What happened
On June 10, 2026, the Government of Canada introduced Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, at first reading in the House of Commons. The bill would enact two new statutes: the Digital Safety Act (establishing safety requirements for social media services and AI chatbot services) and the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act (creating an enforcement body). Key AI chatbot provisions: operators must identify risks of harm, adopt risk-reduction measures, implement safety-focused design, apply labels to synthetically generated content, and make certain harmful content inaccessible. The bill is currently at second reading in the House of Commons.
Why it matters
This is the most significant Canadian AI/online safety bill to date, directly imposing affirmative duties on AI chatbot operators — including risk identification, harm reduction, and synthetic content labelling. The creation of a Digital Safety Commission gives Canada a dedicated enforcement body for AI chatbot safety. If enacted, it would bind all AI chatbot services accessible in Canada, regardless of where the operator is headquartered.
Action needed
AI chatbot operators with Canadian users should monitor Bill C-34's parliamentary progress and begin gap analysis against the proposed safety-by-design, risk-identification, and synthetic content labelling requirements. Submit comments during any forthcoming public consultation. The bill is at second reading — enactment is not imminent but operators should track committee stage amendments.