Impending Online Hate Speech Legislation Worries Free Speech Advocates

Impending Online Hate Speech Legislation Worries Free Speech Advocates
Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault speaks with the media in the Foyer of the House of Commons in Ottawa on February 3, 2020.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian press
Lee Harding
Updated:

A federal bill to combat harmful content and hate speech online is expected to be tabled soon, but free speech advocates are concerned that it may be too restrictive. Critics are also sounding the alarm on amendments to the existing Bill C-10 that seeks to regulate video content on platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.

The hate speech bill soon to be tabled will create a new regulator with the power to levy fines and require transparency from social media outlets, including about their algorithms. The legislation will also set out a legal framework for prohibiting hate speech, terrorist content, content that incites violence, non-consensual sharing of intimate content, and child sexual exploitative content.

Lee Harding
Lee Harding
Author
Lee Harding is a journalist and think tank researcher based in Saskatchewan, and a contributor to The Epoch Times.
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