Like many people, Dawn is concerned that social media seems to be fueling anger and dividing people. Others, like Soubhi, don’t have the same feeling; they believe that we should be free to say and do what we want online.
Posted at 11:00 a.m.
Fauzia sees things differently: she thinks it would be better to force everyone to use their real name online. For his part, Junior would like to know why it is possible to do things with impunity in cyberspace that would land us in serious trouble anywhere else.
All of these people have one thing in common. They responded to the invitation sent to them to voice their concerns on social networks.
The Canadian Citizens’ Assemblies on Democratic Expression and two parallel commissions were established in 2020. These low-key vehicles have served to propel ground-breaking thinking on how to effectively regulate digital platforms and other online service providers in Canada. line. A summary report of the work1 was recently published, in which members called on the federal government to act immediately to protect Canadians in their online activities.
The assemblies were created with the aim of defining a plan of action that the government could follow.
Rather than bringing together a focus group to identify the public’s major concerns, the exercise aimed to give 90 people, representing all regions of the country and both official languages, the opportunity to learn about the issues and to discuss it.
Members were asked to reflect on what steps should be taken to tackle the problem of “online harm” and “disinformation”, terms that may seem vague, but which cover subjects that concern a large majority of the population: the child predators; fraudsters; campaigns from abroad to spread misinformation and divide the population; and serial harassers – especially those targeting women, people of color and LGBTQ2I people.
The first assembly, which coincided with the start of the pandemic, featured no less than 32 virtual meetings. The second, which took place just before the arrival of the Omicron variant, combined virtual meetings and four days of in-person meetings in Ottawa. A final meeting was held last June with the aim of preparing a summary of the work carried out by the previous meetings, the commissions and a group of experts from the federal government.
Members of the assemblies heard from academics, industry representatives and politicians. Perhaps most importantly, they listened to each other. A process that was not always easy in a virtual echo chamber, but which nevertheless remained a central aspect of each meeting.
So what do Canadians want?
In their final report, the members call on the government to toughen up the laws in place and to crack down hard on the perpetrators of the most heinous harms, especially when they target children and vulnerable groups.
They are also calling for massive restrictions on the use of robots (bots) and, at a minimum, mandatory labeling with specific rules to restrict the ability of automated systems to exchange information and interact with real users.
Also extremely important, members are calling for better tools to be able to control what is seen and not seen online and the right of users to own their own data and move it easily between platforms – a change that would immediately competition between service providers. And they believe that creating a voluntary cross-platform system of authorized users would improve user accountability.
Additionally, they call for platforms to validate news sources and believe the government should continue to invest in high-quality journalism.
Furthermore, the members are calling for a monitoring mechanism worthy of the name. In the event of a problem, they would like to be able to resort to a third party capable of accepting their complaint and resolving the dispute. They also call for the establishment of a regulatory body to develop and enforce standards.
Members of the assemblies believe that it is up to the powerful corporations that provide the services to demonstrate that they are safe, as is the case with many consumer products, such as packaged food, cars and cosmetics.
In short, Canadians demand more oversight, transparency and accountability.
What the assemblies demonstrated is that people like Dawn, Soubhi, Fauzia and Junior may have different points of view, but these are not irreconcilable. As a society, we may not be as polarized as social media leads us to believe. Members of the public are capable of reaching common ground, provided they are given the opportunity, time and information.
Their findings offer the government a direction worth following.