Canadian Heritage committee  That transparency legislation is vital, because without it, we can't actually create the arguments for liability. Transparency is the absolute bedrock of an effective mechanism for accountability, and then shared responsibility for any harms that are created. The European Union

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll be happy to provide something in writing to the committee.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm sure Jason and I would both be happy to do so. Just to be clear, it's a bit early. The legislation was promulgated just a few weeks ago, and Ofcom is still in the consultation stages of establishing precisely how it will utilize its powers. Three years ago, we organized a c

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm not Canadian, so internal political disputes between parties in Canada are like watching my in-laws argue. I just don't want to get involved. What I can say is that we are all patriots, because the public service is a job for patriots. Right now, Meta is trying to make a jok

Canadian Heritage committee  It really was a long journey. I was the first witness to give evidence to the draft bill committee in September 2021. It took two years to promulgate that legislation. The one thing I will say is that there is elegance in the British solution that says, “You set your own rules,

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for the question. We have seen an even more sophisticated version of the array of astroturf groups of paid influencers who support social media companies in their efforts to resist regulation and to resist having to take responsibility for the externalities of their co

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Could they self-regulate? Yes. Will they self-regulate? No. By now, the indulgence of people who once were young, cool, liberal-seeming, San Francisco executives—of course they're going to try to do the right thing.... I think they've lost the ability to claim that this was the

Canadian Heritage committee  Sure. With regard to observations on the actual metrics, clearly there's been a substantial rise in online hate, and that is having an off-line effect. When I started the CCDH in 2016, it was somewhat controversial to say that what was happening online was having off-line impact

Canadian Heritage committee  Peter, thank you so much for the words you said earlier on about the work that we do at CCDH. To be clear, we're around 25 people with about $2.5 million a year in revenue. Think about the fact that we do that research, which is innovative and provides you with insights that you'

Canadian Heritage committee  I really can't. You'd have to ask them why on earth they took the decision to sweep away their shame under the carpet. These companies.... Again, we see them playing ball with repressive regimes around the world, while at the same time showing a complete lack of respect to a demo

Canadian Heritage committee  Quite clearly, yes. When people see content more often, there's a simple frequency bias in our psychology that we believe it's more likely to be true. Platforms are force-feeding disinformation to people through their newsfeed, which is an act of publishing. There's this myth t

Canadian Heritage committee  I think this reinforces the fact that this is nothing more than Facebook literally vandalizing their own service in a petulant display of mock martyrdom, claiming that this is necessary for their business. How on earth could it possibly be a viable business decision to say that

Canadian Heritage committee  I think that's the soft bigotry of low expectations that we've been attuned to expect from these companies. In a sort of twisted irony, my organization has shown that Meta has allowed state-controlled media in authoritarian countries to pay for advertisements containing disinfo

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm sorry. It was two minutes and 40 seconds, earlier, but look, I will get through—