Today was meant to see final deliberations on the Film and Publications Board Amendment Bill in Parliament but that meeting has been moved.
This morning we’ve received word that discussions surrounding the hugely controversial bill that – in its original draft form – would have given the Film and Publications Board (FPB) an inordinate amount of control over online content would be moved to 28th February 2017.
No reason for the sudden rescheduling of the discussion has been given at time of writing.
Since the initial draft of the bill was first released in 2015 it has been the subject of rigorous debate. In it’s original state the FPB would have had far reaching powers including having the ability to regulate user generated content, giving the body the legal power to pull any unclassified content from the likes of Facebook.
In an updated version of the bill released in May, the FPB conceded that policing user generated content would be a mammoth task and as such this has been excluded from the bill.
There are however, still worries surrounding user generated content however, particularly as it relates to content created with a view to making money from it.
Founding member of Make Games SA and Interactive Entertainment South Africa, Nicholas Hall said in October that definitions of “commercial online distributor” and “non-commercial online distributor” might pose a problem to local YouTubers and Twitch streamers using those platforms to make money.
“The FPB has attempted to give some meat on what they think qualifies as user-generated content. For the most part they are successful, what is worrying is that any YouTuber who creates content as their primary source of income will need to register with the board, and have their content classified,” said Hall.
Also heading back to @ParliamentofRSA on Friday to attend the final deliberations (and hopefully an outcome) on the FPB Amendment Bill
— Nick Hall (@nickhallsa) November 30, 2016
Today’s meeting would have hopefully cleared up more of the language and definitions used in the bill and hopefully have resulted in a conclusion to the debate which htxt.africa has been following since last year. Sadly we will have to wait until February for the debate to continue but as always we will be following this story closely and update you with any news that may arise.
