Canada has proposed a new bill aimed at addressing online abuse, with severe penalties for hate crimes, including life imprisonment for inciting genocide.
The Online Harms Act, if passed, would mandate social media platforms to swiftly remove harmful content, such as sexualized images of children, within 24 hours.
It would extend regulation to social media companies, live streaming platforms, and websites featuring user-uploaded adult content.
The bill outlines seven categories of harmful content that platforms must remove, including bullying of children and content promoting self-harm.
It also proposes the establishment of a “digital safety commission of Canada” to oversee online platforms.
Justice Minister Arif Virani emphasized the real-world impacts of online harms, stating, “And yet so much of this goes unchecked.”
The bill prohibits deep-fakes and similar content, with exceptions for private messages between individuals.
Before becoming law, the bill must undergo scrutiny by parliamentary committees and the Senate, potentially leading to amendments.
Additionally, the government plans to amend the criminal code to increase penalties for hate crimes, including introducing a new offense carrying a life imprisonment sentence for inciting genocide.
The Canadian Human Rights Act would also see amendments to classify hate speech as discrimination, allowing the Human Rights Tribunal to address hate speech offenses.
The ruling Liberal Party pledged to introduce an online safety bill within 100 days of re-election.
While the New Democratic Party expressed support for the bill, it criticized the delay in its introduction, citing harm to children due to inaction.
The Conservative Party opposes the bill, labeling it part of “Justin Trudeau’s woke authoritarian agenda” and expressing concerns about potential censorship of political speech.
Similar legislation targeting online hate content has been introduced recently in other countries such as the UK, Australia, and France.
The proposed bill comes amidst tensions between the Canadian government and social media companies over a law requiring payment to Canadian news publishers for content.
In response, Google and Meta have taken different approaches, with Google agreeing to payments while Meta blocked news content on its platforms to avoid the law.
Source-BBC
