CCLA warns against risks to freedom of expression and privacy posed by Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act

Yesterday, the federal government introduced Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, with the stated goal of making the online activities of Canadians safer. The bill raises significant civil liberties concerns, including through the limitless powers it grants the government and a new digital safety regulator.

“Greater transparency and accountability from tech companies is long overdue. But that must come through clear, targeted rules, not sweeping obligations and an open-ended government authority over any regulated service,” said Howard Sapers, Executive Director at the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA). “A blank check for federal power is the wrong answer to a real problem.”

“Bill C-34 introduces obligations which are so alarmingly broad that providers of regulated services will be tempted to over-comply at the expense of users’ freedom of expression and privacy rights,” Sapers added.

Bill C-34 also bans individuals below the age of 16 from regulated social media platforms, unless the platform’s operator applies for an exemption from the new regulator and can demonstrate it has “adequate” safeguards in place.  Absent such exemptions, every social media user will be required to prove their age through age-verification or age-estimation tools.

“Bill C-34 should specify age-appropriate design requirements that apply based on children’s declared age,” said Tamir Israel, Director of Privacy, Technology and Surveillance at the CCLA. “Requiring social media platforms to adopt privacy by default, prohibitions on profiling and limits on endless scrolling can provide important online protection for children and others.”

“But mandating that every social media user verify their age is highly invasive, while verification measures frequently create disproportionate challenges for marginalized communities,” Israel added.

“Data from other jurisdictions also demonstrates that age-verification systems are ineffective, meaning that a ban will only make it more difficult for youth who inevitably bypass the measures to address the online harms they will continue to face. Those that choose to comply with the ban will be excluded from important sources of information and community.”

The bill also requires social media and chatbot operators to mitigate the risks that users will be exposed to seven categories of “harmful content”, including content that is currently legal, while further obligating AI chatbot operators to mitigate risks that the service itself will engage in “harmful behavior”.

“While we agree that some deeply disturbing content may require intervention, the categories of “harmful content” and AI behaviour should be defined more precisely to avoid transforming this new legislation into a censorship tool,” said Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, CCLA’s Fundamental Freedoms Director.

“Rather than stating that it does not require social media operators to implement measures that unreasonably or disproportionately limit users’ expression or privacy, the bill should explicitly prohibit such limitations.”