Weekly Newsletter for July 23, 2024

Weekly News (July 23, 2024)

Compiled by Brad McNeil with Sara Bannerman

McMaster University, Communications Governance Observatory

(July 17 – 23, 2024)

Canadian News

• [ONLINE NEW ACT] Instagram and Facebook banned news — but some accounts are exploiting a ‘terrible’ loophole, Canadian publishers charge  (Toronto Star) 
• [ONLINE HARMS] Senate to consider bills that aim to protect children and teenagers online (City News) 
• [CAPITAL GAINS TAX] Majority of Canadian tech firms think capital gains policy change will hinder industry, survey suggests (Globe and Mail) 
• [ONLINE NEWS ACT] Group in charge of Google’s $100M for news outlets lays out its governance model (Global News)  
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] Did Canada use facial recognition software to strip this refugee of his status? A court wants better answers  (Toronto Star) 
• [TELECOMMUNICATIONS] Crowdstrike-Windows outage: Telecom, airline, hospital systems among those affected across the world (Globe and Mail) 
• [TELECOMMUNICATIONS] Global CrowdStrike disruption brings to mind lessons from 2022 Rogers outage  (Globe and Mail) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] AI wildfire early detection system is like a fire alarm in the forest, says chief (Globe and Mail) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] AI presents opportunities and challenges to Indigenous collaborators trying to retain languages (Globe and Mail) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/COPYRIGHT] OPINION: Glenn Rollans:  Big tech wants the work of Canadian writers and publishers because it’s valuable. So they should pay (Toronto Star) 
• [TELECOMMUNICATIONS] OPINION: Kean Birch: CrowdStrike-Microsoft outage is what happens when software becomes a subscription (Globe and Mail) 
• [TELECOMMUNICATIONS] OPINION: Farhaz Thobani: Mainframes, the back-end computers supporting everyday life, are facing a looming crisis (Globe and Mail) 

International News

• [FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION/CENSORSHIP] Russia Crushes Dissent as Putin’s System Ramps Up Repression (Wall Street Journal) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] China Is Getting Secretive About Its Supercomputers (Wall Street Journal) 
• [COMPETITION] EU antitrust regulators want to know if Google and Samsung’s chatbot deal hinders rivals (Reuters) 
• [CONTENT MODERATION] Meta content moderation vendors hit by global cyber outage (Reuters) 
• [SURVEILLANCE/DATA PRIVACY] FTC to Examine if Companies Raise Prices Using Consumer Surveillance (Wall Street Journal) 
• [PLATFORM REGULATION/ONLINE HARMS] UK watchdog accuses Apple of failing to report sexual images of children  (The Guardian)  
• [TELECOMMUNICATIONS] Congress is ramping up oversight of the global CrowdStrike outages ; One committee is calling for a hearing as others demand information.  (Washington Post) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REGULATION] Senate Democrats demand OpenAI detail efforts to make its AI safe (Washington Post)
• [ONLINE HARMS/FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION] Judges air free-speech concerns over California’s child online safety law (Washington Post)  
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE NEWS DISTRIBUTION] AI chatbots struggle to keep up with onslaught of breaking political news  (Washington Post) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REGULATION] In clash over AI, Sacramento emerges as key battleground  (Washington Post) 
• [DEFAMATION] Fox defeats defamation lawsuit by former Biden anti-disinformation official (Reuters) 
• [CYBERSECURITY] What Happened to Digital Resilience? (New York Times) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DATA POLICY] The Data That Powers A.I. Is Disappearing Fast (New York Times) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE / COPYRIGHT] The Push to Develop Generative A.I. Without All the Lawsuits (New York Times) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/SURVEILLANCE/EMERGENCY RESPONSE] More police drones will take flight in the skies above Montgomery County (Washington Post) 
• [TELECOMMUNICATIONS]  FCC slashes cost of phone calls for inmates, capping decades-long effort  (Washington Post) 
• [PRIVACY] Oracle reaches $115 mln consumer privacy settlement (Reuters) 
• [PRIVACY] Venmo privacy settings to change now (Washington Post) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/MISINFORMATION] Elon Musk Wants His AI Bot to Deliver the News. It Is Struggling With the Job (Wall Street Journal) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/POLICING]/RISK ANALYSIS An Algorithm Told Police She Was Safe. Then Her Husband Killed Her. (New York Times) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REGULATION] J.D. Vance’s A.I. Agenda: Reduce Regulation (New York Times) 
• [PRIVACY] Google Is Keeping Cookies in Chrome After All (Wall Street Journal) 
• [CYBERSECURITY] Google’s $23 Billion Plan to Buy Cybersecurity Start-Up Wiz Falls Apart (New York Times) 
• [FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION] OPINION: Editorial Board: Free Speech, Social Media and the Supreme Court (Wall Street Journal) 

(July 17 – 23, 2024)

