Liberal, Conservative MPs join international task force to curb anti-Semitism online
Posted on 17 October 2020
The Canadian Press
OCTOBER 1, 2020
OTTAWA — Two members of Parliament are joining forces with legislators in four other countries in an international effort to force web giants to curb the proliferation of anti-Semitic content online.
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather and Conservative MP Marty Morantz are part of a new task force that includes politicians from Australia, Israel, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
A report out of the U.K. this summer said online incidents of anti-Semitism were on the rise in that country, driven by conspiracy theories about Jews being responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Canada, advocacy group B’nai Brith has said anti-Semitic incidents are up overall, with an 11 per cent rise in online harassment that often advocates genocide.
But how different countries measure and define the problem is a barrier to convincing web companies to address it, said Housefather.
The point of the task force is to get like-minded countries to agree on how to define the problem, how to solve it, convince their respective legislatures to pass similar laws and then collectively pressure the companies to act, he said.
“If we can come up with something that’s common to everybody, it will make life much easier for the providers to co-operate with us,” he said. The task force is getting underway just as the federal Liberals promised in last week’s throne speech to take more action to curb online hate as part an effort to address systemic racism. Housefather said the task force’s initial work predates that pledge but he hopes it can support the government’s own efforts.
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