Michael Allen Geist is a Canadian academic, and the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa.

[2] Geist writes syndicated columns for some of Canada's largest newspapers, including the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen and the Toronto Star.

[17] Geist's research "played a key role in influencing policy-makers during the enactment of Bill C-11, which modernized the Copyright Act of Canada for the digital age.

"[18] Geist has continued to play a prominent role on copyright in Canada, with numerous articles,[19] speeches,[20] books,[21] and appearances before House of Commons and Senate committees.

He did note, with the CRTC's usage based oral hearing on July 19, 2011, that they were making efforts to address this lack of competition and criticized Bell Canada and other major companies for their involvement in limiting smaller ISPs.

[33][34] Geist has been a vocal supporter of net neutrality in Canada, writing widely on the subject[35] and frequently discussing the issue in the mainstream media.

[36] In 2017, he appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics to explain his key concerns to Members of Parliament.

In 2018, Geist opposed a proposal to establish a website-blocking system in Canada to be overseen by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

[44] He said the government, through its regulator the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), "gets to determine what gets prioritized…It's going to make choices – elevating some and deprioritizing others.

He opposes, in principle, requiring payment for links, indexing, and any other mechanism to facilitate access to news because of "the harm to freedom of expression and the free flow of information online".

[48] Further, the definition of eligible news businesses was expanded, and goes beyond the standards established under the Income Tax Act which govern Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations.