Governance of Social Media Using the Principles of Community Radio

EasyChair Preprint no. 10195

Abstract

How should Canadian Facebook Groups, of a size and content, be regulated when they reach a threshold of audio video content?

Consider the evolution of the Streaming Act, Parl GC Bill C-11 (44-1) and the regulations that will certainly follow.

The Canadian Heritage Minisiter's office wrote, "the Broadcasting Act only applies to audio and audiovisual content, not written journalism.".*^{1*Letter from Canadian Heritage Minister}

Governance

This story is one of several on how a community radio station, in this case - CRTC approved, but never started, ended up over ten years later. These community organizers moved their efforts to a Facebook group.

 After the Facebook Group started and began to gather real traction, a member of the Group cloned the membership and ran their competing Facebook group under the banner of "free speech”. Here we see an inflection point with two different mathematical results. How that happened is the best story, but not told here.

How this story works is by me telling you the ending first. Canada's history of portability and interoperability made that Facebook Group the best option for a community pandemic service for Gabriola Island BC.

The magnification is the message.

Legal Thoughts

It is risky for a community to invest into a platform as ownership has not been litigated.

Is a FaceBook Group an asset of a not for profit society?

Findings

FaceBook groups, especially if run with the principles of Community Radio, are a community media outlet.*^{5* Letter to MP Dr Kitchen}

Keyphrases: communication technologies, cultural and creative innovation, digital platforms and open governance, digital policy, Facebook Groups, platform governance, social media

@Booklet{EasyChair:10195,
  author = {Ken Zakreski},
  title = {Governance of Social Media Using the Principles of Community Radio},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 10195},

  year = {EasyChair, 2023}}