Weekly Newsletter for April 2, 2024

Weekly News (April 2, 2024)

Compiled by Brad McNeil and Kyle Wyndham-West with Sara Bannerman

McMaster University, Communications Governance Observatory

(March 27 – April 2, 2024)

Canadian News 

• [ONLINE HARMS BILL] Justice Minister says online harms bill would blunt Supreme Court ruling making child pornography investigations harder (Globe and Mail) 
• [ONLINE HARMS BILL] MPs, religious groups seek to end religious hate-speech defence in online harms bill (Globe and Mail) 
• [HATE SPEECH] Open letter to Canada’s political leaders calls for greater civility in public discourse (Globe and Mail) 
• [COPYRIGHT] Teacher Secretly Sold His Students’ Art on Mugs and Shirts, Lawsuit Says (New York Times) 
• [TELECOMMUNICATIONS] More Canadians have ditched traditional TV as streamers are ‘winning the battle,’ report suggests (Globe and Mail) 
• [FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION] Hamilton trustee punished for revealing secret conduct probe on Gaza posts  (Hamilton Spectator) 
• [PRIVACY] DARTS scrambling over potential privacy breach linked to lost DVRs that recorded riders  (Hamilton Spectator) 
• [CYBERSECURITY] Some Giant Tiger customer data compromised in ‘incident’ linked to third-party vendor (Globe and Mail) 
• [CYBERSECURITY] Town of Huntsville confirms it was hit by ransomware attack (Global News) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND DATA BILL/ONLINE HARMS BILL] OPINION: Aaron Wudrick: Government overregulation could jeopardize Canada’s artificial-intelligence chances (Globe and Mail) 
• [ONLINE HARMS BILL] OPINION: Christine Van Gyen: Name-calling won’t silence Justin Trudeau’s critics. Maybe it’s time for his Liberals to stop lecturing and start listening  (Toronto Star) 
• [ONLINE HARMS BILL] OPINION: Supriya Dwivedi: Have you heard the one about Justin Trudeau attacking your free speech online? Trust me: That’s just rage farming  (Toronto Star) 
• [PLATFORM REGULATION] OPINION: Robert Diab: Why Ontario school boards are suing social media platforms for causing an attention crisis (The Conversation) 
• [MEDIA/BROADCASTING] OPINION: Rick Salutin: Crappy as it is, the CBC may turn out to be the hero we need  (Toronto Star) 

International News

• [PRIVACY/PLATFORM GOVERNANCE] Google Pledges to Destroy Browsing Data to Settle ‘Incognito’ Lawsuit (Wall Street Journal) 
• [FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION/ELECTIONS] Turkey election monitors say ‘more needs to be done’ to ensure freedom of expression (Reuters) 
• [CENSORSHIP] Drawing Fury of China’s Censors  (New York Times) 
• [JOURNALISM/CENSORSHIP] Authoritarians Threaten Journalists Around the Globe (Wall Street Journal) 
• [HATE SPEECH/FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION] Scottish Hate Crime Law Takes Effect as Critics Warn It Will Stifle Speech  (New York Times) 
• [COMPETITION] Regulators Force Another Microsoft Split (New York Times) 
• [PRIVACY] Meta cannot delay US FTC from reopening privacy probe, court says (Reuters) 
• [CENSORSHIP] Florida had more books challenged for removal than any other state in 2023, library organization says (USA Today)
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/PRIVACY] For Data-Guzzling AI Companies, the Internet Is Too Small (Wall Street Journal) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/REGULATION] US Congress bans staff use of Microsoft’s AI Copilot, Axios reports (Reuters) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/ELECTIONS] Hillary Clinton, Election Officials Warn AI Threatens the 2024 Election (Wall Street Journal) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/ONLINE HARMS] Students used AI to create nude photos of their classmates. For some, arrests came next. (USA Today) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/ADVERTISEMENTS] How the Ad Industry Is Making AI Images Look Less Like AI (Wall Street Journal) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/REGULATION] US, Britain announce partnership on AI safety, testing (Reuters) 
• [DISINFORMATION] Prigozhin Is Dead, but His Troll Farms Are Alive and Peddling Disinformation (Wall Street Journal) 

• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] OpenAI Reveals Audio Feature That Clones Human Voices (Wall Street Journal) 
• [PLATFORM REGULATION/ONLINE HARMS] Inside a High-Stakes Fight to Limit Social Media’s Hold on Children (New York Times) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE/REGULATION] The AI Industry Is Steaming Toward A Legal Iceberg (Wall Street Journal) 
• [CYBERSECURITY] 4 Things You Need to Know About Health Care Cyberattacks (New York Times) 
• [CONTENT MODERATION] How the Israel-Hamas War Has Roiled TikTok Internally (New York Times) 
• [TELECOMMUNICATIONS] Landlines are dying out. But to some, they’re a lifeline.  (Washington Post) 
• [PRIVACY] AI hustlers stole women’s faces to put in ads. The law can’t help them. (Washington Post) 
• [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] I tried the new Google. Its answers are worse. (Washington Post) 
• [CYBERSECURITY/DATA BREACH] Telecom  AT&T Reset 7.6 Million Customers’ Passcodes After Data Breach (Wall Street Journal) 
• [MISINFORMATION] Online Sleuthing, Driven by Conspiracies, Shows Dark Side of Social Media  (New York Times) 
• [DEFAMATION] From Pizzagate to the 2020 Election: Forcing Liars to Pay or Apologize (New York Times) 
• [CYBERSECURITY/PRIVACY] OPINION: Larry Ellison and Seema Verma: It’s Time to Hand Cybersecurity Over to the Computers (Wall Street Journal) 
• [FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION/PLATFORM REGULATION] OPINION: David French: There’s Valuable Speech on Social Media, Even for Kids  (New York Times) 

(March 27 – April 2, 2024)

Radio Canada

• Connected TVs disconnected from local culture

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

• Keynote remarks at the 26th Annual Vancouver International Privacy & Security Summit (VIPSS)
• Advice to parliament: Letter to the Standing Senate Committee on Indigenous Peoples in relation to its examination of the constitutional, treaty, political and legal responsibilities to First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples

Copyright Board of Canada

• A Message from the Vice-Chair and CEO of the Copyright Board

Disney

• The Walt Disney Company To Webcast Its Annual Meeting Of Shareholders

Meta

• Ensuring Age-Appropriate Experiences on Meta Quest Through Birthdate Verification
• End-to-End Encryption on Messenger Explained

Microsoft

• Protecting the data of our commercial and public sector customers in the AI era

Senate of Canada

• The Senate sitting and possible sitting days:  The Senate will not sit the week of March 25 to 29, 2024. The next scheduled sitting day is April 9, 2024.

House of Commons

• The House of Commons sitting and possible sitting days:  The House of Commons will not sit the week of March 25 to 29, 2024. The next scheduled sitting date is April 8, 2024.
  • Bills on the Agenda:
    • Bill C-65: An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act – At second reading in the House of Commons 
  • Meetings:
    • Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO): ArriveCAN Application: Tuesday, March 26, 2024, 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. 

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

• Anticipated releases for the week of 2 to 5 of April 2024:
  • The CRTC is not planning on issuing any decisions, regulatory policies and reports in the week of 2 to 5 April 2024. This is subject to change without notice.

• Upcoming Consultation
  • Compliance and Enforcement notice of consultation 2024-43-1 [2024-03-04 11:00:00] Call for comments – Proposed conditions of service requiring implementation of the call traceback process by telecommunications service providers providing voice telecommunications services – Changes to deadlines – Public record: 1011-NOC2024-0043 
• Upcoming Hearing
  • April 17, 2023 – Whitehorse, Yukon
    Call for comments – Telecommunications in the Far North, Phase II – Telecom Notice of Consultation CRTC 2022-147, 2022-147-1, 2022-147-2, 2022-147-3, 2022-147-4
    View hearing documents (2022-147)
  • May 3, 2023 – Gatineau, Quebec
    To consider the broadcasting applications listed in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2023-6, 2023-6-1, 2023-6-2 View hearing documents (2023-6)
  • May 11, 2023 – National Capital Region
    To consider the broadcasting applications listed in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2023-49, View hearing documents (2023-49)
• CRTC Open Broadcasting Proceedings
• CRTC Open Telecom Proceedings

Consultations:

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

• Share your thoughts about the regulatory framework for the Online News Act – March 13 to April 12, 2024 

• Call for comments – Co-development of an Indigenous Broadcasting Policy – July 22, 2024 2024-67

Statistics Canada:

• Census Data on Demand (CDOD) program consultative engagement – March 31, 2024

Competition Bureau

• Competition Bureau seeks feedback on artificial intelligence and competition – Feedback can be submitted until May 4, 2024

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