The leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party (NDP) Jagmeet Singh said that he will continue to push Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government to crack down on online speech.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, on Wednesday, Singh said that Trudeau’s government “has not done the job of making sure platforms are following the rules around making sure hate and misinformation are not being spread.”
He continued to say that it is the responsibility of the government to crack down on content, adding, “We are going to continue to pressure the government to do this.”
Singh said that his party, which only has 25 elected members of parliament, would support a bill by Trudeau’s government that would ensure “social media platforms are adhering to proper guidelines around misinformation, around hate.”
“It has to be the government taking responsibility,” he reiterated.
NDP increases the numbers of the minority Liberal Party government in parliament and the two parties have a deal to keep Trudeau in power until 2025.
Singh made the comments as the Liberal government prepares to reintroduce the lapsed Bill C-36, which would result in censorship of legal content. Critics of the legislation warned that the bill could result in censorship of user-generated content and bloggers and even give the police the power to monitor online hate speech.
The government also fast-tracked Bill C-18, aka the “Online News Act,” which would require social media companies to pay establishment media for content. Critics argue that the bill would “kill” new outlets.
