The Online Harms Act is currently the talk of Canada. As the government’s website describes it, The internet is an exceptional tool for people of all ages to learn, play and connect with family, friends and those with similar interests. However, just like the outside world, the digital world can pose significant dangers. Social media can be used to sexually exploit children, promote self-harm to children, incite violence, put people’s safety at risk and foment hate. Online harms have real-world impacts with tragic, even fatal, consequences. The Government of Canada has introduced legislation to hold social media platforms accountable for addressing harmful content on their platforms and for creating a safer online space that protects all people in Canada, especially kids. As something that addresses speech on the internet – and includes some strong penalties for spreading hate speech – the Act has led to massive debates. I won’t summarize them here, but you can read thoughtful critiques from Professor Michael Geist and you can listen to a discussion on Canadaland’s Backbench to get a sense of things. My interest here is not to delve into the controversies, but instead read the Act while wearing my Mastodon admin hat. I am one of the two admins of AoIR.social, a Mastodon instance for members of the Association of Internet Researchers. AoIR.social gives our members access to the fediverse – the global network of thousands of social media servers, with millions of users engaged in social media activities. An initial question: does the Act apply to the tens of thousands of fediverse instances with their millions of users? Does it thus apply to AoIR.social? Considering that the Act defines “social media service” as “a website or application that is accessible in Canada, the primary purpose of which is to facilitate interprovincial or international online communication among users of the website or application by enabling them to access and share content” (page 5), then the answer is yes. AoIR.social operates internationally, including in Canada. So do many of the other tens of thousands of fediverse servers. Since I’m one of the two admins of AoIR.social, am I affected? I believe so: I would be an “operator,” “a person that, through any means, operates a regulated service.” It could also be that the AoIR organization itself would be the operator, since in this Act “person” also applies to corporations. The Act would create a Digital Safety Commission, an agency that would govern social media services. The Act notes this Commission should consider things like the size of the service and the operator’s financial and technical abilities. This is good – many fediverse instances are small and are run by individuals or a handful of folks. They also often run on very small budgets as not-for-profit organizations. Regardless, however, I believe small fediverse servers would be affected (unless they find a way to not be available to Canadians). So: will the Act radically affect fediverse instances, such as AoIR.social? The Act specifically says our service should not harm freedom of expression, and reading it leads me to believe that AoIR.social won’t be affected in that manner. While we welcome debate and discussion, we’re not in the business of platforming the sorts of harmful content the Act discusses. But, the implementation of the Act could prove to be very burdensome to the administration of fediverse instances, such as AoIR.social. Much is going to hinge on how the Act understands the fediverse.
