Thank you so much for the question.
I believe that our conversation today is important, because we have to think about the people who are impacted by what is being expressed. As I illustrated in my opening remarks, if we look at the online space, it currently does not have those safeguards in place in the same way as public spaces in the physical realm. What we're seeing is a lot of people being harmed. We've been doing research, and we're happy to provide that to the committee if it is useful.
We want to challenge those harms. We see self-censorship of people, particularly women, gender-diverse people and people with intersectionalities, because of the level of hate they are experiencing. They no longer want to be in those environments. That limits their choices and opportunities.
I'm a former politician. I have to declare that. I've seen those environments where women have experienced undue hate. It comes in the form of verbal bullying of them and their staff. Many have decided that this is not an environment they want to be a part of, which limits the gender lens that is so important when we think of policy, government and politics.
My message to the committee as it makes its deliberations is to consider those who are being impacted. We want our environments, whether online or physical, to be safe for everyone.
Thank you.