Discussion · Government Orders
Yasir Naqvi Liberal
“We should not name specific platforms like Facebook or Instagram in this bill. Companies and technology change over time. The law needs to focus on stopping online harms, and the regulator will make sure the rules keep doing that.”
“Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her very thoughtful comment and feedback on this important issue. I will start by saying that naming specific platforms may be problematic because legislation needs to be agnostic. What we really need to focus on is the technology and the algorithms that continue to evolve. Some companies, such as Facebook and Instagram, that exist today may not exist tomorrow. We need to write a piece of legislation that passes the test of time, so to speak, so I think our focus really should be on the harms and how to reduce their impact. That is why the regulator would be really important, because it could do the analysis to ensure that the regulations would address the harms we are trying to address here.”
Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for her very thoughtful comment and feedback on this important issue. I will start by saying that naming specific platforms may be problematic because legislation needs to be agnostic. What we really need to focus on is the technology and the algorithms that continue to evolve. Some companies, such as Facebook and Instagram, that exist today may not exist tomorrow. We need to write a piece of legislation that passes the test of time, so to speak, so I think our focus really should be on the harms and how to reduce their impact. That is why the regulator would be really important, because it could do the analysis to ensure that the regulations would address the harms we are trying to address here.