Does your favourite social media app or e-commerce site’s algorithm hold more power than your country’s elected government? Do regulators really have to choose between innovation and security? Can algorithms be neutral?

Listen as host Marwa Abdou and guests Vass Bednar (Executive Director, Canadian Shield Institute) and Kaylie Tiessen (Chief Economist, Canadian Shield Institute) discuss the profound and often invisible influence digital platforms and algorithms have on our society and economy.

In this extended episode, explore how a handful of digital platforms act as “shadow regulators” — setting the rules of the game through opaque code and recommendation systems that shape markets, work, and opportunity far from democratic oversight. From gig work to competition law, the conversation reveals how Canada’s regulatory frameworks are racing to keep up.

But it doesn’t stop at diagnosis. Together, Marwa, Vass, and Kaylie discuss what it would take to fill Canada’s “regulatory vacuum” — smart, adaptive rules that serve the public good while supporting innovation, trust, and competitiveness in the digital age.

Links:
- Canadian Shield Institute
- Vass Bednar - Regs to Riches Newsletter
- Vass Bednar – Center for International Governance Innovation
- Kaylie Tiessen
- Kaylie Tiessen – Social Capital Partners
- OECD Digital Economy Outlook (2024)
- World Bank – World Development Report 2021: Data for Better Lives