Fight online hate and radicalization

As seen in attacks on Jewish communities in Pittsburgh, San Diego County, Jersey City, and Monsey, as well as on mosques in Christchurch and elsewhere, online threats can – and often do – lead to real-world violence. 

CIJA has advocated for years for the Government of Canada to create a legal framework to tackle online hate. In 2019, the House of Commons Justice Committee conducted a study of online hate. Its report included a series of recommendations in line with CIJA’s proposals – including a robust plan to track online hate, prevent online hate through education, and make better use of legal tools to stop online hate.

In 2024, the Government introduced the C-63, the Online Harms Act. This legislation contained many of the specific demands CIJA had been advocating for, including an independent regulator and regulatory regime, a definition of hate aligned with Supreme Court jurisprudence, requirements for social media companies to increase transparency on internal policies, procedures, and real penalties for non-compliance.

This legislation is a strong start, but there is still room for improvement. As this legislation moves through Parliament, CIJA is advocating for the following changes to the bill and to Canada’s approach to dealing with online hate:

Recommendations

• That the IHRA definition of antisemitism – the most consensual definition, fruit of years of consultations with Jewish communities, experts, lawyers, diplomats and governments – be used explicitly as a tool for the new regulatory body to determine whether it is a case of antisemitism.
• Clarification of what a “duty to act responsibly” by social media companies means in practice.
• Requirement for annual public progress reports by the Digital Safety Commissioner to the Parliament of Canada.
• Broadening the scope of mandatory reporting to police to include threats that could directly affect our communities, as defined under the legislation’s scope of hate and terror.
• Ensuring social media platforms’ digital safety reports are available publicly and include algorithmic transparency.
• Ensure that smaller and emerging platforms, not just large ones like Meta and X (formerly Twitter), are not exempt – as this is where haters often migrate to.
• In addition to the Online Harms Act, Canada needs a national, social media literacy campaign to sensitize Canadians – especially the younger, more vulnerable demographics – about the appropriate use of and abuse of social media.
• The federal government must also direct Statistics Canada to address the gap in data collection by allocating resources to create a national database of hate crimes where individuals can report online hate incidents.