Timothy Denton: A futile Canadian initiative to assert control over social media platforms | Financial Post
The idea that democracy can be salvaged through the sanitization of the speech that sustains it is both confused and dangerous. The Public Policy Forum s grandly named Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression thinks otherwise. It recently announced a plan for the federal government to assert a measure of control over social media platforms by imposing a duty to act responsibly and creating more agencies to work out what that entails.
The commission called for the creation of a new regulatory agency to lead the development of a code of conduct that would guide parties under its supervision. A new social media council would work out the speech policies that platforms would follow. Measures would be taken to enable people and groups to seek redress for offending content by means of an electronic virtual tribunal.