Canadian Heritage committee  No, I do not think that is necessary or a good idea, given the scale and profitability of this company—of either of these platforms, in fact.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would primarily reiterate what Ms. Benavidez has said. I can say only anecdotally that it seems that far-right content is more prevalent, but I do want to emphasize that, from the companies' perspective, it's clear that it's primarily driven by algorithms that are simply meant to keep users engaged to the maximum degree possible, and the companies don't appear to care what the political orientation of that content is as long as they can keep users engaged and, to some degree, addicted to the platform in order to maximize eyeballs on screens.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can speak broadly to that. It's very bad for democracy overall. I think democracy requires a free press, not just at a national level, to comment on what a prime minister or a president is doing, or what the national legislature is doing, but at local levels and regional levels.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would expand on that on two levels. One point to emphasize is that journalism, especially local and provincial—or, in the United States context, state-level—requires a fair amount of direct labour to go out and talk to politicians, public officials and members of the community, and there's no way to technologically replace that fact.

Canadian Heritage committee  [Technical difficulty—Editor]

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. Hopefully it works this time. Hello. My name is Erik Peinert. I'm the research manager at the American Economic Liberties Project, a Washington, D.C.-based policy [Technical difficulty—Editor]

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay—we will try that. I will continue where I left off. I earned a Ph.D. from Brown University, where my research focused on competition, monopoly and antitrust and has been published in leading academic journals. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today about big tech's pattern of coercion in response to regulation and specifically Meta's recent action to block Canadian access to news articles across its platforms in retaliation for the passage of Bill C-18, the Online News Act.

Canadian Heritage committee  Hello, my name [Technical difficulty—Editor]

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. Hello, my name is Erik Peinert. I am the research manager at the American Economic Liberties Project, a Washington, D.C.-based policy and advocacy organization focused on reducing concentrated economic power and broadening opportunity for small businesses, workers and communities.

Canadian Heritage committee  Hello. My name is Erik Peinert. I am the research manager at the American Economic Liberties Project, a Washington, D.C.-based policy and advocacy organization focused on reducing concentrated economic power to broaden opportunity for small businesses, workers and communities. I earned a Ph.D. from Brown University, where my research focused on competition, monopoly and antitrust and has been published in leading academic journals.