NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says his party will push for government regulation of social media platforms to quell “hate and misinformation,” adding that private companies should not hold sole responsibility for content management on their platforms.
“The government has a responsibility to play in making sure social media platforms are adhering to proper guidelines around misinformation, around hate,” Singh told reporters during a
virtual press conference on Jan. 4.
“We’ve been saying for a long time the responsibility to keep people safe from misinformation and radicalization can’t rest in the hands of private companies,” he added.
“[It] has to be the government taking responsibility, and for a long time we’ve said that the Liberal government hasn’t done the job of making sure platforms are following the rules around making sure hate and misinformation aren’t being spread.”
Singh went on to say the NDP is going to continue pressuring the federal government to “properly prevent hate and misinformation from being spread on social media platforms.”
Bill C-36, “An Act To Amend The Criminal Code,” was the federal government’s most recent attempt to directly regulate online content relating to hate speech. The bill died after the 43rd session of Parliament was dissolved in 2021.
Had it been passed, the bill would’ve created new hate speech offences and restored the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal’s jurisdiction to hear cases of alleged violations of Section 13 Charter offences. The bill proposed fines of up to $70,000 for internet users deemed responsible for content that is “likely to foment detestation or vilification.”
Singh has
previously said in the House of Commons that the Liberal government has taken no “concrete steps” toward censorship of online hate and misinformation.
“In fact, there is no law proposed to tackle online hate, there is no special representative named to deal with Islamophobia,” he said on June 6, 2022.
“What is the Prime Minister going to do to tackle the rise of online hate so we can build a better future for our kids?” Singh earlier
asked in the House on Jan. 31, 2022.
Free Speech
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
said in November 2022 that his government is committed to stopping “harassment and violence” online.
“While always ensuring and defending free speech, we must make it clear that it cannot be OK to bully and attack people online,” he told reporters on Nov. 14, while adding that “big technology companies” have a role to play in addressing “online harassment and violence to ensure trust in technology.”
In March, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez announced a
panel of 12 experts that would make recommendations to the government on curtailing “online harms” through new legislation. The panel concluded its meetings in June, saying they wanted the government to counter “disinformation,” calling it “one of the most pressing and harmful forms of malicious behaviour online,” while acknowledging it would be hard to define the term in law.
Another piece of legislation, Bill C-11, is
currently pending Senate approval and, if passed, will grant the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) power to regulate major streaming platforms like Netflix and YouTube and control what content is available for Canadian viewership.
Conservatives have criticized the government’s pending Bill C-11, saying its reach is too far and that it will restrict free speech and expression online.
“What we are talking about here is something that would limit people’s freedom of expression and limit people’s freedom to view the content they wish to view, or to not view the content they wish to view,” said Conservative MP Blake Richards
in the House on June 20. “That is a pretty broad, sweeping piece of legislation.”
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, the bill’s sponsor,
previously defended the legislation, saying it will “make Canadian content more accessible and make it easier for people to find homegrown Canadian music and stories.”
The bill’s
expressed objective is to promote content monetized by Canadian producers for viewers within the country.
The bill has received criticism from both large streaming platforms and the United States federal government, both of whom say it will unfairly discriminate against non-Canadian content.
Canada’s International Trade Minister Mary Ng
recently said the federal government is ensuring the bill will be “trade-compliant” following a meeting in November with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
Noé Chartier and Lee Harding contributed to this report.
