Platform Responsibility and Regulation in Canada: Considerations on Transparency, Legislative Clarity, and Design

Executive Summary

Ahead of Canada's speculative take-down legislation, CMTD Research Director Sonja Solomun, Policy Fellow Helen Hayes, and former Legal Fellow Maryna Polataiko published an article in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology Digest outlining legislative considerations on transparency, clarity, and design. Without weighing in on the merits of take-down legislation, the article highlights the importance of transparency reporting and detailed legislation that clearly defines categories of speech and establishes both notice and counter-notice requirements.

The article responds to a federal mandate from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directing the Ministers of Canadian Heritage, Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and Innovation, Science, and Industry to develop a "Canadian approach" to online speech regulation, and echoes recommendations from the Centre's own Canadian Commission on Democratic Expression (CCDE) for robust transparency protocols. Drawing on the Santa Clara Principles and the Manila Principles, the authors argue for robust and mandatory transparency reporting to guard against excessive and arbitrary content removal.

On legislative design, the article recommends Canada's bill be clear on two fronts: definitions of unlawful speech that must be removed, and notice and counter-notice requirements, which the authors argue help prevent over-removal by guiding platform responses and restraining abuses of the take-down system. The piece draws on international precedents including Germany's Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), the EU's Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, and the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and situates counter-notice mechanisms within the broader platform governance agenda centered on due process, transparency, and freedom of expression.