Elections commissioner expects ‘very positive’ relations with tech giants in 2019

OTTAWA — Canada’s elections commissioner said his office has nurtured a good relationship with employees of the tech giants and doesn’t expect that to deteriorate going into the country’s next federal election. “Those ties and contacts we’ve created with the people of those platforms are very positive, in my opinion, and have been very useful to us in 2015, and I have every reason to believe that will be the same in 2019,” Yves Côté said in French Thursday, according to simultaneous translation. Côté was appearing before the Senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee which is studying the Liberal government's elections legislation, Bill C-76. The proposed bill, tabled in May, seeks in part to mandate political parties have, and make public, privacy policies and eliminate foreign funding in Canada’s elections. Côté noted his office had prepared for the 2015 election by developing ties with platforms like Facebook Inc. to take down posts they found to be problematic. In preparation for the upcoming 2019 election, he said his office re-contacted Facebook, sat down with officials from social platform Twitter Inc., and expects their director of investigations to meet with Alphabet Inc.’s Google on Friday. The commissioner said these contacts and ties help address cyber threats on platforms expediently. But questions were raised at the committee about the expectation these meetings would continue, as his office doesn’t have the power to compel the companies to field their concerns. “If you keep in mind the controversy around how social media played their role in the United States election, they’re well aware of the fact that if we criticize them publicly because they did not comply with our requests, then that would create a problem for them,” Côté said. The comments are similar to ones made by the government during a technical briefing following the bill’s tabling. The bill prohibits social media companies from knowingly running election advertising paid for with foreign money, but doesn’t address how exactly the government would enforce that. In response to a question about enforcement, a government official said the prospect of an investigation “should reduce the likelihood of the situation.” The elections commissioner offered another potential avenue to get the platforms at the table. “In particular circumstances, I could ask a judge -- if C-76 is adopted -- to issue an order compelling someone from to sit down with us to answer our questions under oath,” Côté said. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout atahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca

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Elections commissioner expects ‘very positive’ relations with tech giants in 2019

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