Open Media isn’t actually a political party, but they are publishing a platform to show other parties how it’s done.
We are continuing out increasingly long running series of different platforms through the lens of digital rights and technology. Previously, we did our analysis of the Green Party, the Liberal Party, the People’s Party of Canada, and the Bloc Quebecois. As of this writing, the NDP and the Conservative party haven’t released their respective party platform as of yet even as early voting is well under way. The NDP have released their costed platform, but not the general platform.
So, while we wait for those, there is another platform we actually can analyze. That is the the platform released by Open Media. No, they are not a political party. Technically, they are a public advocacy organization, but the idea behind it is that other political parties can use their platform to borrow great ideas for their own platform. Up to now, we haven’t seen one platform that we could give a passing grade to, but this one is promising to be the first to do so.
To view the platform, you can just check it out on this page (there is no official PDF version), but it is also available in French, so that’s something. Anyway, let’s get right into this one.
The forward starts off very strong by pointing to the current policy failures of the internet. Importantly, it also points to the problem of disinterested politician’s who are seemingly unwilling to fix anything. This has been a long standing frustration for me and it is nice to see others share that frustration. A great example of this is the slow walking to death of privacy reform which died on the orderpaper after government spent years dragging their feet on this critical issue.
Perhaps a big part of why all of this is so frustrating is the fact that many of these tech issues aren’t some silly little pet project that few people would get impacted by. Technology is pervasive and more and more of our lives rely on technology. Banking is online, paying bills is largely online, people order food online, applying for jobs frequently requires internet access, almost everyone is walking around with cell phones, most people get more and more of their entertainment online, and more technology is being placed into people’s daily lives such as the use of tablets, computers, and even personal assistants. Yet, politician’s look at just how packed with technology our daily lives have become and still seemingly shrug their shoulders as if it’s not a big deal or not worth figuring out or understanding. It’s pretty insane that such attitudes are still pervasive.
Arguably, things have actually gotten worse where some politician’s actually weaponize this ignorance and pass laws that do far more harm than good at the behest of large corporations. Shining examples of this include the Online News Act and Online Streaming Act. So, we are stuck with bad laws that are damaging our relationship with technology all the while solving nothing that is actually important. As we’ve been seeing in our analysis, political parties continue to either not understand technology and the needs of today or not even really care either. So, these problems are continuing to this day.
From there, Open Media laid out key recommendations which reads as follows:
Key Recommendations
- A secure Canadian web: No vital Canadian digital infrastructure should depend on foreign services or a single point of failure to function.
- Guaranteed affordable home & wireless Internet: Every Canadian anywhere in Canada should be guaranteed high-speed Internet at a price we can afford.
- Effective privacy protections: The government must finally pass strong privacy legislation that applies to corporations, political parties, and itself.
- Cybersecurity that works: Canadians deserve world-class cybersecurity laws built on safeguards that protect our privacy and freedom of expression.
This is such a breath of fresh air. I mean, the fact that it is clearly written by people who actually understand how technology works alone is such a relief.
From there, the organization breaks these key points down even further. I’d offer highlights of those, but I would just end up copying and pasting the whole thing because the whole thing is just one large highlight. All I would be doing is making an already huge amount of text even longer as I explain why it’s all great ideas.
From there, the organization offers these key points in the next section:
Key Recommendations
- Break Big Tech’s power: Canada must ban surveillance-based advertising and give control of our information feeds to Canadians.
- Fix Canada’s media crisis: Canada must adopt policies that guarantee diverse, independent private media and a capable public broadcaster that fills the gaps.
- Regulate emerging technologies: From AI to biometric recognition, Canada must launch full public consultations on adequately regulating emerging technologies.
- Invest in community networks: Canada must develop more community-owned broadband and mesh networks that serve local needs, not Big Telecom interests.
Seeing one of the big actual issues surrounding Big Tech front right at the top of the list is just a great thing to see. There absolutely needs to be regulations on targeted advertising that utilizes surveillance. This is a huge problem that has largely gone unnoticed by our political leaders, yet something that desperately needs to get addressed.
Again, Open Media offers considerable detail to follow up these points. For the first time, we’ve seen someone actually mention the huge problem with data brokers.
I think the only thing I disagree with here is support for the Digital Services Tax. This has become a major trade weakness between Canada and the US. The moment the US challenges Canada on this, Canada is basically staring down the barrel of a major loss. Already, the US has been saying that they are going to challenge this and I’m not sure there is a good way to defend it. I get the idea of reforming the Digital Services Tax, but I’m not personally sure how salvageable it really is. Still, if there is a way of reforming it, I agree that the OECD approach is probably the best way of going about it which is Open Media’s approach as well.
In the section after, there are these key recommendations:
Key Recommendations
- Don’t break the Internet: Canada must oppose web censorship and defend the globally connected, open Internet against the interests of autocrats and Big Tech.
- Protect online speech: New Internet laws must not exceed existing offline restrictions on speech, respect our Charter rights, and never be rushed without public consultation.
- Rights-based online safety: Canadian regulation must target the worst illegal content, while respecting our privacy and free expression.
