Online Harms Act Letter - CAPE

The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and other organizations call for the expansion of the Online Harms Act to combat disinformation. They argue that tech platform architectures prioritize profit over safety, allowing climate disinformation and foreign interference to thrive. The letter proposes six recommendations: implementing a duty of care for safety, increasing algorithmic transparency, requiring financial disclosure for monetization, regulating online advertising, establishing digital sovereignty, and investing in information resilience.

• The authors argue that digital information ecosystems are eroded by platform architectures designed for "engagement and profit maximization, not safety," which allows false stories to spread six times faster than accurate ones.
• The document cites several instances of disinformation affecting Canada, including Russia paying a conservative influencer $10,000,000 to spread climate disinformation, American disinformation networks driving half of Canadian climate conversations on platform X during the 2025 election, and misleading information hindering wildfire evacuations.
• Disinformation is framed as a public health risk, with the Canadian Medical Association reporting that 97% of doctors have intervened to counter the effects of patients following misleading online information.
• The letter recommends that the government implement a "duty of care" for platforms to mitigate disinformation regarding climate, public health, and elections, and suggests creating a digital sovereignty framework to establish Canadian jurisdiction over data, cloud, and AI.

APA

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (n.d.). Online Harms Act Letter - CAPE. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Online-Harms-Letter_June-2026_CAPE.pdf

Chicago

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. Online Harms Act Letter - CAPE. n.d. https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Online-Harms-Letter_June-2026_CAPE.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment |title=Online Harms Act Letter - CAPE |url=https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Online-Harms-Letter_June-2026_CAPE.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{canadianassociationofphysiciansfortheenvironmentndonline, author = {{Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}}, title = {{Online Harms Act Letter - CAPE}}, publisher = {Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment}, url = {https://cape.ca/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Online-Harms-Letter_June-2026_CAPE.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }