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The documents say the bill could be used for censorship, as a “tactic” by political parties and a joint telecoms response, warning of excessive government action.
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April 22, 2022 • 5 hours ago • 4 minutes reading • 178 comments Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez pointed out that the government is open to completely revising the online damages bill. Photo by Patrick Doyle / Reuters / File
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Responses to the Liberal government’s online bill on damages from companies including Microsoft, Twitter and Canadian telecoms are among hundreds of statements that Canadian Heritage has refused to release.
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Previously detained feedback includes a Twitter document warning that the proposed framework, which includes proactive content monitoring, “sacrifices freedom of expression to set up a government-run monitoring system for anyone who uses Twitter.”
The documents say the bill could be used for censorship as a “tactic” by political parties, and the telecoms’ joint response warned of the government’s excessive desire to ask subscribers for personal information without court permission.
The bill has now been sent to an expert advisory committee for review after the government acknowledged that the response to its original proposal was “mostly critical”.
However, the government refused to release the 422 applications received. Only those proposals, which the stakeholders chose to publish themselves, were available to the public and the media. Many warned that the proposal, as outlined, would violate privacy and violate the rights of the Charter.
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The national post offices have already received the full text of the statements by requesting access to information. Most of them, 350, are from private individuals, and the rest are mostly from academia, industry and civil society organizations.
The Online Harm Act will target online publications in five categories – terrorist content, incitement to violence, hate speech, intimate images shared without consent, and content for the sexual exploitation of children.
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Expert advisory group to consider the controversial online damages bill
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Google warns that bill will “block legitimate content”
Platforms will be required to proactively monitor posts and be given 24 hours to remove illegal content once it has been tagged. The bill will create a new regulator, called Canada’s Digital Security Commissioner, who will be responsible for law enforcement.
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In a presentation, Twitter said the government’s proposal lacked “even the most basic procedural justice requirements you would expect from a government-run system, such as notification and warning.” He added that “the requirement to ‘share’ information at the request of the Crown is also deeply worrying.”
The platform also warned that the ability to tag content would be abused. It says marking will be “used as a political tactic”.
“As was the case during the last federal election in Canada, the general approach to tagging will lead to censorship,” Twitter said, explaining that during the election campaign, political parties and officials tried to label content as harmful “in an attempt to be removed from public discourse or earn political points. ”
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In its presentation, Microsoft told the government that it should not depend on private companies to determine what is illegal.
“Service providers should not be obliged to actively monitor consumer content or decide whether specific content is illegal,” it said. “Elected officials and independent courts – not private companies – must decide what content is illegal.
The company also said it was concerned that the proposal “could have a disproportionate impact on freedom of expression and other fundamental human rights”. Microsoft warned of the precedent that legislation could set, and warned that its impact “will be felt both in Canada and internationally, especially if countries without strong democratic institutions point to Canada’s approach to protecting regulatory frameworks within their limits, which are used to push speech on the Internet or other human rights. “
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Pinterest also joined the consultation. While acknowledging that its platform was “not a place for politics” and said it was not focused on promoting free expression, the company warned of the impact the proposed bill could have on “law-abiding Internet users”.
“Requiring the removal of illegal content with 24-hour notice, for example, will give very small or medium-sized platforms little time to assess potentially complex legal claims,” it said.
“The strong incentive will be simply to remove any content that is alleged to be in violation of the law to avoid legal risk.
The largest telecommunications companies in Canada also wrote to the government in a joint submission. Bell, Rodgers, Shaw, Telus, Kogeko and Quebec said they strongly support the government’s move to exempt telecoms from the new legislation.
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However, the document notes concerns about part of the proposal, which states that the government is considering requiring entities such as ISPs that report child abuse material to provide basic customer information, such as name and address, without law enforcement going to court to obtain production orders for this information.
Telecoms said the government should not require ISPs to provide basic subscriber information or transmission data without court permission. It is unclear whether eliminating the need for judicial authorization would be justified when weighing the need to protect the privacy and constitutional rights of Canadians.
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said the government was ready to revise the bill completely. He gave the expert advisory group two months to complete its work, including additional stakeholder consultations. “We want to fix this. And together we will fix this, “he told reporters in March.
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