Ottawa to create regulator to hold online platforms accountable for harmful content: sources

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An initial proposal by the government would have seen tech giants forced to remove harmful content and also report it to law enforcement.

The Online Harms Act, which is expected to be introduced in the House of Commons this week, will include a new regulator, separate from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, with a mandate to reduce online harms.Sources confirm a new regulator to hold tech giants accountable for harmful online content is part of impending federal legislation.

It's not clear whether the regulator will have power only over online platforms hosted in Canada or over all websites accessible by Canadians. In an interview on Sunday, Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, told CBC News there's a need for some kind of governance structure to tackle harmful online content, but "the devil will be in the details" of what regulations will entail.

"We need to do a better job as a society of protecting our kids online the way we protect them in schoolyards, in our communities, in our homes across the country," Trudeau told reporters in Edmonton on Wednesday.Monday's legislation by the government is expected to present an alternative to Bill S-210, proposed by Independent Sen. Julie Miville-Dechêne.

The possibility of age-verification systems rang alarm bells among privacy experts, who worry about the risks of Canadians sharing their personal information with external sources.It's owners say they're considering blocking access to Canadians if the bill is passed. The bill outlines a range of concerns about minors having access to sexually explicit material. However, it doesn't specify how sites should verify a user's age.

 

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