In 2017, Canadian Heritage launched an international engagement strategy for the promotion of diversity of content in the digital age. The notion of "diversity of content" broadens the concept of cultural diversity by including content such as information and news, and by putting an emphasis on diverse points of view and perspectives.
In 2018, a joint declaration was signed between the governments of Canada and France, reaffirming their desire to capitalize on the diversity of online content as a means of fostering the resilience of citizens in the face of disinformation.
The Canadian federal Budget 2019 invested funding to enable Canada to lead an international initiative to develop guiding principles on diversity of content and strengthen citizen resilience to disinformation. The adoption of guiding principles would frame concrete actions and policies to protect and promote diversity of content online. The first virtual meeting of the multi-stakeholder working group that will be tasked with drafting the guiding principles is scheduled for the fall of 2020.
Canadian Heritage is working collaboratively with four like-minded countries to form a core mini-lateral group: Australia, Finland, France and Germany. This five-country group had their first meeting in February 2020 in Paris to discuss objectives and priorities for the initiative as well as collaborative policy development approaches.
In parallel and to help guide working group discussions, a series of research papers have been commissioned from academics, who are experts in digital issues relating to the discoverability of content, normative instruments schematizing the governance of content diversity, online data trusts, as well as design for diversity.
Part of the digital citizenship initiative, announced in Budget 2019, with funding amounting to CAD 3.4 million (USD 2.4 million) over 4 years.
| Name of partner | Type of entity |
|---|---|
Government of France
| Public Sector
|
Government of Germany
| Public Sector
|
Government of Finland
| Public Sector
|
Government of Australia
| Public Sector
|
Private Sector partners to be confirmed
| Private Sector
|
Civil Society partners to be confirmed
| Civil Society Organization (CSO)
|