Canada’s Chief Electoral Officer recommends making changes to electoral law to combat foreign interference in elections and the spread of misinformation.
Stéphane Perrault calls for the creation of a new offense prohibiting the making of false statements with the intent to harm the conduct of an election – for example, claiming that the results were manipulated.
A report on Tuesday also suggests that MPs should ban hate groups from registering as political parties, giving them the names and addresses of all voters.
The report calls for election laws to be updated in the digital age and suggests that platforms are required to publish policies on how they will deal with content that misleads voters.
It also proposes stricter rules to prevent third-party groups that support political parties or seek to influence elections from receiving funding from abroad.
The report also advised MPs to extend current policies, designed to end foreign interference during the election period, until the period before the campaign begins.
The Canadian Press
Source: Radio-Canada
