Social media algorithms and sextortion: B.C. bringing down the legislative hammer
CTV
British Columbia is about to roll out new legal tools to fight back against online sexual exploitation, while pursuing social media giants for the "harms" of their platforms in the same vein as tobacco and opioid producers.
British Columbia is about to roll out new legal tools to fight back against online sexual exploitation, while pursuing social media giants for the "harms" of their platforms in the same vein as tobacco and opioid producers.
Premier David Eby laid out plans to bring a legislative hammer down on sextortion attempts, with the implementation of an expedited process through the Civil Resolution Tribunal set to begin Monday that would allow complainants to get an order for specific images to be removed from social media platforms.
“This includes a person's private images, near-nude images, videos, livestreams, (and) digitally altered images, also known as deep fakes,” explained Attorney General Niki Sharma, describing sextortion as sexualized violence.
“No matter who you are, what your age is, you have the right to privacy and safety. No one has the right to hurt you.”
Eby also announced Friday that his government would be introducing “public harms legislation” in the upcoming legislative session that will be written much like suits brought against pharmaceutical companies.
“We believe that they have negligently designed these algorithms in a way that promotes their profits at the expense of the mental health of our kids and that's having very real costs,” he said, describing the rise in eating disorders, injuries from extreme stunts copycatted from social media, and educational programs for online safety as concrete expenses born by government.
CTV News has reached out to Meta, the parent company of Facebook, for a response to Eby’s comments and the incoming legislation, but the company has not responded.