Supreme Court of Canada

• “The Supreme Court of Canada will decide the following leave applications at 9:45 a.m. ET on Thursday, July 25, 2024. This list might change.”
  • [DEFAMATION/RESPONSIBLE COMMUNICATION/ANTI-SLAPP] Kenneth Wayne Muzik v. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, et al. – (Manitoba) (Civil) (By Leave) 

Federal Court of Appeal 

• [TELECOMMUNICATIONS] Teksavvy Solutions Inc. v. Bell Canada 

Communications Security Establishment Canada

• CSE and NSERC to fund research on robust, secure and safe artificial intelligence 

Competition Bureau Canada

• News Release:
  • Heski Bar-Isaac joins Competition Bureau as Special Economic Advisor for Digital and Platform Markets 

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

• Government of Canada appoints Vice-Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the Copyright Board of Canada 

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

• News Releases:
  • CRTC takes action to bring fibre Internet to five Inuit communities in northern Quebec 
  • CRTC Broadband Fund: Project selected in July 2024 
• Broadcasting and Telecoms
  • Telecom decision 2024-163
    [2024-07-22 16:00:00]
    Broadband Fund – Project funding approval for the Kativik Regional Government’s transport fibre project in northern Quebec – Public record: 1011-NOC2022-0325
  • Telecom order 2024-162
    [2024-07-22 16:00:00]
    Streamlined order – The Commission approves on an interim basis the following tariff application: Bell Canada, TN 7695
  • Broadcasting decision 2024-161
    [2024-07-22 16:00:00]
    Bell Media Inc. – London, Ontario – Application to revoke the broadcasting licence for the English-language commercial radio station CJBK London
  • Telecom order 2024-160
    [2024-07-18 11:00:00]
    Streamlined order – The Commission approves on a final basis, by majority decision, the following tariff application: Northwestel Inc., TN 1212

Google

• The next step in our fight against spyware 

Meta

• Open Source AI Is the Path Forward 

OpenAI 

• GPT-4o mini: advancing cost-efficient intelligence 

Microsoft

• Protecting users and reaffirming our commitment to combatting cyber mercenaries 

Senate of Canada

• The Senate sitting and possible sitting days:  The Senate will not be sitting the week of July 22 – 26, 2024. The next scheduled sitting day is September 17, 2024.

House of Commons

• The House of Commons sitting and possible sitting days:  The House of Commons will not be sitting the week of July 22 – 26, 2024. The next scheduled sitting day is September 16, 2024.

Federal Court of Appeal 

• [COPYRIGHT] Demirören TV Radyo Yayincilik Yapimcilik A.Ş. v. General Entertainment and Music Inc. 

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

• Anticipated releases for the week of 22 to 26 July 2024:
  • The CRTC plans to issue the following decisions and/or regulatory policies in the week of 22 to 26 July 2024. This is subject to change without notice
    • Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
      Across Canada
      Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – English- and French-language audio-visual services – Amendments to conditions of service relating to Canadian programming expenditures and expenditures on programs of national interest
      Public record: 2023-0391-5        
    • Consumers’ Association of Canada (Manitoba); Consumers Council of Canada; Forum for Research and Policy in Communications; Option consommateur; Public Interest Advocacy Centre; and Union des consommateurs
      Across Canada
      Rogers Communications Inc.’s payment of the tangible benefits allocated to the Broadcasting Participation Fund
      Public record: 2023-0219-9          

• Upcoming Hearings
  • September 14, 2023 – National Capital Region
    To consider the broadcasting applications listed in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2023-206, View hearing documents (2023-206)
• CRTC Open Broadcasting Proceedings
• CRTC Open Telecom Proceedings

Consultations:

Spectrum Management Consultations

•  Consultation on a Policy, Licensing and Technical Framework for Supplemental Mobile Coverage by Satellite  – Closing date for comments: September 13, 2024. Closing date for reply to comments: October 25, 2024

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada

•  Right to Repair Consultation – Closing date for comments: September 26, 2024. 

•  Consultation on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Compute – Closing date for comments: September 6, 2024  

•  Consultation on a Policy, Licensing and Technical Framework for Supplemental Mobile Coverage by Satellite – closing date for comments: September 13, 2024 

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

• Call for comments – Co-development of an Indigenous Broadcasting Policy – July 22, 2024 2024-67

• Share your thoughts about Google’s exemption application under the Online News Act

• Broadcasting and Online News Act notice of consultation 2024-143- [2024-07-09 11:00:00] Call for comments – Application for exemption from the Online News Act by Google – Extension to the deadlines for the submission of documents requested in question 10, of comments and of replies

• New deadline for submission of documents requested in question 10: 15 July 2024

• New deadline for submission of comments: 6 August 2024

• New deadline for submission of replies: 19 August 2024

Have a suggestion? Email Sara Bannerman at banners@mcmaster.ca 

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