The European Union’s democracy commissioner said he won’t “lecture” Canada or any other country as the EU pushes ahead on regulating tech platforms and artificial intelligence.
Michael McGrath, the EU commissioner for democracy, justice, the rule of law and consumer protection, is visiting Canada as the Liberal government pursues an AI policy that puts less emphasis on regulation and more on adoption.
“It’s not for us to lecture … any third country. Each country will decide their own system of governance and their system of regulation in relation to technology,” he told The Canadian Press.
“But in the European Union, we believe that to defend the values that we have spoken about, it is crucial that we do have guardrails in place.”
He cited EU laws covering digital services, artificial intelligence and privacy and said the EU would “continue to stand up for and defend our approach.”
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon has cited the United States’ anti-regulation stance as a reason to go easy on regulatory efforts, saying Canada would be wasting its time by going it alone.
McGrath said Canada’s relationship with the U.S. is clearly very important.
“But also the relationship with the European Union, I think, is becoming more important,” he said.
He added that the EU respects the right of every country to decide its own policies but that it’s better for like-minded nations to be aligned on what he called “big global questions.”
On Thursday, McGrath addressed a conference in Montreal about ongoing threats to global digital regulation. His speech covered an upcoming bill that will tackle issues such as addictive design, unfair personalization and holding influencers accountable, as well as EU efforts to uphold democracy.
McGrath told The Canadian Press the EU, with its 27 member states, is large enough to make a real difference.
“We represent 450 million consumers. That is the largest and most lucrative market that these big tech companies operate within,” he added.
McGrath said he wants to find common ground with Canada on digital consumer protection issues.
“We all face similar challenges with the Chinese e-commerce platforms,” he said, adding the EU believes those platforms must respect consumer protection laws and safety standards.
“I think engagement with Canada and other like-minded partners on that is absolutely crucial.”
McGrath also plans to talk to MPs about the threats to democracy posed by deepfakes and artificial intelligence, as well as foreign interference.
He noted many of those threats are coming from the online environment.
“These are issues that have the potential to have a material impact on elections, and we certainly cannot ignore the risk,” he said.
