Canada’s Bill C-22: Why Apple and Meta Oppose the New Encryption Law

May 08, 2026

Overview

Canada’s proposed law Bill C-22 (SAAIA) gives the government new powers to collect metadata from electronic services. Tech giants Apple and Meta strongly oppose the bill. They say it can force companies to break encryption and create backdoors. The bill is under debate in Canada’s House of Commons in 2026.

What Is Bill C-22?

Bill C-22 is a proposed law in Canada. Its full name is the Supporting Authorized Access to Information Act (SAAIA) . In 2026, the House of Commons is debating this bill. The bill gives the government new investigative powers. It focuses on electronic service providers like messaging apps, cloud storage, and social media companies.

What Does Part 2 of the Bill Allow?

The most debated part is Part 2 of Bill C-22. This part allows the Public Safety Minister to order electronic service providers to keep metadata. The company must keep this data for up to one year .

What kind of metadata? The bill lists four types:

Transmission data (who sent data to whom)
Device data (what device was used)
Routing data (how the data traveled)
Location data (where the user was)

This means companies must store records about user activities. They cannot delete this information even after some time.

What Is Encryption and Why Does It Matter?

Encryption is a way to turn readable information into a secret code. Only the person with the right key can read it. End-to-end encryption is very strong. It keeps messages private even from the company that runs the app. Many messaging apps and cloud services use this technology.

Bill C-22 raises a big question. Can the government force companies to break their own encryption?

Apple’s Position (6 May 2026)

On 6 May 2026 , Apple made a clear statement. Apple said Bill C-22 can allow the Canadian government to force companies to insert backdoors into their products. A backdoor is a secret way to bypass encryption. Apple warned that backdoors weaken security for all users. Criminals and hackers can also find and use these backdoors.

Meta’s Position (7 May 2026)

On 7 May 2026 , Meta’s Canada policy officials also spoke against the bill. Meta said the bill can require companies to build or maintain special capabilities. These capabilities would break, weaken, or circumvent encryption . Meta argued this is dangerous. It harms the privacy and safety of every Canadian who uses messaging services.