- Advance our right to know: Canadians must have a legislated right to study online platforms, accessing necessary data without fear of frivolous Big Tech lawsuits.
Everything about these points is excellent in my books. Very often, politician’s will try and pass a law where part of the argument is that because it’s on a computer system, then it’s legally different. This when the reality is that the physical world has many legal equivalents to the online world.
For instance, caselaw has long concluded that the suppression of Canadian’s speech is a violation of freedom of expression in Canada. Yet, there are arguments that this doesn’t apply to online platforms in the context of the Online Streaming Act. People make the argument that suppression of speech is allowed because it’s on the internet even though nothing can be further from the truth. A violation of freedom of expression isn’t limited to the question of whether or not that speech was removed. A violation can also occur when that speech is suppressed as well. Thanks to the algorithmic manipulation requirements of the Online Streaming Act, that very easily can happen to the speech of Canadians.
So, I’m a huge fan of asking for a study on the affects of Canadian’s rights before passing a law regulating the internet. It gets two thumbs up from me.
The organization, of course, goes into detail about these plans. There is one thing in those details that I personally think is very much worth highlighting mainly because it is so important. That is the protection of the right of encryption. This is important because multiple countries, not just the United States, have long been pushing this narrative that all encryption must be broken by blasting a backdoor into it. The talking point behind that is that tech companies should just “nerd harder” and create a back door that only the “good guys” can use.
This has always been a fallacy. There is no such thing as a back door that only the “good guys” can use. Instead, you are just creating a compromised security system. This was beautifully highlighted last year when AT&T’s wiretap system for “good guys” only was compromised by China for an unknown period of time. This through a Chinese group known as Salt Typhoon. It happened in that instance and it can happen anywhere else this policy is implemented.
I’ll take the opportunity to say this: encryption is not inherently bad by any means. It is a key component of our daily digital lives. Without it, all of e-commerce simply wouldn’t exist. People need to have secure communications to do things like online banking or other transactions that involve critical personal information. To argue that only bad people use encryption is completely ridiculous. Ultimately, we need stronger encryption and it’s great to see Open Media advocate for this.
In the last section, Open Media offers the following recommendations:
Key Recommendations
- Fair digital markets: Canada must investigate and ban abuses of monopoly power in digital markets by Big Tech.
- Copyright that serves Canadians: Our copyright laws must be updated to serve Canadian interests and creators first, not foreign rights holders.
- Defend digital ownership: Canada must pass strong right of ownership legislation covering true ownership of the software and devices we purchase, including our right to repair.
All of these are also excellent points. The first point dovetails nicely with the previously mentioned surveillance in online advertising.
Indeed, it has long been known that the online advertising world has long been held by two entities: Meta and Google. If you are creating an independent website and don’t have the time or resources to solicit and create advertisements for other companies yourself, then you have to rely on Google’s Adsense advertising network. There isn’t really any other reasonable options out there save for some very VERY specific cases. As a result, Google is basically free to pay out however much it wants, place restrictions as they please, and more knowing full well that the publisher can’t really do anything about it.
A great example is the explosive allegations surrounding Project Bernanke which apparently started around the early days of this site. Ever since, I’ve been seeing payouts gradually fall through the floor despite traffic remaining steady – at least up to the point where Google started pushing AI for search results which has really hammered this sites overall traffic as well. Thanks to all of that, Freezenet has largely depended on Patreon support to stay afloat (please consider supporting, it is greatly appreciated!).
So, Open Media’s call to end abusive practices from major tech platforms is certainly welcome.
Conclusions
After giving facepalm after facepalm to other political parties who clearly are clueless about technology, reading the Open Media platform was a very welcome breath of fresh air. At least someone out there “gets it” and that alone is hugely meaningful. I’m not entirely sure if I fully agree with keeping the Digital Services Tax, but beyond that, I would say that I would be a very happy person if other political parties stole this platform and incorporated it into their own. So, an excellent platform as far as I’m concerned.
The Good
- Supports securing the Canadian internet
- Supports affordable high speed internet for all
- Supports privacy reform
- Supports defending encryption
- Supports cracking down on surveillance advertising
- Supports an independent press
- Supports cracking down on the shady business of data brokers
- Supports the repeal of the Online News Act
- Supports good reforms of the CBC including open licensing of CBC content and making CBC ad free
- Calls for consultations on how best to regulate AI
- Supports investments in community broadband networks
- Opposes Internet censorship
- Supports striking a balance between taking down illegal content while respecting freedom of expression
- Supports open technical standards
- Supports public consultations for internet regulations
- Supports protections against SLAPP lawsuits
- Positive Canada first copyright reform
- Ending app store price gouging
- Pushing copyright terms back to 25 years plus the like of the author
- Strengthening right to repair laws to include access to repair parts and manuals
Mixed
- Supports the Digital Services Tax (not entirely sure how salvageable that is under the current climate, though how they propose to go about it does sound like a good idea.)
The Bad
(I didn’t see anything that strikes me as a bad idea)
Overall rating: A+
