By Troy Gillard

Independent agency needed, she suggests

Order removal from social media of most-offensive material, ex-chief justice says

Apr 6, 2021 | 3:35 PM

The former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Canada says the country needs an independent agency to regulate social media with the power to order offending material to be taken down.

“The legal tools we have at the moment don’t seem to be coping with the fast spread of misinformation,” Beverly McLachlin told the latest episode of the World Press Freedom Canada podcast, Big Digital Lies.

Canada, she said, needs an independent social media regulator operating at arm’s length from government, and that watchdog should have the authority to order hate speech, disinformation and other harmful communication to be removed from social media sites, saying, “We need to have a takedown mechanism.”

The Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression, established last year by the Public Policy Forum, recommended in January that the federal government should pass legislation requiring social media platforms to “act responsibly” and establish an independent agency to enforce that duty.

McLachin said takedown powers should be used sparingly in cases of hate speech or harmful misinformation in order to avoid interference with freedom of speech.

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While the Constitution sets out freedom of expression as a fundamental right, its Charter of Rights and Freedoms allows government to place limits on that right in so far as they can be “demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”

Finding the proper balance between freedom and responsibility is fundamental to the government’s task in reining in the social media giants, McLachlin said.

The former chief justice also noted the social media platforms are doing more to police hate speech and disinformation but cannot be left to self-regulate.