In our brief, we talk about the role of social media and the media overall. They may exacerbate the effects of certain types of disinformation, cyber-bullying, fake news and so forth. Obviously, all of that has an impact on scientific data, knowledge and scientific research.
What Mr. Gaudreau‑DesBiens may not have had time to say earlier is that we also recommend establishing much stricter regulatory frameworks that impose obligations on digital platforms. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner or the Competition Bureau could be granted powers to oversee that. Alternatively, an independent dedicated authority could be created to monitor the platforms. A number of options are possible.
In addition, we made recommendations to address social media concerns. As we point out, social media environments build and amplify echo chambers and disinformation, which has repercussions for science and knowledge.
We also recommended that the government put much stricter safeguards in place to protect science. This would involve recognizing institutions of knowledge, including those under provincial jurisdiction such as universities, to give them greater protection overall. I'm talking about the Government of Canada and the Parliament of Canada recognizing science and institutions of knowledge as essential components of Canada's constitutional democracy.
In countries such as Germany, science, knowledge and scientific freedom are constitutionally protected.