Research libraries worry online harms bill could include ‘spectre of censorship’

OTTAWA — The Liberal government’s proposed online harms legislation will “all-but guarantee that the system will lead to the mass removal of content,” according to the Canadian Association of Research Libraries.

And that “will impact individual freedom of expression rights, increase the spectre of censorship and damage the historical record,” says the association.

The association has joined civil liberties groups and international organizations who are raising the alarm about the bill which will mandate social media and other platforms monitor online posts and remove illegal content.

The bill would target terrorist content, content that incites violence, hate speech, intimate images shared non-consensually, and child sexual exploitation material. Platforms would have to remove illegal content within 24 hours of it being flagged, and a new regulator called the Digital Safety Commissioner of Canada would be in charge of enforcement.

Experts have warned various aspects of the proposal, including the mandatory monitoring and removal of content, as well as sweeping new powers given to the regulator, would violate Canadians’ Charter rights.

The Liberals have promised to introduce the online harms legislation within 100 days of Parliament’s return on Nov. 22. The Heritage Canada consultation on the government’s proposal wrapped up in September, but the government is refusing to release the 423 submissions it received publicly. Some of the documents have been released by the organizations who participated.

A number of those have taken issue with a proposal to require online platforms to report flagged content to law enforcement. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association wrote that it has significant concerns the proposal would leverage online platforms as “agents of law enforcement, creating mandatory reporting and preservation obligations that may expand over time and significantly impact the privacy rights of Canadians.”

Advocacy group Openmedia warned that the proposal would “lead to the automatic reporting of an enormous volume of lawful content directly to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), deputizing online platforms as surveillance agents of the state in a system not seen anywhere else in the democratic world.”

The government has also heard international perspectives on its plans. The coalition Global Network Initiative said aspects of the proposal “appear to be inconsistent with international human rights principles, regulatory best practice, and Canada’s leadership on Internet freedom.”