OTTAWA –
Members of the LGBTQ community, indigenous peoples and racist groups fear that the proposed law on dealing with harm on the Internet could disproportionately restrict their online freedoms and even turn them into police targets, warn responses to a government consultation.
Documents disclosed through a request for access to information warn that federal plans to curb hate speech on the Internet could lead to marginalized groups, including prostitutes, being unfairly monitored and targeted by police.
The proposed online hate law, now under consideration by an expert group appointed by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, will give the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service expanded powers to obtain subscriber information from companies. Online platforms may also need to report some publications to the police and security services.
The bill is intended to update Bill C-36, an anti-hate law introduced at the end of the last parliament that died when the election was called.
The government launched a public consultation on an updated law just before the election campaign and said submitting a bill is a priority.
The law aims to curb hate speech and abuse – including against women and racists, Jews, Muslims and LGBTQ Canadians – by blocking certain websites and forcing platforms to quickly remove hateful content.
However, Canadians from some of these groups said the Internet was one of the few platforms where freedom of speech was possible for them and that the law could restrict their rights.
Daryl Carmichael of the University of Calgary’s law school said in a response that the law risks curbing racist and marginalized groups and could lead to misinterpretations of their posts as harmful.
“Black Lives Matter’s publications have been mislabeled as hate speech and removed,” he said, warning that publications such as those raising awareness of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls could also be removed.
“The result is that the voices of the groups you want to defend will be further isolated,” he said.
Sex workers across Canada have warned that such a law could lead to the closure of sites they use to perform safe sex work online if caught by restrictions on harmful online sexual content. They also expressed concerns about the risk of arrest due to remarks made in their online sex work.
The Safe Harbor Outreach project, which advocates for the rights of sex workers in Newfoundland and Labrador, warned that the bill could lead to disproportionate harm to LGBTQ and other marginalized groups, as well as blocking sites that are “crucial to the safety of sex workers. ” His presentation fears that the law could lead to censorship and mass reporting of many innocent people “already demonized” for their gender, race (and) sexuality.
Some indigenous people feared that the bill could give more power to law enforcement authorities to target them, their speeches and protests.
The National Association of Friendship Centers, a network of community centers offering programs and support to urban indigenous people, said the “local-led organization, community and resistance are thriving online”, with “resource extraction and development” protests relying on social media as “a significant part of their communication strategy”.
“These acts of resistance could easily be formulated as anti-government or manifestations of local cyberterrorism,” the document said, warning of “the risk of governing bodies arming this legislation to identify protests as anti-government.”
Experts say the artificial intelligence algorithm can simply choose keywords over the context or nuance of online remarks, leading to misinterpretation and triggering law enforcement involvement.
Michael Geist, a researcher in Internet law at the University of Ottawa, who received the consultation documents through a request for access to information, said “using AI and automated notifications can put these communities at risk.”
He said the level of criticism in the consultation, which includes a series of statements complaining about restrictions on free speech, should be a “warning signal to the government” that it is taking the wrong approach.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims has warned that government plans could “inadvertently lead to one of the most significant attacks on marginalized and racial communities in years.”
Richard Marceau of the Center for Israeli and Jewish Affairs said a new law was needed to curb online hatred, but it “must be properly calibrated to fight hatred and ensure that freedom of expression is fully protected.”
The center’s document says it is important that law enforcement involvement is proportionate and appropriate.
Laura Scafidi, a spokeswoman for the Heritage Minister, said the government “took seriously what we heard from Canadians during last year’s consultation” and has therefore appointed an expert advisory group on how to tackle harmful online content.
“We know this is an important issue for Canadians,” she said. “We will take the time to fix this.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on April 23, 2022.
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