From origins of blockchain technology decades ago to earliest use cases of digital or e-cash and the introduction of Bitcoin as the first cryptocurrency in 2008, few could have predicted the cultural phenomenon and dramatic market growth for crypto-assets of the last few years — or the dramatic and wrenching collapse of crypto-asset values and firms last year.
Social media platforms have, in many ways, become a new public square, where people in Canada and around the world connect and engage in society and our democracy. Increasingly, though, the platforms and their algorithms have also been weaponized by ill-intentioned actors to spread conspiracy theories and extremism, and to target marginalized people with hate and harassment.