Prime Minister Carney says his government will push ahead this fall with sweeping social media regulations that would create a new federal Digital Safety Commission and impose new rules on online platforms.
“We are fighting for Canada to lead the world in building the smart, safe digital tools of the next decade,” Carney told Liberal MPs ahead of Parliament’s return.
“This fall we will press ahead with the Act to protect Canadians online,” he said.
Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, was introduced by Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller in June.
The legislation would create a Digital Safety Commission with regulatory and enforcement powers over the online platforms covered.
It would require regulated platforms to address seven categories of “harmful content,” including child sexual exploitation, any content that ‘foments hatred’, incites violence or promotes terrorism or violent extremism.
The legislation also targets content that “undermines, weakens or destroys fundamental institutions or political, economic or social stability in Canada” when it could cause a serious risk to the health or safety of the public.
The bill would also prohibit children under 16 from holding accounts on regulated social media services and require platforms to use age-verification or age-estimation measures, potentially entailing that adults would need to show ID to surf the web.
Geist described C-34 as an “everything-at-once” approach combining elements of the former Online Harms Act with an under-16 social media ban, pornography age verification, AI chatbot regulation and the Digital Safety Commission.
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