ADVERTISEMENT

Canada Wants Tech Giants to Fight Back Against Vote Meddling

Canada Wants Tech Giants to Step Up Fight Against Vote Meddling

(Bloomberg) -- Justin Trudeau’s government is threatening to crack down on Google, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc., saying the tech giants aren’t doing enough to help fight meddling in the lead-up to Canada’s fall election.

Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould issued the warning Monday after one of the country’s intelligence agencies concluded that foreign cyber interference is “highly likely” in the vote that will decide if Trudeau gets a second mandate.

“There’s a lot left to be desired about how seriously they are taking these issues,” Gould told reporters in Ottawa. While discussions with the American tech firms are ongoing, she said Canada is reviewing how its current laws apply to the companies and what new laws or regulations may be needed, given they haven’t proven themselves able to self-regulate.

“Digital platforms are going to have to accept that they’re going to have to abide by domestic legislation from country to country around the world,” she said, speaking alongside Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan. The government hasn’t seen the firms address the threats to a degree in which “we would be comfortable allowing them to continue in this self-regulatory space,” Gould said.

The threat of regulation comes amid a growing global backlash against the conduct of tech companies in policing harmful content and fighting fake news. While Gould said Facebook has so far been more cooperative than Google or Twitter, she said all of them fall short.

Company Reaction

“The platforms feel this is something they should be doing on their own and I don’t have the confidence that they’re disclosing everything with us,” Gould said. She added: “I’m not feeling great about where we are right now.”

Facebook said after the news conference that it was adding “transparency” tools this year in Canada to ensure authenticity and transparency in political advertising, in a bid to prevent foreign interference. “We take the protection of election integrity on our platform extremely seriously,” the company said in a statement attributed to Kevin Chan, head of public policy at its Canadian unit.

Google said it had met several times with Gould, her staff and the country’s elections agency to discuss plans for cybersecurity, and is working with intelligence agencies to defend networks and accounts from what it called “malicious” attacks. “We have every intention of continuing our close work with government to protect Canada’s democratic institutions and election activities,” the company said in a statement attributed to Colin McKay, head of government policy at its Canadian unit.

Twitter declined to comment.

Russian Meddling

The Canadian warning also lands as the U.S. comes to grips with Russian interference in its own election, a situation that Canada’s electronic spy agency -- the Communications Security Establishment -- uses as a point of comparison heading into the campaign for October’s vote.

“We consider foreign cyber interference of the scale of Russian activity against the 2016 United States presidential election improbable at this time in Canada in 2019,” the intelligence agency said in its latest threat assessment.

CSE, whose chief Shelly Bruce made a rare public appearance alongside the two Trudeau ministers, said “more than one foreign adversary has manipulated social media” to spread false information in a bid to polarize Canadians or undermine the country’s foreign policy. The spy agency also said foreign state-sponsored media have disparaged Canadian ministers and that at least one foreign adversary has amplified critiques of government policy online.

“We judge it highly likely that foreign cyber interference against Canada would resemble the cyber interference campaigns undertaken against other advanced democracies in recent years,” CSE said. It’s likely that adversaries will hack websites, steal personal details and circulate false information to disrupt the election.

“The aim of such activity would be to sow doubt among voters, causing them to question the legitimacy of the election” or even to decline to vote at all, the agency said.

--With assistance from Ben Brody.

To contact the reporter on this story: Josh Wingrove in Ottawa at jwingrove4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Theophilos Argitis at targitis@bloomberg.net, Stephen Wicary

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.