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Results: 1 - 15 of 48
View Martin Champoux Profile
BQ (QC)
View Martin Champoux Profile
2021-03-29 11:28
I will interpret that response as a no. So I have to conclude that you don't have any francophone moderators in Quebec. It was a simple question that you could have answered with yes or no, but you are telling me that you do not want to disclose this information. That's all right.
Mr. Chan, you remember the sad events in Christchurch. I was asking you if you control the content that goes out on your platform, because we're discussing what information Facebook allows, and you have some control over what is broadcast on your platform. For 17 minutes, the Christchurch killer broadcast his actions live on the Facebook platform.
Do you think you could have stopped that broadcast at that time?
Kevin Chan
View Kevin Chan Profile
Kevin Chan
2021-03-29 11:29
We were able to detect it and remove it, ultimately, as you point out. Of course we regret the tragedy and we regret that we were not even faster. We have obviously learned a lot from that terrible incident, not just at Facebook. To be fair, we've worked across the sector to build systems and protocols—with governments as well—to ensure that the entire system actually works, not just on Facebook, but across companies, across platforms and with governments. We've built these protocols to move much faster should the regrettable and unfortunate thing happen again.
View Heather McPherson Profile
NDP (AB)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just have some quick questions for the witnesses on some of the online hate regulations.
Mr. Chan, in your last appearance before the committee, you stated that Facebook supports legislation that sets standards to prohibit hateful content online and that the current self-regulation of platforms is not sustainable.
Do you agree that the government's delay in introducing legislation is exacerbating the spread of hateful content online?
Kevin Chan
View Kevin Chan Profile
Kevin Chan
2021-03-29 11:53
I really don't know, ma'am.
First of all, we haven't seen a proposal, so I don't want to speculate on what it may or may not include. I can tell you that at Facebook, we have rules in our community standards about harmful content. We are working hard every day to enforce our community standards.
View Heather McPherson Profile
NDP (AB)
Do you think the government should provide for sufficiently strong monetary and criminal penalties to encourage platforms to act quickly to remove hateful content?
Kevin Chan
View Kevin Chan Profile
Kevin Chan
2021-03-29 11:54
Ma'am, again, I haven't seen any specific proposals. As I've said elsewhere, it is probably unwise to comment on something that hasn't been presented to anybody.
View Heather McPherson Profile
NDP (AB)
Maybe just from your own perspective, even though you have [Technical difficulty—Editor] make sense for there to be strong monetary and criminal penalties, if social media platforms don't take off hateful comment in a timely manner?
Kevin Chan
View Kevin Chan Profile
Kevin Chan
2021-03-29 11:54
As you may know, there are already criminal provisions under the law in Canada. Obviously, the platform and Facebook and other Internet companies live with that framework.
View Heather McPherson Profile
NDP (AB)
I'm assuming that's a yes, and that you also agree that there would be a reason for us to be able to use judicial and financial penalties to hold Facebook to account if it were not taking down hateful content in a timely manner.
Kevin Chan
View Kevin Chan Profile
Kevin Chan
2021-03-29 11:55
We've indicated that yes, if we aren't seen to be in good faith building the right systems to enforce against our standards, then absolutely we should be subject to some kind of penalty and held to account.
View Anthony Housefather Profile
Lib. (QC)
I understand and appreciate that, Mr. Chan, but your CEO, before Congress, committed not to establishing Spanish-speaking moderators but increasing the number of Spanish-speaking moderators in the United States, so he disclosed that there were Spanish-speaking moderators in the United States.
I don't understand how we cannot know if there are French-speaking moderators in Canada. We're not asking who they are or where they are. I would request that you get back to the committee in writing if you are able to disclose whether there are or are not French-speaking moderators in Canada.
Let me move to another question.
You said that all Facebook policies are published, and I appreciate that. However, you have guidelines that you give to the content moderators that are not published. The Guardian, on March 23, [Technical difficulty—Editor] moderators, and noted that it spelled out differentiations between protections for private and public individuals.
In Quebec, several mayors have said they will not run in the next election because they have received threats on social media.
[Technical difficulty—Editor] that, given that people in Quebec now are not running for re-election because of social media, I'm a bit concerned that the guidelines seem to specify that private individuals cannot be targeted with calls for death on Facebook, but public figures simply cannot be purposely exposed to such calls.
Therefore, it would be interpreted that it is legitimate under Facebook's harassment policies to call for the death of a public figure as long as the user does not tag them in the post. Are these reports about these policies accurate in terms of the guidelines being given to moderators?
Kevin Chan
View Kevin Chan Profile
Kevin Chan
2021-03-29 12:04
I don't know about those specific guidelines because, again, you'll appreciate, sir, that I haven't seen those specific guidelines.
I can tell you, though, that our posture with respect to public figures and private citizens is consistent with the way the law has evolved in terms of the different thresholds that would pertain to a private citizen versus a public figure. That's just the reality of how the law has evolved and how the courts have interpreted these thresholds for a public figure versus a private citizen.
I would definitely say that in all cases where there is a credible threat to an individual, whether public or private, we obviously work with law enforcement to make sure we get to the bottom of it, and we take it very seriously.
View Marci Ien Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Marci Ien Profile
2021-03-29 12:11
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. You're doing an excellent job today.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here.
Mr. Chan, I want to start with you and focus on hate speech, if I might, for a bit. We have seen what has happened with anti-Asian hate. A lot of it was born on social media and ramped up because of that. It has been reported that per capita there is more anti-Asian hate and there are more incidents thereof in Canada, in fact, than in the United States.
I'm just wondering, with regard to Facebook and how you run things, whether anything has changed. Have you ramped up efforts to curb that kind of hate?
Kevin Chan
View Kevin Chan Profile
Kevin Chan
2021-03-29 12:12
Our approach is uniform across the system, which is that derogatory language or discriminatory language targeted at specific groups, whether they be Asian or otherwise, is a violation of our community standards. We would enforce the same way across the system.
From my own personal experience working at Facebook, I can't say we have seen an uptick on enforcement. Certainly nothing has been escalated to my desk or to my screen, but I obviously read with concern the same things you're reading in the news about the challenge that Asian-Canadians are facing.
View Marci Ien Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Marci Ien Profile
2021-03-29 12:13
For example, if something were to be found, Mr. Chan, a post on Facebook that contained hate, what happens? Can you walk us through that?
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