Canada's new digital regulator would wield sweeping powers over tech companies and content
The proposed Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission could levy fines up to $25 million and override the privacy commissioner.
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Ottawa has introduced sweeping legislation to create a new digital regulator—the Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission of Canada—with authority over both online safety and privacy rules, powers that critics say amount to a "super-regulator."
In June, the Liberal government introduced two major pieces of tech policy: Bill C-34, focused on digital safety, and Bill C-36, focused on privacy. Bill C-34 would force social media platforms to temporarily block access for users under 16 and regulate AI chatbot companies by imposing a duty to act responsibly. Bill C-36 sets higher standards for managing children's data, gives Canadians the right to request deletion of their information, and requires transparency about automated decision-making.
The new commission will comprise five cabinet-appointed members and have authority to issue binding orders and levy fines of up to $10 million or three per cent of an organization's gross global revenue. For the most serious offences, such as obstruction of the commission's work, fines can reach $25 million or five per cent of global revenue. The regulator is expected to take about 18 months to establish.
University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist has called the commission a "digital super-regulator," noting it will oversee both online speech and content moderation across the country's largest platforms—including standard-setting, guidelines, audits, investigations, hearings, and adjudicative powers—while also overseeing how every organization in Canada collects, uses, and discloses personal information.
Heidi Tworek, a professor of history and public policy at the University of British Columbia, noted Canada is taking an unusual approach by giving one body dual responsibilities. "In other places we see a separation of the privacy regulator and the online safety regulator," she said. Australia brought in its social media ban for kids under 16 after already establishing a safety commission—a different sequence than Canada's approach of standing up the commission while implementing both pieces of legislation simultaneously.
