Twenty-five New Democrat MPs will pressure cabinet for legislation this year to regulate legal internet content, according to leader Jagmeet Singh. Regulations should include censoring “misinformation,” he said..“The Liberal government has not done the job of making sure platforms are following the rules around making sure hate and misinformation are not being spread,” Singh told reporters. “That puts the responsibility back on the government to do what it should be doing. We are going to continue to pressure the government to do this.”.“The government has a responsibility to play in making sure social media platforms are adhering to proper guidelines around misinformation, around hate, and why we have been saying for a long time the responsibility to keep people safe from misinformation and radicalization cannot rest in the hands of private companies,” said Singh. “It has to be the government taking responsibility.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, the Liberal cabinet to date has not reintroduced a censorship bill that lapsed in the pre-election 2021 Parliament. Bill C-36 An Act To Amend The Criminal Code proposed $70,000 fines for internet users responsible for legal content deemed “likely to foment detestation or vilification.”.Cabinet in a July 29, 2021 Technical Paper and Discussion Paper went further in suggesting the appointment of a federal censor, the Digital Safety Commissioner, to monitor legal internet content. The Commissioner would have powers to investigate anonymous complaints, conduct closed-door hearings, and block websites..The proposal drew protests from a majority of 9,218 petitioners to the Department of Canadian Heritage. Academics, libertarians, lawyers, legislators and free speech advocates said regulation of legal speech was unwieldy and unconstitutional. Hate speech is already banned under 1970 amendments to the Criminal Code..Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a September 9 interview with legal counsel at the Freedom Convoy inquiry in Ottawa said he was committed to regulating the internet. “The prime minister emphasized the need for governments to take online rhetoric seriously,” said an Interview Summary by lawyers with the Public Order Emergency Commission..“He noted we are living in a very difficult time right now,” said the Summary, adding: “The problem arises when disagreements are built on falsehoods or wrong facts because then it becomes difficult to have a real debate and genuine exchange of ideas.”.“The government believes in free speech,” said Trudeau. “But with social media there is a new way to foment anger and hate that is different from anything we have seen before, difficult to counter, and it is destabilizing our democracy.”
