Clock ticking on promised but 'problematic' online harms bill. Will the Liberals reverse course?

Returning to the job as Canada's minister of heritage, Pablo Rodriguez is already facing questions about how he is going to stickhandle proposed sweeping new legislative and regulatory changes aimed at tamping down hate speech online, with the clock ticking on a self-imposed deadline and a barrage of stakeholders calling for the government to go back to the drawing board.

The proposed changes would force social media companies to be more accountable for, and transparent about, how they handle five kinds of harmful content on their platforms: hate speech, child exploitation, the sharing of non-consensual images, incitements to violence, and terrorism.

From accusations from the Official Opposition that the online harms bill will be “worse than Bill C-10” -- the Liberals’ contentious changes to the Broadcasting Act aimed at web giants and regulating Canadian content -- to stakeholders raising red flags about the consultation process undertaken this summer, the minister has a lot to contend with, and a short time to do so.

In the party’s campaign platform, the Liberals committed to bring forward the legislation “within its first 100 days,” stating that the changes “would make sure that social media platforms and other online services are held accountable for the content that they host.”

Asked on Tuesday after being sworn in as the Canadian heritage minister—a title he previously held between July 2018 and November 2019— Rodriguez was asked about the criticisms of the government’s proposal and whether he’s prepared to rework the approach before legislation is tabled.