Evidence of meeting #135 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was content.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Jeanette Patell  Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Canada, Google Canada
Rachel Curran  Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.
Lindsay Hundley  Global Threat Intelligence Lead, Meta Platforms Inc.
Steve de Eyre  Director, Public Policy and Government Affairs, TikTok Canada
Wifredo Fernández  Head of Government Affairs, United States of America and Canada, X Corporation
Justin Erlich  Global Head of Policy Development, TikTok

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

Ms. Curran, your biography on the Canada Strong & Free Network states that you're a lawyer by trade and training and have 15 years of experience in public affairs, including policy advice to the Prime Minister of Canada. You were the director of policy under Prime Minister Harper. Is that correct?

4:30 p.m.

Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.

Rachel Curran

Yes, and I'm very proud of that work, MP Green.

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

Ms. Curran, in the last five years, your biography lists that you worked as a senior associate with Harper & Associates. Is that correct?

4:30 p.m.

Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.

Rachel Curran

That's correct, MP Green.

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

Are you still involved with Harper & Associates in any way?

4:30 p.m.

Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.

Rachel Curran

I am not, no. I have been with Meta now for almost five years—

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

I'm going to reclaim my time. Thank you. In this role, it states that you worked with foreign affairs. Is that correct?

4:30 p.m.

Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.

Rachel Curran

Do you mean in my role with Harper & Associates?

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

No, I mean for Harper when he was in government. You were a senior adviser, including for issues on foreign affairs. Is that correct?

4:30 p.m.

Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.

Rachel Curran

That's correct. I was Mr. Harper's director of policy for a number of years.

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

Ms. Curran, I'm holding a report from Human Rights Watch that is entitled “Meta's Broken Promises—Systemic Censorship on Palestine Content on Instagram and Facebook.” The opening line states that “Meta’s policies and practices have been silencing voices in support of Palestine and Palestinian human rights on Instagram and Facebook in a wave of heightened censorship of social media amid the hostilities between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups that began on October 7, 2023.”

Are you familiar with this report?

October 24th, 2024 / 4:30 p.m.

Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.

Rachel Curran

I'm not familiar with that report.

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

I'll continue to read from it. It says that it reviewed over a thousand cases that involved what they consider to be peaceful content in support of Palestine that was censored or otherwise unduly suppressed, while one case involved the removal of content that was in support of Israel, so essentially there were 1,049 cases of Palestinian suppression and one case in support of Israel.

Human Rights Watch found that censorship of content related to Palestine on Instagram and Facebook was systemic and global and that Meta's inconsistent enforcement of its own policies led to erroneous removal of content about Palestine.

In fact, I believe Meta publicly apologized. They had received some recommendations on patterns of undue censorship; removal of posts, stories and comments; suspension or permanent disabling of accounts; restriction on the ability to engage with content—so shadow banning—and restrictions on the ability to follow or tag.

In response to that, it appears that Meta took responsibility, publicly apologized, and then engaged in business social responsibility by commissioning an independent entity to investigate this. They came back with findings that there appeared to be adverse human rights impacts on the rights of Palestinian users.

Then what has Meta done since to ensure that Meta's practices don't unduly harm the basic freedom of expression for people posting about the question of Palestine?

4:30 p.m.

Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.

Rachel Curran

Thank you for that question. It's a really important one.

Look, since the terrorist attacks by Hamas last October and Israel's response in Gaza, expert teams from across our company have been working around the clock to monitor our platforms while protecting people's abilities to use our apps to shed light on important developments happening on the ground.

We quickly established a special—

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

I actually want to—

4:30 p.m.

Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.

Rachel Curran

Do you want to hear the answer, MP Green, or do you want to posture politically?

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

I want to talk about something positive. I want to give you an opportunity—

4:30 p.m.

Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.

Rachel Curran

I'm happy to answer your question—

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

It's my time, Ms. Curran; it's my time. Thank you.

4:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative John Brassard

Mr. Green, go ahead.

Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON

I'm going to reference a New York Times article by Sheera Frenkel. It states that Israel secretly targeted U.S. lawmakers with an influence campaign on the Gaza war.

This was actually a campaign that Meta did uncover, so I want to give you the opportunity to talk a little bit about this. It began in October. It remains active on X. At its peak, it used hundreds of fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram to post pro-Israel statements. The accounts focused on U.S. lawmakers, particularly those who were Black and Democrat—and I take a specific interest in that—such as representatives like Hakeem Jeffries.

Then a further report out of NBC News said that Meta and OpenAI said that they had disrupted influence operations linked to an Israeli company. Your tech company announced that Project Stoic, which was a political marketing and business intelligence firm based in Tel Aviv, used their products nefariously to manipulate various political conversations online.

As a Canadian lawmaker, then, what assurance do I have that these same tactics, these nefarious tactics linked to this Israeli firm, weren't used to target parliamentarians such as myself?

4:35 p.m.

Head of Public Policy, Canada, Meta Platforms Inc.

Rachel Curran

Following the terrorist attacks last October 7, we quickly established a special operations centre staffed with experts, including fluent Hebrew and Arabic speakers, to closely monitor and respond to this rapidly evolving situation in real time. That allowed us to remove content that violated our community standards faster, and it served as another line of defence against misinformation. In the three days following October 7, we removed more than 795,000 pieces of content for violating these policies in Hebrew and Arabic.

4:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative John Brassard

Thank you.

For the second round, we have Mr. Barrett for five minutes. Go ahead.

4:35 p.m.

Conservative

Michael Barrett Conservative Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON

My question is for Ms. Patell.

YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan, in response to Bill C-11, said the bill “has the potential to disadvantage the Canadian creators who build their businesses on our platform”.

Can you tell me, Ms. Patell, about the “keep YouTube yours” campaign that was launched in response to Bill C-11?

4:35 p.m.

Director, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Canada, Google Canada

Jeanette Patell

Of course, and thank you for the opportunity to speak to that.

As you may recall, when Bill C-11 was originally tabled, it was not intended to capture UGC, user-generated content. That was really important for our creators, because creators rely on their content being recommended to audiences who will love it, no matter where they are in the world. Think about it: Canada has about 2% of the world's population, and YouTube has a global audience of over two billion monthly logged-in users. That's the market Canadian creators care about so deeply, and when we were advocating on Bill C-11, our main message was that we wanted to ensure we were protecting the creative ecosystem these creators had built businesses on—really successful businesses—so it was not about prioritizing Canadian creators to Canadians; it needed to be about providing a level playing field for them to find their audiences all over the world. That was what we were advocating.