Opinion | Canada’s approach to regulating big tech is fundamentally defeatist – Toronto Star

The World Wide Web turns 30 in August and Ottawa is finally updating key laws from the last millennium.

Bill C-10 would bring foreign streaming services under the Broadcasting Act, while Bill C-11 would update Canadas pre-Google privacy laws. They promise another bill to address harmful and/or illegal online content and yet another to compel Google and Facebook to pay for Canadian news, following Australias recent move.

Yet these erstwhile acts of resistance against Silicon Valleys overwhelming power actually reflect Canadas resignation to this power. A pattern is emerging. The government seems to have accepted that some digital businesses will cause widespread harm. Instead of trying to prevent these harms, Ottawa is creating systems to manage them consistently.

Canada may wish to appear defiant, but our approach to big tech is fundamentally defeatist.

Bill C-11 would compel tech companies to explain, upon request, how your personal data resulted in a certain recommendations. But the law would not prohibit Facebook from collecting so much personal data in the first place, even from people dont have Facebook accounts.

Bill C-10 gives YouTube, arguably Canadas largest broadcaster, a categorical exemption from the Broadcasting Act because it traffics exclusively in user-generated content. That leaves it free to show beer ads on Bugs Bunny clips or let Steve Bannon threaten to put Dr. Faucis head on a pike acts that would land any other media organization in court.

The exemption for user-generated content would also cover Pornhub, the Canadian company found to be broadcasting tens of thousands of videos depicting the sexual assault of children as young as nine.

The government promises to address the scourge of harmful material in a new bill, yet early signals suggest this law will likewise be rooted in a fundamental acceptance of widespread harms.

Media reports suggest the law would require the likes of YouTube and Pornhub to remove some illegal content within 24 hours. Yet they would not be responsible for finding offending content and face no consequences for having promoted it widely, provided they remove it when notified. This is like letting bars illegally serve middle-schoolers provided they drink light beer and get home by 11.

This defeatist approach to businesses facilitating harmful or illegal activity on a massive scale is gravely concerning. Canada is establishing a worrisome legal principle: in broadcasting, search, social media, and other major digital industries, anything goes so long as the undesirable or illegal outcome is the result of decisions taken by an algorithm on a humans behalf.

Even more worrisome is how closely the governments resigned outlook echoes Big Techs talking points.

When Pornhub got caught broadcasting illegal material at scale, they blamed an automated system that failed to detect illegal content. This was not a confession but a defence.

When Congress asked why so much illegal content appears on Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg explained that Facebooks content moderation efforts relies heavily on AI that is getting good in certain areas but mostly inadequate. Zuckerberg was trying to instill the principle that companies are not responsible for the failings of their algorithms.

This is obviously ridiculous. Algorithms dont cash cheques. Yet the Trudeau government seems poised to entrench this philosophy in law. Instead of telling Facebook to operate legally or not at all, Canada is accepting that Facebook et al can violate Canadians privacy and even criminal law, so long as they manage the resulting harms in a prescribed manner, such as providing an explanation.

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A sovereign, moral approach would start from the premise that illegal activity is unacceptable. Remove the blanket exemption for social media companies from Bill C-10. Prohibit business activities that depend upon the non-consensual collection of personal data. Executives should be held personally liable for their companys transgressions, including possible jail time. Fines may be part of the cost of doing business for big tech companies. Personal ruin and prison are not.

When a business is offside, we should blow the whistle. Instead, Canada is proposing to move the blue line. Those of us who are concerned by Canadas defeatist approach should speak up now, before Canada submits to another 30 years of digital lawlessness in service of Silicon Valley.

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Opinion | Canada's approach to regulating big tech is fundamentally defeatist - Toronto Star