I moved to Canada awhile back, so I wrote a critique of the Canadian government’s “proposed approach to address harmful content online”, which is, like its American counterparts, appalling. The critique, which includes links to the proposal, is here:

https://ralphhaygood.org/harmful_online_content/comment.html

None of these politicians seem able or willing to recognize that fundamentally, the snooping is the problem. Tired of Facebook, Instagram, et al.’s “algorithms” (really, machine-learning systems that nobody, not even Zuck and his bros, fully understands)? Then shut down the surveillance they feed on. As the EFF has recommended for years, “New legislation should require the operators of websites to obtain opt-in consent to collect, use, or share personal data, particularly where that collection, use, or transfer is not necessary to provide the service.” I’d add, legislation should also require operators to explain plainly and honestly what information they want to collect and what they’ll do with it if they get it, because there’s research (e.g., by Pew Research) indicating that when people know what’s being collected and what’s being done with it, most of them don’t like it, so they wouldn’t opt in if they had the choice. This isn’t a panacea, but it would help a lot, and without the massive “collateral damage” proposals like JAMAA would do – the tsunami of litigation, the de facto censorship, the further entrenchment of the established giants, etc., ad nauseam.