Thank you.
Co-chairs Zimmer and Collins and committee members, it's my honour and privilege to testify today.
Data governance is the most important public policy issue of our time. It is cross-cutting, with economic, social and security dimensions. It requires both national policy frameworks and international coordination.
Over the past three years, Mr. Zimmer, Mr. Angus and Mr. Erskine-Smith have spearheaded a Canadian bipartisan effort to deal with data governance. I'm inspired by the seriousness and integrity they bring to the task.
My perspective is that of a capitalist and global tech entrepreneur for 30 years and counting. I'm the retired chairman and co-CEO of Research in Motion, a Canadian technology company that we scaled from an idea to $20 billion in sales. While most are familiar with the iconic BlackBerry smartphone, ours was actually a platform business that connected tens of millions of users to thousands of consumer and enterprise applications via some 600 cellular carriers in more than 150 countries. We understood how to leverage Metcalfe's law of network effects to create a category-defining company, so I'm deeply familiar with multi-sided, platform business model strategies, as well as with navigating the interface between business and public policy.
I'll start with several observations about the nature, scale and breadth of our collective challenge here.
Disinformation and fake news are just two of the many negative outcomes from unregulated attention-based business models. They cannot be addressed in isolation. They have to be tackled horizontally as part of an integrated whole. To agonize over social media's role in the proliferation of online hate, conspiracy theories, politically motivated misinformation and harassment is to miss the root and scale of the problem.
Second, social media's toxicity is not a bug—it's a feature. Technology works exactly as designed. Technology products, services and networks are not built in a vacuum. Usage patterns drive product development decisions. Behavioural scientists involved with today's platforms help design user experiences that capitalize on negative reactions, because they produce far more engagement than positive reactions.
Third, among the many valuable insights provided by whistle-blowers inside the tech industry is this quotation: “The dynamics of the attention economy are structurally set up to undermine the human will”. Democracy and markets work when people can make choices aligned with their interests. The online advertisement-driven business model subverts choice and represents a foundational threat to markets, election integrity and democracy itself.
Fourth, technology gets its power through control of data. Data at the micro-personal level gives technology unprecedented power to influence. Data is not the new oil. It's the new plutonium—amazingly powerful, dangerous when it spreads, difficult to clean up and with serious consequences when improperly used. Data deployed through next generation 5G networks is transforming passive infrastructure into veritable digital nervous systems.
Our current domestic and global institutions, rules and regulatory frameworks are not designed to deal with any of these emerging challenges. Because cyberspace knows no natural borders, digital transformation's effects cannot be hermetically sealed within national boundaries. International coordination is critical.
With these observations in mind, here are my six recommendations for your consideration.
One, eliminate tax deductibility of specific categories of online ads.
Two, ban personalized online advertising for elections.
Three, implement strict data governance regulations for political parties.
Four, provide effective whistle-blower protections.
Five, add explicit personal liability alongside corporate responsibility to affect CEO and board of director decision-making.
Six, create a new institution for like-minded nations to address digital co-operation and stability.
Technology is disrupting governance and, if left unchecked, could render liberal democracy obsolete. By displacing the print and broadcast media in influencing public opinion, technology is becoming the new fourth estate. In our system of checks and balances, this makes technology coequal with the executive, the legislative bodies and the judiciary.
When this new fourth estate declines to appear before this committee, as Silicon Valley executives are currently doing, it is symbolically asserting this aspirational coequal status, but is asserting this status and claiming its privileges without the traditions, disciplines, legitimacy or transparency that check the power of the traditional fourth estate.
The work of this international grand committee is a vital first step towards redress of this untenable current situation. As Professor Zuboff said last night, we Canadians are currently in a historic battle for the future of our democracy with a charade called Sidewalk Toronto.
I'm here to tell you that we will win that battle.
Thank you.