Internet

Join the Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness for a fireside conversation with Lucy Thomas, co-founder and CEO of Project ROCKIT, Australia's youth-driven movement against bullying and online harm. Drawing on her work with young people, schools, and technology platforms, Thomas will share insights from Australia's experience and discuss what Canadian policymakers should consider as they evaluate Bill C-34.

Congress has an opportunity to strengthen consumer protection while preserving the benefits of digital commerce. No marketplace can eliminate every counterfeit product or fraudulent seller. But every marketplace serving American consumers should meet reasonable expectations for seller accountability, transparency, and effective action against harmful conduct.

The digital economy includes firms and individuals that sell digital services or products, operate physical infrastructure foundational to the digital economy, or manufacture hardware or software that supports digital infrastructure. It was valued at $4.9 trillion in 2024, and it supported 28.4 million jobs.

The UK is considering new requirements for nudity-scanning software on children's devices that would further expand its controversial online safety regime. While intended to protect children, the proposal would undermine privacy, anonymity, and free speech, and the UK should instead pursue more targeted, privacy-preserving measures.

Join ITIF for a discussion with the architect of the GRANITE Act and other leading experts on the challenges posed by foreign regulation of online speech and the policy options available to address them.

Bill C-34 gives platforms a reason to design safer services for children. But sequencing matters: If Ottawa brings the restriction into force before the Digital Safety Commission is operational, the fastest path to compliance will be removing the very users the bill means to protect.

Foreign governments increasingly use online speech laws to pressure U.S. platforms into censoring constitutionally protected content, while sovereign immunity leaves American companies with little legal recourse. Wyoming's GRANITE Act offers a promising model, but meaningful protection will ultimately require Congress to amend federal sovereign immunity laws.

Watch now for an expert panel discussion on the current state of federal privacy negotiations and the path forward for Congress.

The GUARD Act would effectively ban minors from AI companions through broad age-verification requirements, raising concerns about free speech, privacy, parental authority, and the growing patchwork of state regulations. Instead, policymakers should focus on transparency, stronger parental controls, and other targeted safeguards that protect children without cutting them off from beneficial AI tools.

Watch now for a virtual panel presented by ITIF’s Centre for Canadian Innovation and Competitiveness on what Bill C-22 would actually do, why building in backdoors tends to introduce new security risks rather than contain them, and what a more targeted approach could look like.