International legislators flag regulatory options for data giants

OTTAWA - Legislators on Tuesday gave some sense of what regulatory options may be coming down the road for big data and social media giants as lawmakers from Canada and some 11 countries peppered the companies’ representatives with questions. Legislators asked about enshrining privacy as a principle in competition and antitrust law, about breaking up the data giants, and about disaggregating the data across social media platforms used by a single company. The questions came as part of the International Grand Committee on disinformation and fake news, which met for the second time after its initial convening in November in London. The CEO and COO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, respectively, had been issued with summons but did not appear at the committee. NDP MP Charlie Angus brought a motion at the start of the committee to issue a standing summons to Zuckerberg and Sandberg to appear before the House of Commons ethics committee, “should they appear in Canada for any reason.” The motion passed. “Do you think that privacy is a key consideration in competition and merger decisions, and do you think competition authorities should take privacy issues into account?” asked Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith. Facebook’s Kevin Chan replied that the issues of competition and privacy were separate. “I suspect that data protection authorities around the world would have a very different view about whether it is appropriate to pour in concepts from other realms into data protection law,” Chan said. Referencing a recent New York Times opinion piece by Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, who said that Facebook fears an antitrust case more than it fears new regulation, Conservative MP Peter Kent asked Chan, “Are you aware, that in democracies around the world, you are coming closer and closer to facing antitrust action?” “I am aware of multiple questions with respect to regulation around the world, yes sir,” Chan replied. The British MP Jo Stevens, went a step further. “In any other sector, your company’s monopolistic position would have been dismantled by now. So what are you doing at the moment to prepare yourselves for that eventuality?” Stevens asked of Google’s representatives. Colin McKay, Google head of public policy and government relations for Canada, replied that Google was not taking any steps. Jens Zimmermann, a member of the German parliament, asked Facebook’s Chan why the company was fighting against a recent ruling in Germany that ruled that the company could not aggregate data from across its various properties -- Facebook itself, WhatsApp, and Instagram -- into a single aggregated data set for particular users. Chan said that Facebook needed to aggregate the data to ferret out misuse and disinformation. “To be able to do adequate investigations across the system, we actually have to have some ability to understand the providence of certain content and certain accounts. Having a common infrastructure actually allows us to effectively deal with those sorts of challenges,” Chan said. “It allows to you to very effectively aggregate the data and increase the knowledge of the user, and also to increase the profit, isn’t that the reason behind it?” Zimmermann asked rhetorically. On Wednesday, Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould responded to questions from reporters before a caucus meeting about Facebook’s declaration at the committee that it would not remove a video of U.S. politician Nancy Pelosi that was altered to make her seem intoxicated. “I think it's quite confusing,” Gould said, according to a transcript. “They clearly agreed on Monday here in Canada that they would take down fake accounts and they would take down inauthentic content,” she said, referring to her announcement of Facebook’s signing of a “declaration of principles” Monday. Gould said that not removing false content would engender “public mistrust.” “If they don't do these activities, then following the next election whoever forms government will, I think, absolutely be regulating them,” Gould told reporters. Elsewhere during the hearing, legislators voiced their displeasure at the Facebook’s response to the findings of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner that Facebook had violated PIPEDA, the Canadian private sector privacy law. “How do you get to decide what laws you respect and what you laws you figure don’t apply to you? Why do you think that?” Angus asked Chan. “We wanted to get to a resolution with the commissioner, he has decided to take us to court,” Chan replied. Daniel Therrien, the privacy commissioner, told the commission in an afternoon session, “we don’t have much doubt that they are subject to our jurisdiction, but it will take a court finding to decide that question.” The commissioner earlier this month said his office would file suit against Facebook before the federal election in October. After the hearing, the legislators gathered to sign the “Ottawa Declaration,” detailing fives principles, among them that social media companies “should be held liable if they fail to comply with a judicial, statutory, or regulatory order to remove harmful and misleading content,” and that tech firms should make themselves “fully answerable to national legislatures and other organs of representative democracy.” — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca

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International legislators flag regulatory options for data giants

Broadcast | May 29, 2019

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