Quebec and French Canadian artists will be the losers if social media is unregulated, conference hears

A Canadian cultural policy that adopts a laissez-faire, unregulated, approach to social media algorithms and discoverability requirements will harm Quebec and French Canadian artists, according to the former director of information at Radio-Canada. Université de Montréal professor Alain Saulnier made the comments Wednesday at a plenary session on the role of digital platforms and technology in arts, culture, and heritage landscapes. The talk was hosted by the National Arts Centre for its National Culture Summit and moderated by the Quebec correspondent for The Logic, Martin Patriquin. The panelists discussed if there is a need, or a place, for the Canadian government to step in and legislate digital web giants for the sake of promoting Canadian and Quebec arts and culture. The conversation comes several months after Bill C-11 (also known as the Online Streaming Act) was introduced in the House of Commons. Saulnier argued that it's “extremely dangerous” for platforms to use a business model by which individuals are only given what they normally want to consume without the option to view “something different.” He said it puts Canadian culture, especially Quebec culture and French Canada, at risk of disappearing “within that sea of content.” Saulnier said algorithms impose videos or music that is the most listened to “so we are always hammering the same tune” and determining a user's choice for them. “We should have a strategy to protect Francophonie, be it from the West, from Acadia, from anywhere, because we are not winners with what is happening now with the digital giants,” he said. The Canadian government has a place in legislating online streaming services to support Canadian artists, but it needs to look at the “entire ecosystem” if it is going to be successful according to Jeffery Remedios, chairman & CEO, Universal Music Canada. Remedios said that the music industry is going through another period of “incredible growth and prosperity” after it saw “value sucked out of the ecosystem” because of the conversion from the physical consumption of music to digital downloads such as peer-to-peer file sharing softwares like Napster. “And we're getting close to the point where it's as big as it was in its 1999 peak. And that's been through the conversion into streaming and subscription,” he said. Remedios said one of the consequences of the digital era is that platforms like Spotify AB are seeing up to 60,000 new songs added to their platforms every day, which is “quite democratic” but which also means artists are “fighting for minutes, sometimes just seconds in this attention economy.” Remedios said the challenge now is supporting both the artists and the platforms because anything that is harmful to the latter is harmful for the growth and prosperity “that they've brought back.” He said it’s “not just at the tip of the spear in terms of how artists are creating music or making sure that it's showcased in an appropriate way.” “Like what funding could there be for digital creators, for example… We have incredible creators on YouTube, on Tik Tok, on other platforms and if they get to a certain scale and size, the infrastructure here doesn't support them. They go south,” he said. Saulnier said that Canada and Quebec need to work together to “reconcile our differences” with social media giants, and he urged the Minister of Canadian Heritage to look at legislative initiatives in Europe. “Europe is playing a much more proactive role,” he said. “We need to learn to cohabitate with the giants of the digital world.” Head of Canada Government Affairs & Public Policy for Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, Jeanette Patell responded that the ecosystem of YouTube as an open digital platform is a “quite different animal” than linear broadcasters on television or radio She said YouTube’s payments to artists with registered Canadian music grew 35 per cent last year compared to the previous year, and YouTube’s contributions to the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (Socan) grew by 50 per cent. She also claimed that 85 per cent of Canadian music’s earnings come from an international audience. “So we think that we're bringing a lot to this ecosystem in directly supporting the livelihoods of Canadian artists and so when you look at ‘what does it mean to be regulated’ I don't think it's a binary answer. It's not ‘no regulation or full run the gamut,’” she said. “I think really, it's about what makes sense that responds to the unique features of an open platform like YouTube and what trade offs are involved or who are the winners and the losers in that.” Patell said there are risks to “copying and pasting a regime that was designed for a different era” while Fenwick McKelvey, assistant professor of Information and Communication Technology Policy at Concordia University said that there is still a gap in understanding what actually takes place with social media platforms in regard to algorithms and its effect. “We live through a regime of personalization. And what is often said about recommendation, as the preferred act, is about personalized content. And as a culture, I don't think we have necessarily addressed what is personalization, the consequences of that, what that word is doing specifically, and what are the opportunities,” he argued. McKelvey added that policy makers and platforms are also not thinking about alternatives to the “recommendation regimes” nor have they thought about the implications that can have on social justice. Patell argued that personalization in fact “recognises the diverse needs of Canadians.” “We want to be able to serve a user, someone like my grandmother, just as well and just as powerfully as we serve her neighbor. And so that's really an important principle that we bring to the conversation," she said. "Canadian content creators are some of the best in the world at getting their stories out there. Canada is a cultural mosaic and our stories resonate with the world." “YouTube is not a problem to solve. YouTube has been one of the most powerful vehicles for Canadian stories that we've had available to us,” she added. Hélène Messier, CEO of Association québécoise de la production médiatique argued that 58 per cent of the audiovisual production is actually a foreign production made in Canada as opposed to actual Canadian content. “We need to create more Canadian content and to reach these audiences. And the problem too, with the multiplicity of content, is that it is more and more difficult to reach our audiences demographically speaking. Quebec is not protected by its language and we have access to multiple content and consume less and less traditional TV,” Messier said. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca Correction: A previous version of this article misattributed Hélène Messier's quote to Alain Saulnier.

Quebec and French Canadian artists will be the losers if social media is unregulated, conference hears

News | May 4, 2022

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Quebec and French Canadian artists will be the losers if social media is unregulated, conference hears

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