CRTC EMPOWERED TO MEDDLE WITH SEARCH ALGORITHMS

   Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez acknowledged on Tuesday that Bill C-11 would in fact provide levers to press social media providers to tweak algorithms in order to comply with government regulation.
   The rare admission came after months of the minister denying that the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) would be empowered to meddle with search algorithms to promote or derank content. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter rely on programmed algorithms to cater content to specific users.
   In response to questions by Conservative Senator Michael MacDonald, Rodriguez explained to the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications on Tuesday that indirect manipulation was possible.