Information & Ethics committee  I would say that we have historically worked with the privacy commissioners to arrive at agreed statements of finding, and then implemented them.

Information & Ethics committee  We are two very different companies, with two very different approaches to data protection and privacy.

Information & Ethics committee  I don't know, offhand.

Information & Ethics committee  As Jason touched upon just now—and he touched upon the Senate, when they were considering the amendments to Bill C-76—our systems, and the range of advertising tools we provide to advertisers, are much broader than Facebook's. I can't speak to Facebook's decision in this regard.

Information & Ethics committee  This is an important point. We do feel committed to encouraging strong and informed political discourse. It was a very difficult conversation for us.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes.

Information & Ethics committee  What I will say is that we are trying to evolve our products to a point where we reach compliance with the Canadian regulations. At the moment, we can't do that. It's a tremendously difficult task.

Information & Ethics committee  We didn't during the last cycle.

Information & Ethics committee  I can't speak specifically to the obligations of Washington state. I don't know if they evolved.

Information & Ethics committee  We wish to stress that our decision to not accept regulated political advertising in Canada was not a decision we took lightly. We sincerely believe in the responsible use of online advertising to reach the electorate, especially for those candidates who may not have a sophisticated party apparatus behind them, and for legitimate third parties to engage in advocacy on a range of issues.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you very much for the invitation to speak to you today. I'd like to start off with an observation. First and foremost, we would like to clarify that we feel there is an inaccuracy in the language of the motion initiating this study. Specifically, the motion invited us to explain our “decision not to run ads during the upcoming election” and our “refusal to comply with Bill C-76”.

Information & Ethics committee  ln relation to elections, we are partnering with Elections Canada and Canadian news organizations to provide information on how to vote and essential information about candidates. We will also support the live streaming of candidate debates on YouTube and we are creating a YouTube channel dedicated to election coverage from authoritative news sources.

Information & Ethics committee  The alternative that you're describing to me is the process that exists in Europe, where you ask us to make an evaluation about whether your protected expression violates—

Information & Ethics committee  —a fundamental charter right, and then you are giving us the responsibility of an administrative court. The question is whether you want to do that or not.

Information & Ethics committee  We have three registered lobbyists. That's my team. They work here in Ottawa. I can't give you the exact expenditures. They're not sizeable. What we do with that lobbying is this sort of interaction, whether on an individual level or at committee or with broader society. The reality of that number is that we are trying to be transparent about our interaction on what is obviously an increasingly complex set of subjects.