Evidence of meeting #153 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was facebook.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
So Google doesn't have a view right now. Okay.
To Twitter...and I ask this partly because our competition commissioner, unbeknownst to Facebook in particular, on Thursday is engaged in this very conversation. It's not just the German regulator. They're holding a data forum at the National Arts Centre.
Does Twitter have a view of competition policy and privacy?
Director, Public Policy, Twitter Inc.
Thank you for the question, and thank you also for distinguishing the platforms that are on here. Twitter has a single-digit share of the advertising market. We have 130-odd million daily users. We treasure them all. We work to keep their trust and to keep them engaged, and are closely watching these antitrust and competition—
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Do you agree that privacy should play a central role in competition law?
Director, Public Policy, Twitter Inc.
I'd have to examine that a little bit more closely.
Michele Austin Head, Government and Public Policy, Twitter Canada, Twitter Inc.
We would echo the same comments said by Google. We would look forward—
Liberal
Head, Government and Public Policy, Twitter Canada, Twitter Inc.
—to working on the marketplace framework, which is the basis of competition law.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Right. Okay, so none of you have a view on a really important issue of our day.
In terms of algorithmic accountability, the Government of Canada now has algorithmic impact assessments. Have any of your companies conducted algorithmic impact assessments? Facebook for News Feed, Google for the recommendation function on YouTube, and Twitter, have you conducted internal algorithmic impact assessments, yes or no?
Global Policy Director, Facebook Inc.
I think broadly, yes. I don't know exactly what you mean, but if you're asking if we have a work stream to understand the implications of algorithms—
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
To understand a risk assessment of positive and negative outcomes of the algorithms that you're currently employing on millions of people....
Global Policy Director, Facebook Inc.
Sir, not only do we have a team on it internally. We also have an international working group of experts on algorithmic bias that we convene on a regular basis to discuss these matters.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Your company has never had analysts look at the News Feed, and the algorithms that are employed on that News Feed, and said here are the positive and negative outcomes that we should be considering.
Global Policy Director, Facebook Inc.
I thought I just answered in the positive.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
So you have. Okay.
Google, with respect to the YouTube recommendation function...?
Global Director, Information Policy, Google LLC
Similarly, we're constantly assessing and looking to improve.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
You have internal documentation that says these are the positive outcomes, these are the negative outcomes, and this is the risk assessment with respect to the algorithms we employ. Is it fair to say you have that?
Global Director, Information Policy, Google LLC
We constantly do that sort of assessment, yes.
Liberal
Director, Public Policy, Twitter Inc.
We are assessing it. I'd also note that Twitter's use of algorithms is substantially different. People can turn it off at any point.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Would you provide the internal risk assessments to this committee?
Global Director, Information Policy, Google LLC
Speaking for ourselves and the YouTube recommendation algorithm, we continue to try to improve the transparency that we have.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Would you provide those internal risk assessments? They ought to be public, frankly, as far as I'm concerned, in the same way the Government of Canada has an algorithmic impact assessment and any departmental agency that wants to employ an algorithm has to be transparent about it. None of you billion-dollar companies have to be, and I think you should be.
Would you provide to this committee the algorithmic impact assessments, which you've said you have done, and engage in some transparency?
Global Policy Director, Facebook Inc.
I thank you for that. I think we're going to go further than that. We are in the process, as I've mentioned, of providing more transparency on a number of things that you will see on the platform. We have actually introduced in some markets already, as a test, something called WAIST, which is “Why Am I Seeing This?” That gives you a very good sense of how things are being ranked and sorted by News Feed.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Because you're going to go further, I assume that it's, yes, you will provide that internal documentation to this committee.
Global Policy Director, Facebook Inc.
I think we're going to do better. We're going to speak by our actions, as we talked about earlier, sir.