Urge your Member of Parliament to reject Bill C-34, the so-called Safe Social Media Act

To <name>,

Dear Member of Parliament

RE: Withdrawal of Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act

I do not object to protecting children from harmful online content. Nor do I object to prohibiting AI companies from encouraging users to commit crimes. Bill C-34, however, goes far beyond these objectives. It implements a social media ban for minors, effectively regulates AI chatbot inputs and outputs, and grants the federal Cabinet broad power to regulate the internet in the future. Bill C-34 undermines Canadians’ freedom of expression, access to information, privacy, and parental rights. For these reasons, I urge you to vote against Bill C-34. 

Bill C-34 will:
•	Ban Canadians under age 16 from accessing social media, forcing all Canadians to surrender more of their private data to access social media

Section 27(1) will force regulated social media services to prevent Canadians under age 16 from accessing social media through age-verification and age-estimation measures. To keep minors off social media, all Canadians will have to verify their age and identity. This means that all Canadians will have to surrender more of their personal information to the government or foreign social media companies in order to express their views, participate in public discourse, and access information about the world. I reject Digital ID, and I reject surrendering my biometric data (i.e., data about my body) to social media companies. Furthermore, I reject any legislation that subverts the right and responsibility of parents to determine social media access for their own children. 

•	Regulate AI companies to the detriment of Canadians’ privacy and access to information

Sections 48 to 58 will effectively regulate what Canadians can say to AI chatbots and what AI chatbots can say to Canadians. Faced with vague obligations and significant financial penalties for non-compliance, AI companies will be forced to monitor all Canadians’ private AI conversations and may increasingly report “false positives” to police. Furthermore, section 53(e) will give future regulators broad powers to prohibit what AI chatbots may say in the future. Canadians increasingly rely on AI chatbots and search tools in place of traditional search engines, such as Google. This raises significant concerns about the governments’ power to interfere with how Canadians access information about the world.  

•	Establish a permanent Digital Safety Commission to oversee online communication in Canada

Part 2 will establish a Digital Safety Commission of three to five full-time members, to be appointed by the federal Cabinet, with broad power to regulate online content. In fact, according to privacy expert and law professor Michael Geist, the federal cabinet and Digital Safety Commission will have power to determine 50 major questions not addressed in Bill C-34, including about which social media platforms and AI companies will be affected, what counts as “significant psychological or physical harm,” and how the government will keep minors off social media. Parliament will have limited oversight over these decisions, but these decisions will impact the civil liberties of all Canadians. 

Canadians share the stated goals of this legislation: protecting children’s physical and mental health, preventing the victimization of children and intimate partners, and ensuring that social media platforms and AI companies behave responsibly. 
Bill C-34 goes far beyond these reasonable goals, however. Bill C-34 will undermine parents’ right and responsibility to determine social media boundaries for their own children; force all Canadians to surrender private data as a condition of accessing social media; create incentives for AI companies to escalate private, law-abiding conversations to police; and empower the government to reshape the digital landscape without sufficient parliamentary oversight. I expect my government to combat online harms without violating my civil liberties – protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

For these reasons, I urge you to defeat Bill C-34 in the House of Commons. 

Sincerely,

CC: Prime Minister Mark Carney