If you think Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau went too far in stripping citizen’s rights away during the COVID-19 pandemic, think again.
Canadian Justice Minister Arif Virani has proposed a bill that would allow judges to sentence people to prison if they advocate for genocide on the Internet.
Designed to make social media platforms “safer,” critics claim the bill is a government overreach.
The Online Harms Act (Bill C-63) would allow for life sentences to adults and also allow a provincial judge to impose house arrest, as well as a hefty fine if there was reason to believe a defendant “will commit an offense.”
Virani argued that if there can be laws regulating children’s toys, then there should be laws aimed at doing the same with social media. He said that he is “Terrified of the dangers that lurk on the internet for our children.”
A government spokesperson said the bill would increase the maximum penalty specifically for “advocating genocide from 5 years to life imprisonment and from two years to five years, on indictment, for the willful promotion of hatred.”
Via the Government of Canada’s webpage, the act is a “baseline standard for online platforms to keep Canadians safe—to hold online platforms accountable for the content they host.”
The website continued:
Bill C-63 will create stronger protections for kids online and better safeguard everyone in Canada from online hate. The bill sets out a new vision for safer and more inclusive participation online. The proposed Online Harms Act would specifically target seven types of harmful content:
- Content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor;
- Intimate content communicated without consent;
- Content used to bully a child;
- Content that induces a child to harm themselves;
- Content that foments hatred;
- Content that incites violence; and
- Content that incites violent extremism or terrorism.
Notable author Maragaret Atwood described the bill as being “Orwellian.”
“If this account of the bill is true, it’s Lettres de Cachet all over again. The possibilities for revenge false accusations + thoughtcrime stuff are sooo inviting! Trudeau’s Orwellian online harms bill,” Atwood wrote on X.
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