Bureaucracies usually have a purpose. The public health system cares for the physical bodies of citizens; the justice system (ideally) keeps the dangerous from the normal; the immigration system controls entry and exit.
Soon, you may have to add to the list a “digital safety” bureaucracy, designed to regulate feelings and ideas, and the places where these things are expressed. This is what the forthcoming online harms act, tabled Monday in the Liberals’ Bill C-63, will do. Individuals who value their ability to discuss controversy online should be wary — as should any major social media company that happens to operate in Canada.
