Ottawa is proceeding with new legislation to regulate social media, but free speech advocates say attempts by the state to police the internet would be another blow against individual rights and a healthy democracy. “They’re going to create a bureaucracy, a regulator, for hate speech on the internet,” Joseph Hickey, executive director of the Ontario Civil Liberties Association, said in an interview. “It will be a ministry of truth. It will decide what tweets, photos, and videos are, quote-unquote, criminal, and have them scrubbed from existence.” Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s press secretary, Camille Gagné-Raynauld, says the coming legislation and regulations are intended to control “harmful online content.” “While some social media companies have been taking steps to combat this type of content, the effort has been inconsistent across the sector and illegal content still proliferates online,” Gagné-Raynauld said in an email. “New regulations would ensure neutral, equitable, and consistent rules for …