Removal of harmful content will be contentious, IIC panel says

OTTAWA–When the government finally gets around to introducing its online harms bill, it should feature a regulator who can deal with the conundrum of “lawful but awful” content, a conference was told Tuesday. The International Institute of Communications Canadian Chapter is wrapping up its two-day congress in the national capital. A panel on online safety heard from four experts in the field who said Canada should look at precedents set in other jurisdictions before proceeding with any new legislation. Last year an advisory group delivered its report to Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez. One of the key sticking points was the removal of content. “There’s a ton of content online that’s hateful but is not hate speech,” Emily Laidlaw of the University of Calgary told delegates. Any attempt to remove objectionable material will immediately be greeted by cries of censorship from opponents which is why she recommends the regulator should start small. Florian Martin-Bariteau from Harvard and from the University of Ottawa echoed those sentiments. He said it is better to get it right rather than being first. He believes any agency set up to deal with harmful content should be independent and have the power to sanction wrongdoers. The CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims said authorities walk a fine line when assessing penalties. “The concept of lawful and awful is quite concerning to us, especially as it relates to freedom of expression and human rights,” Stephen Brown stated. Any regulatory agency should be easy to access, he added. People do not want to navigate a difficult website. The regulator should be flexible, Steve de Eyre, vice-president of public policy and government affairs at TikTok, asserted. He said the web giant had expressed its concern about the policy paper. The question should not be how quickly offensive material is deleted but determining if the content objected to is truly offensive. Brown backed up that statement. “Who exactly gets to decide what is acceptable versus what is not acceptable,” he asked, adding that he has been branded anti-francophone for his campaign against Bill 21, Quebec’s law on the wearing of religious symbols by public servants. Laidlaw said she wanted a regulator that looks at harms but is also protective of civil liberties. Earlier in the day, there was a session on personal attacks on journalists featuring Michael Serapio, chief English anchor of CPAC, and Toronto Star national columnist Susan Delacourt. Both had personal examples of online harassment which has only become worse in the past few years. Delacourt said writing about federal politics during the administration of Justin Trudeau leaves one open to abuse. Serapio stated that the COVID pandemic emboldened people to become more hostile. He said when he was working for the CBC in Toronto he was followed home by someone after he finished a newscast. He managed to shake the would-be assailant. Twitter is a particularly ripe garden of abuse, the pair agreed. Serapio, a gay man of colour, suspended his Twitter account while at CBC before reestablishing it when he joined CPAC last fall. Delacourt said the Star is currently debating whether to get off Twitter. She will occasionally block hostile tweeters but prefers to engage with them from a distance. She will write back to especially venomous correspondents and ask “are you okay?” About a third to one-half will write back to apologize, she noted. Politicians are in a bind when it comes to online hate, the Star journalist remarked. “I think MPs are in a rough position about this because they don’t want to block their own voters,” Delacourt opined. “And I think in some parties they’re told not to block people.” In the later panel Martin-Bariteau took up the case. “ should not block citizens from accessing information,” he stated. The morning began with a presentation from Steve Harroun, chief compliance and enforcement officer at the CRTC, on scams and fraudulent calls. He said the agency gets more than 6000 complaints a week about would-be frauds, which he believes is just the tip of the iceberg. The regulator is doing its best to educate the public about scams. “The more people are familiar with the scam, the less likely they are to fall victim,” he noted. He admitted fraudulent contacts are a global problem that the CRTC can only battle with domestic laws. “But Canadians don’t care,” he stated. “They tell me every day, ‘stop the calls, stop the emails, stop the texts’.” Harroun recommended call blocking and using the commission’s STIR/SHAKEN technology which seeks to hinder telephone spoofing. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Removal of harmful content will be contentious, IIC panel says

News | 05/16/2023 4:58 pm EDT

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