On Sunday, Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault criticized major tech
companies like Facebook for their inability and unwillingness to effecti


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Tech & Terrorism: Canadian Minister Criticizes Tech Industry’s Inability To
Self-Regulate

(New York, N.Y.) – On Sunday, Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault
criticized
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major tech companies like Facebook for their inability and unwillingness to
effectively stop the spread of hateful or extremist material on their
platforms. Guilbeault indicated that he would be introducing legislation to the
Canadian parliament “in the very near future” to address and resolve these
concerns.

 

Speaking on the status quo, Guilbeault stated that “these platforms can’t
regulate themselves. We’ve tried that and it’s simply not working.” More
pointedly, he also assailed the tech industry’s frequent refrain of wanting to
protect free speech by saying, “We have free speech in our society, but people
can’t say everything. You can’t verbally abuse someone. Well, we’re doing it in
the real world. We can do it in the virtual world as well.”

 

The remarks come as Facebook threatened
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to block local and international news to anyone in Australia last week after
the Australian government put forward a plan that would require tech companies
to share royalties with media organizations whose content is posted on their
sites.Critics
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have quickly pointed out that the company’s willingness to entirely remove
material that affects their bottom line contradicts its perpetually ineffectual
and half-hearted efforts to remove extremist content, as well their claims to
be protectors of free expression.

 

The developments in both Canada and Australia are the latest in mounting
pressure by global leaders to hold tech companies accountable for failing to
prevent the spread of harmful content.

 

This past year, the European Union put forth
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a proposal to address content moderation and liability issues with major tech
companies. The new measures aim to compel tech firms to pay more taxes and take
more responsibility for illegal content on their platforms. The EU’s Terrorist
Content Regulation proposalgenerated strong opposition
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from Facebook and other social media platforms. Additionally, Germany’s NetzDG
law has seen significantnoncompliance
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from tech companies, including Facebook. German lawmakers are currently
discussing several amendments to the NetzDG.

 

The tech industry’s blanket liability protection outlined under Section 230 of
the Communications Decency Act was also challenged this year with the U.S.
Department of Justice’s proposals to roll back several of its provisions. The
Justice Department offered a legislative plan that would have to be adopted by
Congress and would, among other things, remove companies’ immunity in cases
involving terrorist content.



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