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The Justice Centre announces the launch of a national campaign urging Canadians to contact their Members of Parliament in opposition to Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act. Bill C-34 goes far beyond protecting children from harmful online content and prohibiting AI companies from encouraging users to commit crimes. It implements a social media ban for minors, effectively regulates AI chatbot inputs and outputs, and grants the federal Cabinet broad powers to regulate the internet in the future. The Justice Centre invites concerned Canadians to participate in this national campaign by using the Justice Centre’s online letter-writing software to send a pre-written letter to their Members of Parliament and to Prime Minister Mark Carney. Read the full story and send a letter to your Member of Parliament opposing Bill C-34 today: jccf.ca/justice-centre-launc… Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller during a June 10 press conference on Bill C-34 (Photo credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)

Bill C-34 creates a social media ban for Canadians under 16 at the expense of all Canadians' privacy. Sections 26, 27(1), and 27(2) of Bill C-34 require that affected social media platforms “implement age-verification and age-estimation measures designed to prevent a person under the age of 16 from being able to have an account with, or be otherwise registered with,” those social media platforms. Bill C-34 requires that such measures must provide for the “protection” and eventual “destruction” of “personal information that is collected for age-verification or age-estimation purposes.” It is not yet clear how this will be accomplished. What is clear is that these measures must be “effective.” Users commonly verify their age by submitting government-issued identification documents, such as driver’s licenses or passports. And, the technology exists for social media platforms to estimate the ages of users through biometric data, e.g., facial geometry, eye shape, skin elasticity, hairline, etcetera. This age-verification and age-estimation monitoring will not be limited to Canadians under age 16. For social media platforms to determine access eligibility for any user, platforms will have to evaluate the access eligibility of every user. The goal of Bill C-34 is not merely to remove Canadians under age 16 from affected social media platforms but to keep them off those platforms. To achieve this goal, social media platforms may be compelled to adopt ongoing age-verification/estimation measures to ensure continued compliance. However affected social media platforms satisfy these requirements, Bill C-34 fundamentally reimagines how all Canadians access social media. This Bill deputizes affected social media platforms into forcing Canadians to surrender more data as a precondition of participation in the digital public square. This, in turn, raises serious concerns about Canadians' privacy rights and may engage constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure - guaranteed by section 8 of the Charter. Read the full text of the bill here: parl.ca/documentviewer/en/45…