Here’s what you need to know about Ottawa’s new policies on social media and AI

Bill C-34, introduced on June 10, would force social media platforms to block access for kids under 16. Platforms will be able to obtain an exemption if they put sufficient safeguards in place — unless they offer adult content.

But many details about how the ban will work won’t be decided for a while.

For instance, beyond the big social media sites like X and Facebook, it’s not clear exactly which platforms will be affected. That will be up to federal cabinet, which will issue a directive once the bill becomes law.

The bill doesn’t set out a specific method to verify age. When asked which methods the government is considering, Culture Minister Marc Miller said there will be “a back and forth with platforms as to what protects people’s privacy and what is adequate and sufficient in the circumstances.”

Enforcement will be left to a sweeping new digital regulator, the Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission of Canada, which also will have responsibility for privacy laws that apply to tech companies.

The regulator will decide whether age-verification methods used by companies are effective and respect people’s privacy. It will also decide whether social media platforms qualify for exemptions to the age ban.

Are there restrictions on kids using chatbots?

The digital safety bill imposes a duty to act “responsibly” on the companies behind AI chatbots. That includes measures to lower the risk of chatbots communicating harmful content and crisis intervention protocols for cases involving self-harm, suicide or violence.

But there are no outright age restrictions for chatbots, as there are for social media platforms. Miller said that’s because chatbots are different from social media.

“They play a function and a role that can be very damaging towards kids, but can also play an important function in the educational system and in the AI strategy that we are putting forward,” he told reporters when he introduced the bill.

What’s in the new privacy bill?

Bill C-36, introduced June 15, would recognize privacy as a fundamental right of all Canadians.

It says organizations have to follow higher standards when they manage children’s data. The bill also would require organizations to be transparent about automated decision-making when it comes to significant decisions about people.

The new Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission will be in charge of enforcing the privacy bill. The commission will be able to issue binding orders and levy fines — which can go as high as $25 million, or five per cent of global revenue, for the most serious offences. These are powers the federal privacy commissioner has been requesting for years.

The government has said the bill will enable it to tackle surveillance pricing — the use of algorithms to deploy a shopper’s personal data to set prices in real time. But that term isn’t actually in the text.

Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon said one of his first acts once the bill passes will be to tell the regulator to issue guidance on what counts as surveillance pricing and to ensure that rewards points programs don’t count.

What’s the government doing about deepfakes?

The privacy bill includes the right to deletion, giving individuals the ability to make a written request to organizations to delete their personal information. Solomon told reporters that measure will cover deepfakes.

The government also passed a separate bill this week that criminalizes non-consensual sexual deepfakes.

A House of Commons committee amended Bill C-16 to ensure it covers “nearly nude” images after experts warned the original version of the bill likely would not apply to many of the deepfakes created by Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot which proliferated on his X platform at the beginning of this year.

What else is in the digital safety and privacy bills?

Both bills are long-awaited pieces of legislation that follow earlier failed attempts by the Liberal government. Both set out powers and responsibilities for the new digital regulator.

The digital safety bill also would require social media platforms to remove two types of content within 24 hours — content that sexually victimizes a child or re-victimizes a survivor, and non-consensual intimate images.

Social media platforms also will have a duty under the law to act responsibly. That means reducing the risk users will encounter harmful content, labelling “synthetically generated content” and making it easy to flag harmful content and block other users, the government said in a background document.

The companies behind social media platforms and AI chatbots also have a specific duty under the law to protect children. The government said that means they must “implement design features to make their services safer for children.”

The privacy bill will “require meaningful consent for the use of personal information and plain-language explanations for how personal information is handled,” the government said in a news release.

It would also allow for data mobility — the right of an individual to move their data between organizations — and require risk assessments before organizations move Canadians’ information outside of the country, among other measures.

When do all these new laws kick in?

Both the digital safety and privacy bills were introduced shortly before the House of Commons went on summer break. That means nothing will happen until MPs come back for the fall session on Sept. 21

Both bills will have to go through the legislative process, which includes committee studies and votes in the House of Commons and Senate. Assuming the bills become law, cabinet will issue a directive on implementing the digital safety bill.

But the new digital safety and privacy regulator is expected to take 18 months to set up, meaning the provisions in the two bills aren’t expected to be fully in place before 2028.

What about the AI strategy?

On June 4, the government unveiled a national AI strategy that sets out to increase Canadians’ use of artificial intelligence.

It outlines $2.3 billion in new and expanded funding.

The strategy includes a new literacy initiative to offer entry-level AI training to all Canadians, and a move to ensure “all post-secondary students have access to trusted AI agents.”

The strategy promises to create up to 90,000 AI-related jobs for young people. It also says up to 250,000 new jobs will be created through AI adoption by 2031.

The document focuses on trust in AI as a key factor and points to the digital safety and privacy bills as tools to tackle some of Canadians’ fears about the technology.

What’s new with streamers and Cancon?

On June 3, Ottawa said it would direct the CRTC to back down from a decision to triple the financial contributions streamers like Netflix must make towards Canadian content. It said it will instead provide $600 million in annual funding directly to the sector.

The decision came after the Motion Picture Association, the U.S. group representing streamers, called on cabinet to reconsider the current approach, and after the U.S. ambassador to Canada called for the policy to be rescinded.

The CRTC made the decision as part of its work to implement the Online Streaming Act, which the U.S. had identified as a trade irritant.

Ottawa must now issue a new directive to the regulator specifying how it should implement that legislation. It did not do that before the House of Commons rose for the summer on Thursday.

by The Canadian Press