Information & Ethics committee  I think I'll let Rob address that one.

Information & Ethics committee  Sir, absolutely, we are already taking action, as Rob mentioned. We are already taking action to notify all users of the particular instance regarding Cambridge Analytica. Our commitment, and the commitment of our CEO, is that, in fact, we're going to go back and do an audit of all the other apps that were in place at the time when the platform permissions were set a certain way.

Information & Ethics committee  Sir, I will turn to Rob for the more specific answer about what the prospective view is. I just want to be very clear, sir, that we certainly do not base our investment decisions on the specific regulatory environment. In particular, I did read some reference to some interview somewhere about about our AI research centre specifically.

Information & Ethics committee  No, sir. To talk about the particular instance, we knew, I think, as everybody learned through press reports—I forget the exact date—about a month ago or something like that, sir. That would be the extent of our knowledge in Canada.

Information & Ethics committee  Thanks, Rob. We recognize that the situation involving Cambridge Analytica raises more general questions on the use of Facebook and the integrity of elections. I would like to conclude with some comments on the subject, because we are working hard to do our part to protect the integrity of the federal elections in 2019.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you very much. Again, yes, our CEO does apologize that he could not be here today in person with the committee. I am here with my colleague Rob Sherman on his behalf. Thank you for that note, sir. Mr. Chair and members of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, thank you for the invitation to appear before you today.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think Jason had a very good perspective on it, but I would just continue, if I may, with all due respect, Madam Chair, with the analogy of the phone. As you were saying, liable laws obviously would apply on Facebook as well, but it would apply in the same way as you illustrated with the telephone in the sense that the individual who uttered those words would be the one liable.

Canadian Heritage committee  I can start, and maybe my colleague Marc can fill in some of the details. In general, as I indicated back in November, the principle it operates on is that people and organizations are able to publish what they wish on the platform. I would say that the vast majority of this content is what people, organizations, newspapers, other local news outlets, and broadcasters themselves publish directly onto the platform.

Canadian Heritage committee  I won't get into too specific a comment other than to say that I think the question—and I think Mr. Nantel may have asked me that in November—is probably best posed to Canadian advertisers. I'm not the technical tax expert, but ultimately—if I understand correctly some of the proposals that have been floated—the mechanism through which I wish this largely would happen is some kind of levy on Canadian advertisers.

Canadian Heritage committee  We also have four offices across the country, including one in Montreal. When we think about the economic impact of Facebook, we largely are thinking about how other companies, particularly small businesses, are leveraging the impact. We did a study about a year ago. Deloitte did an independent study, which found that the economic impact was in the tens of billions of dollars in Canada alone.

Canadian Heritage committee  Do we monitor it—?

Canadian Heritage committee  Sir, on this particular point I'm not entirely sure that I understand what the police service may actually be doing. I can say that in some of the cases we've heard about, it's typically people who may report certain things they have heard others utter, and we have a process and good relationships with law enforcement whereby we can co-operate to ensure that things that are in violation of Canadian law are dealt with appropriately.

Canadian Heritage committee  We would work with the local law enforcement.

Canadian Heritage committee  It's the platform. It would depend on the specific case involved, but we are a global platform, so it depends on what particular issue we were talking about. Obviously—

Canadian Heritage committee  There are a couple of levels to this. As you know, sir, as we've talked about in the past, we have very good relationships with law enforcement and with government officials to make sure that we are able to be helpful with them when they encounter particular challenges. But on the broader question about whether a platform or we—I think I can speak about all of our platforms—monitor the communications of the people....