The Canadian federal government introduced a bill on Wednesday to regulate social media and artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. The bill seeks to require tech companies to act responsibly, such as regulating online harmful content, and establish a digital safety commission to oversee its implementation.
Tabled at the House of Commons on Monday, Bill C-34 mainly comprises the Digital Safety Act. The act, if passed in its current form, requires tech companies to act responsibly. The duty will require social media companies to flag harmful content and mitigate the risk that users may be exposed to such content. Tech companies will also submit a digital safety plan, with planned measures to fulfil their duty to act responsibly, to a digital safety commission.
The legislation places strong emphasis on child protection. It requires social media operators to ban content that sexually exploits children, including preventing users from sending intimate content to underage users without consent. The digital safety commission will handle complaints of children being exposed to the content. One central measure is the under-16 social media ban with compulsory age verification. Michael Geist, privacy law professor at the University of Ottawa, said the law does not appear to make the ban temporary, even though major Canadian outlets described otherwise. Tech companies can avoid this requirement by persuading the commission that they have implemented sufficient safeguards to protect children. Geist criticized the sufficiency requirement as based solely on the Governor in Council and the commission, leaving it “astonishingly uncertain.”
AI regulation is another major aspect of the bill. Under the Digital Safety Act, tech companies must report their criteria and processes for notifying law enforcement agencies when users pose a risk of harm to others. This law is a direct response to the recent Tumbler Ridge mass shooting incident in British Columbia. OpenAI is currently facing lawsuits for failing to notify law enforcement when its users planned scenarios involving gun violence in the province. Whether the company owes such a reporting duty under the current law is uncertain. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, apologized for the company’s failure to report in April.
Geist’s observation regarding AI regulation is similar to that of child protection in social media. He argued that the law leaves it purely to the commission to distinguish AI companion services and productivity tools; the latter remains unregulated in the current bill.
Social media and AI have been the centre of governments’ policy decisions worldwide. Many countries–such as Australia and Malaysia–have implemented the underage social media ban. At the end of May, however, UN rights chief Volker Türk called on countries to avoid a blanket ban and adopt robust regulations that address the root causes of online harm. He maintained that this allows children to learn and connect with their community through online resources. The UN has also called for AI regulation that complies with international human rights standards and achieves environmental justice.
