Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, pictured here with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Rideau Hall on July 18, 2018, recently announced a pause in legislation. CHRIS WATTY / Reuters
Newly released documents reveal that Twitter Canada has told government officials that the federal The plan to create a new Internet regulator with the power to block specific websites is comparable to the drastic actions used in authoritarian countries such as China, North Korea and Iran.
The letter, marked as confidential, is among more than 1,000 pages of proposals for an online consultation launched by the liberal government in July to gather views on its draft plan to curb hate speech and other online harms. The documents show the wide-ranging blow Ottawa received.
Another private letter, from the National Council of Canadian Muslims, warned that the government’s plans “could inadvertently lead to one of the most significant attacks on marginalized and racial communities in years.”
Twitter has never publicly commented on Ottawa’s proposals for online damages, which the government recently said it would postpone until a new round of consultations is held. A Twitter spokesman in Canada rejected a request for comment on Thursday.
The social media giant’s criticism of the plan is contained in a September 24, 2021 letter from Michelle Austin, then head of public policy on Twitter in Canada and currently director of public policy for Canada and the United States. It provides a strong seven-page critique.
Ms Austin has a particular problem with the proposed creation of a Digital Security Commissioner, who will have the power to block access to specific websites.
“People around the world are blocked from accessing Twitter and other services in a similar way to that offered by Canada by many authoritarian governments (China, North Korea and Iran, for example) under the false mask of ‘online safety’.” to information online, “the letter said. The plan goes on to say that the plan “sacrifices freedom of expression to create a government-run monitoring system for anyone who uses Twitter.”
The government’s proposals include options for consumers to flag potentially harmful content. Ms Austin cites cases during last year’s federal election – which took place shortly before the letter was written – when guerrillas lodged complaints against their opponents.
Her letter cites a case in August when a video posted by Deputy Prime Minister Christie Freeland of then-Conservative leader Erin O’Toole’s position on privatized healthcare was described as a “manipulated media” on Twitter.
“Marking” will be used as a political tactic. “As is the case during the last federal election in Canada, the general approach to labeling will lead to censorship,” Ms. Austin wrote. “During the election campaign, political parties and their officials tried to” mark “the content as ‘harmful’ in an attempt to remove it from public discourse or gain political points.”
The government launched its online harm consultation just before the 2021 federal election campaign. The consultation sought feedback on proposed legislation to combat various online abuses, including hate speech, terrorist content, violent content, images of ill-treatment. children and sharing intimate images without consent.
The Liberals were re-elected with a minority government in September after promising to continue with the law within 100 days.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez recently announced a break on the plan to allow for more consultations from a 12-member expert group. Mr Rodriguez’s spokeswoman Laura Scafidi said on Thursday that the new round of consultations showed that the government “will take the time to fix this”.
While some groups that commented during last year’s consultation made their views public, many were kept secret. The government refused to provide the documents voluntarily.
But University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist received the statements through a request for access to information and published the documents online on Thursday.
The federal government published a report in February summarizing the feedback received. The report says the answers are largely negative.
Mr Geist said in an email to The Globe that the newly released documents showed that the criticism was more widespread than the summary report suggested.
He added that the level of secrecy associated with the statements was inadequate and contradicted the government’s stated commitment to transparency.
“Requiring access to information should not be the standard,” he said.
Criticism of the government’s proposals comes from many sources, including internet service providers, privacy advocates and groups representing marginalized communities that the measures are supposed to help.
The documents include a four-page letter from the Winnipeg Sex Workers ‘Coalition, in which the group warned that the proposals could jeopardize the lives of sex workers by causing excessive filtering of sex-related websites and limiting workers’ ability to work safely online.
“We urge you to slow down this discussion and sincerely engage with sex workers on how this kind of knee-jerk, excessive policy-making will cost lives,” the group wrote.
Several of the responses challenged part of the proposal, which would amend the CSIS Act to give the Canadian spy agency, the Canadian Security Service, extended powers to order quick access to basic subscriber information from private companies.
The National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) wrote that it supports the general framework in the proposed legislation and that online hatred poses an existential threat to Canadians. But he warned that he would probably have to oppose the bill publicly unless terrorist-related sections were removed.
The Council wrote that the proposed wording, forcing companies to notify law enforcement and CSIS of terrorist content, risks “absurd consequences”. The letter said that “it could mean that Canadian Muslims who speak of Palestine, Afghanistan or are in solidarity with various movements may be involved.” This is obviously unacceptable. “
NCCM chief executive Mustafa Farooq said on Thursday that his organization welcomed the government’s recent decision to postpone the plan in favor of more consultations.
“At least we hope the process will lead to something positive,” he said.
Documents show that the plan has received generally positive reviews from TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance Ltd.
“We agree and support the basic principles underlying the proposal: a focus on systems and processes, a limited scope for defining categories of illegal content and the use of transparency reports to measure success,” wrote Steve de Eyre, director of TikTok Canada. . public policy and public affairs. “This legislation has the potential to be both effective and credible for the future, while avoiding the pitfalls of promoting excessive moderation.
The documents also include dozens of emails from individuals, most of whom have expressed strong opposition to the bill over concerns about freedom of expression.
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