Canada Declaration on Electoral Integrity Online

Social media and other online platforms play a meaningful role in promoting a healthy and resilient democracy. They provide a forum for sharing ideas, encouraging innovation, enabling Canadians to engage in dialogue about important issues and facilitating economic opportunity and civic engagement. However, some have used these platforms to spread disinformation in an attempt to undermine free and fair elections and core democratic institutions and aggravate existing societal tensions.

Social media and other online platforms and the Government of Canada recognize their respective responsibilities to help safeguard Canada’s federal general elections. This includes supporting democratic debate and expression online – including healthy political discourse and open public debate – and the importance of continued collaboration to address these challenges head-on. The Declaration acknowledges the role of the Caretaker Convention in Canadian elections and its importance until the results of the election are clear and a new ministry is formed. 

To this end, we commit to working together to ensure principles of integrity, transparency and authenticity are in place to support healthy and safe democratic debate and expression online, subject to Canadian laws and consistent with other legal obligations.

Integrity

Platforms will:

1. Intensify efforts to combat disinformation that poses a threat to Canada’s democratic processes and institutions.
2. Within the framework of the participant parties’ possibilities and tools, collaborate on the protection of democratic processes and institutions in Canada, as appropriate.
3. Promote safeguards that effectively help address cybersecurity incidents and promote cybersecurity, protect against misrepresentation of candidates, parties and other key electoral officials and use its best efforts to safeguard privacy protection.

The Government of Canada will:

4. Ensure that the platforms have clear Government of Canada points-of-contact for matters of concern to Canada’s democratic institutions.

Transparency

Platforms will:

5. Use its best efforts to promote transparency for regulated political advertising, and build on the requirements outlined in the Canada Elections Act, including helping users understand when and why they are seeing political advertising.
6. Ensure their terms and conditions are easily accessible, communicated in a manner that is easy to understand, and enforced in a fair, consistent and transparent manner.
7. Publicly inform Canadians about their company’s efforts undertaken to safeguard democratic debate and expression on platforms and the wider Internet ecosystem, including policies implemented which advance the commitments of the Declaration. 
8. Assist users to better understand the greater context around the information they are seeing and support the presence of trustworthy sources and information on their platforms.

The Government of Canada will:

9. Implement the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol during the caretaker period when the government is expected to show restraint in communications to ensure public announcements on incidents of election interference are clear and impartial.
10. Promote, where possible, lawful information sharing that may assist in detection, identification, or enforcement against malicious actors using the platforms’ products and services.

Authenticity

Platforms will:

11. Work to remove malicious abuses of platforms, such as fake accounts, coordinated inauthentic behaviour and malicious automated accounts.

The Government of Canada will:

12. Work towards improving its communications methods on platforms to enhance the circulation of authoritative and verifiable government information in the Internet ecosystem. 

Platforms and the Government of Canada will:

13. Continue to work with civil society, educational institutions and/or other institutions to support efforts aimed at improving critical thinking, digital literacy and cybersecurity practices to promote digital resilience across society.
14. Facilitate the sharing of information on emerging developments and practices that could help protect Canadian democracy within relevant legal mandates.

Supporters

The Declaration is endorsed by the following companies: Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.

• Facebook – 2021 Canadian Election Integrity Initiative
• LinkedIn – Community Policies and User Agreement
• Microsoft – Defending Democracy Program
• TikTok – Election Integrity Policy and Election Guide
• Twitter – Civic integrity policy
• YouTube – Political Integrity Policy

Should other digital communications companies be interested in discussing or supporting the Declaration, please contact the Democratic Institutions Secretariat at DI-ID@pco-bcp.gc.ca.