Thank you all for being here this morning and for your presentations.
Picking up on that threat, I think we saw this week an attempt by Facebook to address some of the groups in Canada that are sharing this information online. We saw the banning of individuals and groups, which I think was a very good move. It wasn't across all social media platforms, unfortunately. I think it was Facebook and Instagram that did that.
To Mr. Fogel's point earlier, the depths that exist in the Internet, even within one platform itself.... There are just layers upon layers of social media giants trying to control this themselves. It really begs the question about how they can do this on their own without government intervention, without the Canadian government being a part of that and, I think, having some basic rules around what is acceptable and what isn't, some ground rules for platforms in our own country.
You all spoke about Pittsburgh and the Christchurch shooting, and the extensive amount of Islamophobic and anti-Semitic material that had been posted by both of these individuals. I think Canadians are asking how it is happening that this is all being posted. Why is no one going to these individuals and stopping it at that point? Is this a failure of social media? Is this a failure of policy? They are also asking how it happens that people are out there sharing these volumes of information and no one is challenging it.
I think Mr. Fogel spoke to this clearly, but I want to ask this to the other panellists: Do you think online platforms should be able to establish their own policies to address online hate, or do you believe that Canada should establish some ground rules as well?