What Is New and Different in Liberals’ Latest Attempt to Tackle Online Harms

Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller is seen during a news conference in Ottawa on June 10, 2026. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

The federal government tabled its third attempt at online harms legislation this week, but left out some of the most controversial elements from the last two.

Bill C-34, known as the Safe Social Media Act, was tabled by Culture Minister Marc Miller on June 10. It would create a new digital safety regime for social media platforms, AI chatbot services, and other online services, aiming to reduce harmful content online and make online service providers more “transparent and accountable.”

The Liberals’s first attempt to establish a federal online harms framework came through Bill C-36 in 2021, which died when Parliament was dissolved for the 2021 federal election. It drew criticism from the opposition over its scope, including concerns about how harmful speech was defined and the breadth of proposed regulatory powers.

The government returned to the issue in 2024 with Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, which focused more heavily on protecting children and addressing harmful online content. However, it also included controversial amendments to the Criminal Code and Canadian Human Rights Act, along with tougher penalties for certain hate-related offences.

After facing significant pushback, the government signalled it was open to splitting the legislation to advance child-protection measures separately. Bill C-63 ultimately died when Parliament was prorogued ahead of the 2025 federal election.

What’s New

Bill C-34 is centred on child protection, and includes new measures that were not included in the previous two bills, such as social media age limits, AI chatbot rules, and a new enforcement body.

The bill would require social media platforms to implement minimum-age restrictions that generally prohibit children under 16 from holding accounts. However, exemptions could be granted where a platform is deemed to have implemented adequate safeguards to protect children.

The bill also says social media services have a duty to “act responsibly,” by implementing measures that mitigate the risk that users will be exposed to “harmful content” on their platforms.

The bill defines harmful content to include the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor, content that encourages a child to harm themselves, content used to target or bully a child, content that foments hatred, content that incites violence, and terrorism or violent extremist content.

While platforms would not be required to proactively monitor all user content, they would be required to implement risk-mitigation measures and provide user-safety tools such as blocking and content-reporting functions. They would also be required to address AI-generated content, including ‘deepfakes,’ and publish publicly accessible “digital safety plans” outlining how they comply with the legislation.

Platforms would also have to implement age-verification or age-estimation measures to reduce the risk of children accessing pornographic content and remove child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate images within 24 hours of identifying the content, whether through their own systems or user reports.

The bill does not specify which specific platforms the restrictions would apply to, but sets out to establish a new Digital Safety Commission that would be responsible for enforcing the rules, ensuring compliance, looking into complaints, and levying penalties on platforms that break the rules. Companies that fail to comply could face fines of up to the greater of $10 million or 3 percent of their global revenue.

A teenager looks at the screen of a mobile phone in a file photo. Leon Neal/Getty Images

AI Chatbots

Bill C-34 would also bring AI chatbot services under the online safety regime, requiring operators to implement measures to mitigate the risk that chatbots communicate harmful content—a provision that was absent from Bill C-63.

Companies would be required to build in mandatory crisis-intervention protocols so that if a user expresses suicidal ideation, an intention to self-harm, or an intention to commit an act that could cause death or serious bodily harm to an individual, the service would “immediately interrupt its interaction with the user” and direct the user to human-operated crisis services.

Companies would also be required to reduce the risk of chatbots engaging in “harmful behaviours,” including falsely presenting themselves as human, impersonating licensed professionals such as doctors or lawyers while providing advice, using manipulative techniques to foster emotional dependency that encourages social withdrawal or detachment from reality, or promoting self-harm or suicide.

Similar to social media platforms, AI chatbot services would be required to submit digital safety plans and would be subject to enforcement by the Digital Safety Commission.

Miller said at a June 10 press conference announcing the bill that the legislation is necessary to protect minors from cyberbullying, sexual exploitation, and other online harms.

What’s Different From C-63

Bill C-63 was much broader than the new Bill C-34, as it included controversial amendments to the Criminal Code and the Canadian Human Rights Act that are not part of the new bill.

Those provisions would have created new hate-related Criminal Code offences and penalties, including the offence of committing an indictable offence motivated by hatred, while also reviving a civil human-rights process for online communications deemed likely to foment detestation or vilification. The bill also proposed significant financial penalties and, in some cases, substantially increased maximum sentences.

The bill would also have revived a version of Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, a former provision governing online hate speech that was repealed in 2013. Critics argued the measure was overly broad and subjective and could chill lawful expression by subjecting speech to civil penalties outside the criminal justice system.

Bill C-63 also proposed a Digital Safety Omsbudperson and a Digital Safety Office in addition to a Digital Safety Commission, but the new bill collapses all three functions into one.

Conservative member of Parliament Michael Barrett asks a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Oct. 24, 2025. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

Reactions

The federal Conservatives have not yet taken a formal position on Bill C-34, saying they are reviewing the legislation.

Conservative MP Michael Barrett told reporters on June 12 that all parliamentarians “agree that the protection of children should be at the fore of what we’re doing.”

He noted that the “unmonitored and unmanaged” use of social media platforms and AI chatbots has demonstrated a risk to children and that Conservatives want to see legislation that protects children and supports parents.

The bill will need to be studied “very closely” in committee, Barrett said, adding that Parliament needs to hear from experts, industry, law enforcement, and users’s families to ensure the legislation will effectively keep children safe.

Civil liberties advocates have raised concerns about the age-verification and age-estimation requirements proposed in the bill, arguing they could have implications for privacy and anonymity online. They say the measures must be effective, must not collect personal information beyond what is needed for verification, and platforms must destroy that information once verification is complete.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) says mandating that every social media user verify their age is “highly invasive,” while OpenMedia says these provisions could require widespread facial scans or ID checks across dozens of services used daily by Canadians.

“Canadians have shown again and again we don’t believe you should have to show your face or upload ID to live an ordinary online life. Our government needs to listen to them,” OpenMedia Executive Director Matt Hatfield said in a June 10 statement.

The Canadian Constitution Foundation raised concerns that Bill C-34 would undermine protections for freedom of expression, including speech that is controversial or unpopular, and “shift control over public discourse from Canadians to government-appointed regulators.”

Bill C-34 was introduced in the House of Commons on June 10 and will now proceed to second reading debate and then to committee, where witnesses will testify and amendments could be proposed. With the House of Commons raising for the summer next week, scrutiny is likely to begin in earnest in the fall.

Matthew Horwood and Paul Rowan Brian contributed to this report.