Right now, as Bill C-10 currently stands—and as the committee is aware—it excludes social media services from the ambit of the act, unless there's a situation of an affiliation contract or a mandatary relationship in place.
CPC-5, if it was adopted—if I understand correctly the spirit of the amendment—would impose certain limitations on that to the effect that if a social media service crossed a certain threshold in terms of the users of the service, the subscribers in Canada, etc., then suddenly it would get pulled into the ambit of the act and would be subject to the act like any other broadcasters. In other words, the social media exclusion would not apply to them.
If I understand correctly from the debate that's currently taking place, as Ms. Dabrusin has signalled, the government intends to suggest the repeal of proposed section 4.1 altogether, meaning that there would no longer be any exclusion for social media services at all.
Just maybe for the benefit of the committee, in our previous sessions the committee upheld the exclusion for individual users of social media companies. In other words, when you or I upload something to YouTube or some other sharing service, we will not be considered broadcasters for the purposes of the act. In other words, the CRTC couldn't call us before them, and we couldn't be subject to CRTC hearings and whatnot.
However, if the exclusion here is removed and 4.1 is struck down, the programming we upload onto YouTube, the programming we place on that service, would be subject to regulation moving forward but would be the responsibility of YouTube or whatever the sharing service is. That programming that is uploaded, then, could be subject to things like discoverability requirements or certain obligations like that.
Again, if the way forward ultimately is to maintain the exclusion for individual users but to strike down the exclusion for social media companies, it means that all the programming that is on those services would be subject to the act, regardless of whether it's put there by an affiliate or a mandatary of the company.
I hope that helps clarify.