The chairman of Canada’s broadcast regulator says it might ask platforms such as YouTube to “manipulate” their algorithms to make Canadian music easier to find, under powers in the proposed online streaming bill.
Ian Scott told a Senate committee examining the bill that although the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission would not want to manipulate algorithms itself, it might tell platforms, “I want you to manipulate it (the algorithm) to produce particular outcomes.”
His remarks have been seized on by critics of the online streaming bill, who say it confirms what they’ve been warning against.
Matthew Hatfield of OpenMedia said Scott’s remarks confirmed “what we have been saying all along.” OpenMedia is an organization dedicated to keeping the internet open. While it’s mainly funded by individuals, it gets some funding from Google, whose parent company also owns YouTube….