however didn’t topic the corporate to Canadian sale taxes.

Extra just lately, rookie minister Steven Guilbeault launched Invoice C-10, a poorly obtained try and modernize broadcasting guidelines to replicate the brand new internet-driven panorama.

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Canadian heritage minister gained’t say whether or not Invoice C-10 may regulate customers’ social media algorithms

The laws was meant to convey web content material below broadcasting guidelines, in recognition that Canadians devour media otherwise within the web age than when the Broadcasting Act was final reformed in 1991.

But it surely grew to become a political lightning rod after the Liberals eliminated protections for user-generated content material, which critics argued would topic Canadians’ social media accounts to CRTC rules. And it wasn’t simply opposition events that had been crucial of the invoice; it was extensively panned by civil society organizations and lecturers.

Rodriguez, who served as Trudeau’s Home chief within the final Parliament, is a longtime Quebec MP and seen as a gentle hand within the Liberals’ entrance bench. He additionally stays Trudeau’s Quebec lieutenant in cupboard.

That duty may play a job in C-10’s destiny. Whereas the laws was extensively criticized, it was politically widespread in Quebec – the place C-10’s said objective of creating Canadian content material extra “discoverable” on streaming platforms was nicely obtained.