Can social media platforms police themselves?

Facebook's crackdown on fake accounts is a good step towards better regulating social media, but one expert says the government can't leave policing new technology up to the media giants.

This week, Facebook said it uncovered "sophisticated" efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to influence U.S. politics on its platforms. It removed 32 accounts — followed by hundreds of thousands of users — it said appeared to be fake and involved in "co-ordinated" political behaviour.

"They are being a lot more proactive in dealing with what they call bad actors," Elizabeth Dubois, a social media researcher with the University of Ottawa, said.

Having the social media giant step in to regulate its own platform is a good sign, but she told The House "there are still problems with the idea of Facebook policing itself."

Dubois explained that in leaving the methods and regulations up to Facebook, people are assuming the company will act in the best interest of the public rather than investors or other stakeholders.

The government has been asked for years to beef up those laws to make more robust protection for Canadians, but the new bill they tabled this spring failed to address all the gaps identified by experts.​

"Where it's falling short is looking at the ways that political parties are able to collect and use data," Dubois said.

"There's absolutely no oversight at this point."

While these changes are being considered, she cautioned that users need to be aware of how the information they receive on social media gets filtered before it reaches them — and push politicians to act if they feel their information is vulnerable.