Overview
On June 10, 2026, the Government of Canada introduced Bill C‑34, the Safe Social Media Act, proposing a new federal framework to regulate online harms. The bill proposes two new statutes, the Digital Safety Act and the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act, as well as consequential amendments to other legislation.
The bill is the government’s latest effort to establish a new online safety regime, with a particular focus on mitigating certain categories of harmful content, enhancing child protection, and requiring platform accountability.
The Digital Safety Act
Scope
The Digital Safety Act applies to “regulated services,” including social media services, chatbot services, and other online services that may be made subject to certain duties by regulation. The Digital Safety Act is broadly intended to establish new requirements to promote online safety in Canada and impose duties and responsibilities on the operators of these services, with a focus on transparency and accountability.
The bill excludes certain online services from its scope, including websites or applications primarily used for the sale, listing or advertisement of goods or services, as well as those that primarily provide directories, search results, maps, or navigation tools. In addition, the obligations would not apply to telecommunications service providers in respect of any service that provides basic Internet connectivity.
Key Obligations for Regulated Services
Bill C‑34 establishes several core duties for operators of regulated services:
- The Duty to Protect Children applies to all regulated services and requires operators to integrate child-protection design features to be set out in regulations. It also requires operators to implement minimum-age restrictions for accessing pornographic content on regulated services and minimum-age restrictions for being able to have an account with, or otherwise register for, a regulated social media service. Exemptions may be granted for services that establish and maintain safeguards for children on their platform.
- The Duty to Be Transparent requires operators of regulated services to keep the necessary records to determine statutory compliance with their duties under the Act. It also requires these operators to submit a digital safety plan for each service they operate.
- The Duty to Act Responsibly requires operators of regulated services to assess and mitigate risks associated with seven categories of harmful content:
- intimate content communicated without consent;
- content that sexually victimizes a child or revictimizes a survivor;
- content that induces a child to harm themselves;
- content used to bully a child;
- content that foments hatred;
- content that incites violence; and
- terrorism or violent extremism content.
This duty also requires regulated social media services to provide tools to block users and allow users to flag harmful content and to label “synthetic” or AI‑generated content that meets prescribed criteria where it is reasonable to do so.
Chatbot services are also subject to a duty to act responsibly that is tailored specifically to their services. They will be required to implement safeguards to mitigate the risks of communicating harmful content, address harmful behaviour, and implement measures to address and intervene in crisis situations, in particular where a user has indicated an intention to seriously harm themselves or others.
- The Duty to Make Certain Content Inaccessible requires regulated social media services, in certain circumstances, to make content that they have reasonable grounds to believe sexually victimizes a child, revictimizes a survivor, or involves intimate content communicated without consent (including deepfake sexual images) inaccessible to persons in Canada.
The Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act
The Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act creates a new dedicated regulator, the Digital Safety Commission of Canada, to administer and oversee compliance with the Digital Safety Act. The Commission has, among other things, the power to:
- make regulations;
- review digital safety plans and assess compliance;
- issue orders requiring platforms to make certain content inaccessible, take measures to ensure compliance, and give accredited researchers access to data referenced in a digital safety plan; and
- receive complaints and submissions from the public.
The subsequently introduced private-sector privacy reform bill, Bill C-36, confers privacy-sector privacy oversight to the Commission and would rename it the Digital Safety and Data Protection Commission of Canada.
Administrative Monetary Penalties and Offences
The bill includes significant penalties for operator non-compliance, subject to a due diligence defence.
An operator that commits a violation is liable to an administrative monetary penalty (AMP) where it contravenes, among other things, a provision in the Act or the regulations, or an order of the Commission. Operators face AMPs of up to the greater of 3% of gross global revenue or $10 million.
The bill also creates offences for certain forms of non-compliance, including contravening an order of the Commission or an undertaking, obstructing an inspector, or making false or misleading statements. These offences could result in fines of up to the greater of 5% of the operator’s gross global revenue or $20 million on conviction on indictment, and the greater of 4% of the operator’s gross global revenue or $15 million on summary conviction.
Next Steps
Bill C‑34 received first reading in the House of Commons and is currently at second reading. It has not yet been referred to committee. As drafted, the bill creates a new regulatory framework for online safety in Canada, with significant obligations affecting social media platforms, chatbot services, and potentially other online services. However, many important operational details, including which specific services would be regulated and how certain requirements would apply, have been left to subsequent regulations.
