Canada Must Move Fast To Regulate Social Media Giants Such As Facebook And Google, MPs Say

OTTAWA—The federal government must “act urgently” to protect
Canadians’ privacy and system of government from the unintended
consequences of tech giants’ business models, a parliamentary
committee says.

The cross-partisan Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics
committee released its final report on Facebook’s Cambridge
Analytica scandal Tuesday, calling for sweeping regulatory action
to address the “negative externalities” of social media giants like
Facebook, Google and Twitter.

“The scandal quickly brought to light much broader questions
relating to the self-regulation of platform monopolies, the use of
these platforms for data harvesting purposes, and their role in the
spreading of disinformation and misinformation around the world,”
the committee’s findings read.

“The committee remains of the view that the Government of Canada
must act urgently to better protect the privacy of Canadians.”

The committee recommended a series of regulatory actions that,
if pursued by the Liberal government, would dramatically alter how
Canadians are served by social media giants.

The recommendations would require social media platforms to
create searchable databases of online political advertising to
increase transparency about what actors are attempting to influence
voters. The committee also pushed the government to require by law
social media platforms to out “bots,” or automated accounts, remove
fraudulent accounts impersonating others, and clearly label paid
political advertising.

It also suggested that tech giants should be forced to provide
transparency around the algorithms that determine what their users
see on their Facebook feed or Twitter timeline.

The committee also wants a law to require social media giants to
remove “manifestly illegal content in a timely fashion” — including
hate speech, harassment and disinformation. If the companies fail
to do so, the committee said they should face significant financial
sanctions “commensurate with the dominance and significance of the
social platform.”

In other words, no more six-figure fines for companies that deal
in the billions.

The committee launched its investigation into the Cambridge
Analytica scandal after it was revealed that the U.K.-based company
hoovered up the data of roughly 87 million Facebook users,
including hundreds of thousands of Canadians, for use in their
political consulting business. The users had no idea their data was
being used for political analysis and alleged voter manipulation
until the scheme was revealed by The Guardian and the New York
Times.

The committee reiterated that Canadian political parties need to
be brought under privacy laws in order to protect the information
they hold on Canadians. In their final report, the committee went a
step further — saying political third parties should also be
brought under privacy laws.

It’s not clear what, if anything, the Liberal government will do
with the recommendations. While Bill C-76, the government’s
election-reform legislation, mandates that political parties have
privacy policies, the bill doesn’t go nearly as far as the
all-party committee recommends. And now that C-76 has finally
passed, it’s unlikely the Liberals will revisit the issue before
the 2019 general election.

thestar