Long-awaited online harms bill proposes new regulatory bodies, Criminal Code changes

The Liberal government is proposing new regulatory bodies and changes to a number of laws in new legislation to tackle online abuse.

The Online Harms Act, tabled Monday, proposes to police seven categories of harmful content online. Those categories include content used to bully a child and content that encourages a child to harm themselves.

They also include hate speech, content that incites violence or terrorism, content that sexualizes children or victims of sexual violence, and sexual content that is posted without consent.

The legislation would see the government establish a five-member digital safety commission to enforce the new rules. The commission would be empowered to order the removal of online content that sexualizes children or victims of sexual violence, and sexual content that is posted without consent.

The government also is proposing to establish a digital safety ombudsperson who would offer support to victims and guidance to social media companies.

The act also would amend the Criminal Code to increase sentences for spreading hate online. The Canadian Human Rights Act would be amended to allow complaints about online hate speech to be filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The legislation would impose new responsibilities on online platforms. Companies would be expected to assess, minimize and report risks to users, and provide tools to allow users to flag harmful content.

Platforms would be expected to remove certain content — content that sexualizes children or victims of sexual violence, and sexual content that is posted without consent — within 24 hours of a complaint being filed.

Online platforms covered by the bill include social media sites, live-streaming platforms and "user-uploaded adult content," says the bill.

Companies that don't follow the new regulations could face fines of up to $10 million or six per cent of their global revenues.

The Liberals pledged during the 2021 election campaign to introduce online harms legislation within the first 100 days of being re-elected.

Instead of meeting that self-imposed deadline, the government waited until March of 2022 to announce that it had created an expert advisory group "as the next step in developing legislation to address harmful online content."

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh indicated that his party would support the bill. But he criticized the Liberals for not acting sooner.

"They're inaction has meant that kids were harmed. That kids actually were exploited online because they failed to act," he said.