No longer can the social media companies wash their hands of the effects of hate content on their platforms. The massacre of 50 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand by a self-proclaimed white supremacist inspired by online hate settled that. Until now, most countries (Canada among them) have taken an essentially hands-off approach to overseeing online content. And, importantly, a mechanism short of criminal penalties to counter outright hate speech should be introduced. In practice, some will try to expand the boundaries of “hate speech” to include speech that falls well short of that but could arguably be considered harmful in some respects.

Source: thestar April 12, 2019 15:22 UTC