OTTAWA – A new bill was presented yesterday, at first reading in the House of Commons, to propose a wide range of new requirements for online platforms, aimed at repressing a series of crimes – in particular against children – and the creation of a new digital safety oversight body to force sites to act immediately in the presence of incitement to hatred or child sexual exploitation, under penalty of very heavy sanctions. 

Justice Minister Arif Virani introduced the act – entitled the “Online Harms Act” (C-63) – saying that “it is shocking what is available online and this bill targets the worst of what we see”.

Bill C-63 (you can read in full here) focuses on seven categories of harmful content: content that sexually victimizes a child or re-victimize a crime victim; content used to bully a child; content that induces a child to harm himself or herself; content that incites violent extremism or terrorism; content that incites violence; content that foments hatred; intimate content communicated without consent, including deepfakes (artificially created false content).

The purpose of this legislation, according to government officials who provided a briefing on the contents of the bill, is twofold: to reduce users’ exposure to harmful content; make online services accountable and transparent about how they handle harmful material on their platforms.

The Bill C-63 covers social media services, live streaming services, and “user-uploaded adult content services” …these entities are classified under the umbrella term “online services” and if the Bill passes as drafted, sites subject to the new rules could face millions in fines for noncompliance.

“It’s too easy right now for social media companies to look the other way as hate and exploitation infest their platforms. This bill will require platforms to do their part” Virani said, suggesting that while Canada has rigorous safety standards for toys like Lego, the same can’t be said for what appears on children’s screens.

Among the new measures the government is seeking to push forward is a mechanism that forces major online entities to quickly remove content that sexually victimizes a child, as well as intimate content communicated without consent such as “revenge porn” or deepfakes.

The federal government is also proposing to impose a specific “child protection duty” for online services as part of a trio of obligations. The other two duties are: “act responsibly” and “make certain content inaccessible”.

Regarding the special protection of children, online services will have to adopt age-appropriate design features, such as parental controls, content warning labels, safe search settings and rules for targeted ads.

As part of the duty to act responsibly, online services will be required to assess, mitigate and report the risks posed by their services, provide tools to allow users to report content and block users, publish “digital security plans” and share data, including internal data. systems and tools with researchers.

The new 24-hour removal requirement is part of platforms’ obligation to make certain content inaccessible, along with new measures to allow users to directly report content and complain about its existence to a new digital safety commission that will be specifically established.

Failure to act could see these sites face a maximum fine of 6% of their company’s gross global revenue, or $10 million, whichever is greater.

To oversee this new regulatory regime, Bill C-63 proposes to create a new organization that includes a five-person Digital Security Commission and a Digital Security Ombudsman. As for the financing of this new office, it may take place through the regime of administrative pecuniary sanctions, but there will also be budget funds, “available in due course”.

Additionally, through amendments to the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act, the government also intends to address hate propaganda by proposing a new stand-alone hate crime offense that would apply to all Criminal Code offenses and any other law of Parliament, allowing sentences of up to life imprisonment “to denounce and discourage” hate-motivated behavior as a crime in itself and not as an aggravating factor.

Through Bill C-63, the government also aims to increase the maximum punishment for the four existing hate propaganda offenses and add a definition of “hate” to the Criminal Code. Additionally, it is intended to empower the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal to adjudicate disputes over hate speech content online and to compensate identified victims up to $20,000.

Pic by Franz Bachinger from Pixabay