Canada must move fast to regulate social media giants such as Facebook and Google, MPs say

TheStar.com
December 12, 2018
Alex Boutilier

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.

MPs began investigating social media after it was revealed that Cambridge Analytica, a U.K.-based company, collected the data of about 87 million Facebook users, including hundreds of thousands of Canadians.

“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.