On Friday, September 29, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) advertisement a new “regulatory plan” for streaming services operating in Canada earn $10,000,000 per year or more and offer broadcast content (podcasts).

According to the CRTC, this is a new way to “modernize” media regulation in Canada so that in the future, streaming platforms, like Netflix or social networks, “make significant contributions to content Canadian and Aboriginal.

However, critics claim that this new measure is actually aimed at restrict freedom of expression and silence the few remaining dissenting voices in Canada.

“Governments hide things by announcing them on Friday afternoon. Last night, Trudeau announced that he is now requiring YouTubers, livestreamers and podcasters (including those who broadcast on X/Twitter) to “register” with the government. This is part of their Internet censorship strategy,” famous conservative journalist Ezra Levant, editor-in-chief of Rebel News, wrote on Saturday.

According to Levant, this decree will seek to limit independent Canadian media, the only free press in the North American country, since traditional media receive multi-million dollar grants by the Trudeau government.

In a long discussion thread on X (on Twitter), Levant denounced that “the CRTC is intensely political” and recalled that in 2015eliminated the Sun News Network, a sort of Canadian Fox News.

“Sun News wanted the same regulatory treatment as the two left-wing news channels, and the CRTC refused it,” Levant wrote. “I worked at Sun News; From the ashes, we built Rebel News. We were rebelling against three things: the groupthink of the Media Party; expensive television infrastructure; and CRTC regulations. On the Internet, we were free. Within a few years, we had a much greater reach than Sun News.

The current editor-in-chief of Rebel News, one of Canada's most recognized independent media outlets, said the latter provision is, ultimately,one more measure to control the discourse from the Trudeau administration which joins legislation C-11, C-18 or C-36, aimed at regulating content on the Internet and the media.

Other prominent Canadian voices, such as psychologist, professor and author Jordan Peterson, also reacted against the CRTC's announcement.

The tycoon Elon Musk, owner of X (Twitter), also left a harsh message on his social network: “Trudeau is trying to crush free speech in Canada. Ashamed”.

Musk cited American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who accused the Canadian government of being “armed with one of the most repressive online censorship systems in the world.”