MPs urge Canada to police social media

Committee report calls for sweeping reforms to address Facebook scandal

OTTAWA— The federal government must “act urgently” to protect Canadians’ privacy and system of government from the unintended consequences of tech giants’ business models, a parliamentary committee says.

The cross-partisan Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee released its final report on Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal Tuesday, calling for sweeping regulatory action to address the “negative externalities” of social media giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter.

“The scandal quickly brought to light much broader questions relating to the self-regulation of platform monopolies, the use of these platforms for data harvesting purposes, and their role in the spreading of disinformation and misinformation around the world,” the committee’s findings read.

“The committee remains of the view that the Government of Canada must act urgently to better protect the privacy of Canadians.” The committee recommended a series of regulatory actions that, if pursued by the Liberal government, would dramatically alter how Canadians are served by social media giants.

The recommendations would require social media platforms to create searchable databases of online political advertising to increase transparency about what actors are attempting to influence voters. The committee also pushed the government to require by law social media platforms to out “bots,” or automated accounts, remove fraudulent accounts impersonating others, and clearly label paid political advertising.

It also suggested that tech giants should be forced to provide transparency around the algorithms that determine what their users see on their Facebook feed or Twitter timeline.

The committee also wants a law to require social media giants to remove “manifestly illegal content in a timely fashion” — including hate speech, harassment and disinformation.