Evidence of meeting #118 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was information.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Let's add you to the list.
You used the word “transparency”, which hits it on the head when we're talking about the social media aspect. I, or a third party, could take out an ad in the Toronto Star saying that Scott Simms is a terrible human being—truth in advertising in this case, so let's use a better example—
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Bittle is an awful person, and he cheated on his taxes.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Well, we now know this.
Is that an offence under the current rules?
12:15 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Under the current rules, there's an antiquated provision about publishing false information about the character of an individual, but you also need to prove that it's with the intent of affecting the elections result, which is always a high—
12:15 p.m.
NDP
12:15 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Yes, and that is often not there.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
They don't trip that particular wire, so is just saying really awful, untruthful things about somebody, or about a party, during an election or pre-writ legit? Do you have to see that through civil court?
12:15 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Well, it's a difficult line of business you're in.
The regulation of truth on the Internet—and you talked about the charter earlier—is something that is hugely challenging.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I understand. I guess I'm imagining scenarios, and I want to see if there's any distinction in rules that we have on the books for so-called traditional media versus social media.
12:15 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
On that point, there is no distinction, and there shouldn't be, in terms of the content.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
We had Twitter testify before us. They said that some of their ads are purchased anonymously, and that tracing back those ads is something they're not interested in.
12:15 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
But that's not about content. I am concerned about that, and I do think there should be some transparency about purchasing ads. If it's regulated advertising, there should be a tag line.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Just to get that testimony clear, this is both for so-called traditional media, for which there is a tag line, and social media, for which in some cases there is not.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
12:15 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Well, there is currently a requirement. It doesn't matter—
12:15 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
It's even for social media. The distinction on social media is organic content versus advertising. If you have your own Facebook page and you're saying things about your opponent on that Facebook page, that's not advertising; that's just your—
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
What if I'm paying to boost that page, if I'm paying to boost that search? Do you see where the grey...?
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Sure, it's not going to be an official party website attacking another person, but it wouldn't be hard to believe that either someone internally or an external actor could go after a government or an individual by using a surrogate and paying Facebook or Twitter to do it so that it shows up in our feeds over and over again.
12:15 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
That's correct. If they're not running afoul of the specific prohibitions that we have in the act and it's not advertising per se—
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
We can't capture that, yet it has the same effect as advertising.
