Platform Governance Essay Series / Gouvernance des plateformes : Série de rédactions

Join us for our next #DigitalPolicyRounds event

Join us for our next #DigitalPolicyRounds event

Join us for our next#DigitalPolicyRounds event

Join us for our second #DigitalPolicyRounds event

Global coordination and potentially new international regimes for online regulation are needed. No single government can effectively protect democratic values from the triple impact of the transnational flow of information, the asymmetric power of tech companies, and the illiberal behavior of particular governments. The goal of this multi-event conference is to address this global governance challenge head-on.

Although recent progress has been made with the naming of children in Bill C-27, there are a series of additional concerns related to digital privacy, including the use of facial recognition and other artificial intelligence technologies, impacting the potential harm that children can face in their online activity.

As part of its newly re-introduced overhaul of privacy legislation, the federal government has included a completely novel regime to regulate AI through the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA). An incredible virtual panel of experts sifted through the Act and provided their initial analysis and reactions.

Following the model of Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, the Government of Canada has just announced the Online News Act (Bill C-18), which compels digital platforms to engage with outlets and pay for news. Hear experts’ takes on the tabled legislation in this roundtable discussion.

The Media Ecosystem Observatory convened an expert roundtable of journalists, academics, and other defenders against misinformation to discuss what they have learned, how it threatens democracy, and how we can combat it.

Research Director Sonja Solomun chatted with Wendy Hui Kyong Chun about her newly published book, “Discriminating Data: Correlation, Neighborhoods, and the New Politics of Recognition” (MIT Press).

The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy, the Ada Lovelace Institute, and the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) hosted a discussion of the challenges and opportunities raised by legislation aimed at addressing “online harms” and how regulators charged with enforcing these powers might consider proceeding.

This event introduced the Cybersecure Policy Exchange’s new report, Rebuilding Canada’s Public Square, and responded to the Government of Canada’s recent proposal for new legislation to address illegal online content, presenting the results of a new survey of 2,500 Canadians’ perspectives of social media.

The Centre for Media, Technology & Democracy has been working alongside the Digital Democracies Institute (Simon Fraser University) and the Centre d’études sur les médias (Laval University), analyzing the role of funding in the dissemination of mis/disinformation online across different news websites in Canada. This panel discussion outlined their final report’s findings.

The Centre for Media, Technology, and Democracy at McGill University and Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (Technology, Media, and Communications Specialization) launched Anya Schiffrin's book, "Media Capture: How Money, Digital Platforms, and Governments Control the Media."

Professors Taylor Owen and Anya Schiffrin chatted with Australia’s Rod Sims, the architect of the controversial Australian News Media Code which requires Google and Facebook to pay for news. Can the Code be replicated in other countries? Should it be? How should it be adapted to ensure the Code helps independent news and not just large media houses?

The Max Bell School of Public Policy and the Max Bell Foundation, hosted Regulating the Internet: Can Canadian Democracy Survive Big Tech?, a panel discussion on whether the government should regulate online platforms and the internet more broadly.

Professors Taylor Owen and Anya Schiffrin spoke with Steve Waldman, Julia Cagé, and Edward Greenspon about international trends to support media outlets, including tax subsidies, philanthropic support by non-profits, and new laws addressing inequality in bargaining power between news content producers and digital platforms. This event was co-organized with Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Democracy is in peril. A steady stream of evidence from around the world – from election interference and ubiquitous surveillance, to massive data abuses, coordinated mis/disinformation campaigns and rising extremism and online hate – point to our digital infrastructure as the culprit. The Centre hosted a monthly reading group exploring related themes.

Centering on the voices of women leading the charge to ensure our civil rights are protected, Coded Bias asks two key questions: what is the impact of Artificial Intelligence’s increasing role in governing our liberties? And what are the consequences for people stuck in the crosshairs due to their race, color, and gender? This was a Q&A with the filmmaker.

Part I of the 2020 Beaverbrook Public Lecture featured acclaimed author and professor Shoshana Zuboff. Dr. Zuboff’s lecture, “The Future of Surveillance Capitalism,” built from her critically acclaimed book, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power and shined a critical light on the realities of the western world’s contemporary digital landscape.