Any attempts to regulate the internet should steer clear of trying to manage what people have to say, for at best it leads to a quagmire of legal wrangling, while at worst it leads to suppression of free speech by the government, say former executives of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
“Early efforts in Canada to create federal regulatory frameworks for the internet, such as Bill C-10 and the ‘online harms’ proposals, were oblivious to this reality and widely panned as a result,” said Konrad von Finckenstein and Peter Menzies, former CRTC chair and vice-chair respectively, in a recent paper on how to address online harms while still protecting free speech.
