Well, Meta's reaction to Bill C-18 and its decision to block legitimate Canadian news outlets on its platform has created an environment in which Canadians are encountering—as Josh rather articulately characterized it—AI slop and other forms of garbage, frankly, instead of legitimate, authoritative news sources. It's a real vulnerability. Canada's information environment and civic resilience are better served if there is an information ecosystem that doesn't take reactionary decisions, as Meta did in this case.
I don't think Canada necessarily has to create sovereign digital platforms that are solely Canadian, in essence, divorced from any international context or co-operation. Right now, the architecture is overwhelmingly owned by companies based in one country—two, if you want to count China and Chinese platforms. This is a national security risk. It's a risk to civic resilience and democracy.
Whether you're a free speech warrior or coming at this from a content moderation standpoint, there are vulnerabilities in allowing the Metas of the world to make these decisions on behalf of Canadian citizens, who have no insight into how these decisions are made.