So what is Bill C-63? C-63 aims to regulate 7 types of harmful online content on social media, live streaming, and adult websites.4 Three of these harms relate to child protection, including sexual abuse, bullying, and inducement to self-harm. Other content covered includes nonconsensually shared adult material, incitement to violence or terrorism, and hate speech. From an Internet-centered perspective, Bill C-63 makes some huge improvements on the government’s first proposals to manage online harms. Platforms are asked to develop risk mitigation plans for these harms, and share them with all the rest of us, so we can judge for ourselves how well they’re doing. They’re asked to empower their users with new tools to manage our experience on platforms and to automatically take down only the most vile and easily detectable Internet content – child abuse and nonconsensually shared adult content. Most of the worst ideas from 2021 – ideas like breaking private messaging, website blocking, and forcing platforms to surveil their users and report their speech content to the RCMP are totally GONE. This targeted approach is a good thing, and these portions of C-63 could make our Internet a better, safer place.5
But from here Bill C-63 goes off the rails. The new Online Harms Act is packaged with huge changes to Canada’s Criminal Code and Human Rights Act that risk seriously chilling lawful speech. C-63 introduces a new offence, “offence motivated by hatred”, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. It increases the penalty for “advocating genocide” from 5 years to life imprisonment. And most concerning of all, it creates a new category of “pre-crime” – a series of life limitations like drug testing or home arrest that can be imposed on a Canadian who has committed no crime, because a judge and attorney general believe they’re at risk of committing online hate speech.6,7 This could lead to serious injustices within the legal system and frighten Canadians away from engaging in political protest and discussing sensitive but necessary social topics. Absurdly, experts are saying these “tough” penalties will likely be used even less often than our existing hate speech laws– so what’s the point?8 Canada has hate speech laws, and the principal barrier to their use today is a failure to enforce them, not a lack of punitive power.9,10
We believe the solution to fixing Bill C-63 is clear. Experts and analysts are calling on our MPs to split the Bill – get the child protection portion of C-63 done now, and give the extreme hate speech changes the government wants far more lengthy consideration and debate.11,12
A split C-63 will give MPs time and space to put appropriate safeguards on the considerable authority C-63 gives the new Digital Safety Commission, to ensure its decisions are transparently made, proportionate, and subject to democratic and judicial review and oversight. Rapid action on clear child abuse and nonconsensually shared material is a clear benefit to Canadians, but the broad powers granted to the Commission will still require independent review to ensure they’re used appropriately.13,14
The bottom line? We don’t need to give up our rights and chill Canadians’ speech to secure protection for vulnerable Canadians. Bill C-63 could do a lot of good, but it's going to need some serious fixing up. That’s why we’re calling on the government to pass the good parts of C-63 so Canadians finally have strong safeguards online, and separate and reconsider the problematic portions. Will you email your MP to ask them to keep the good in C-63 and take out the bad?
Need more information before you’re ready to act? Check out OpenMedia’s FAQ about Bill C-63!