Canada’s public square runs on US-centric platforms that Canadians do not govern and cannot easily exit. Regulation cannot fix this dependence while infrastructure remains foreign-owned. This working paper argues that Canada should treat interoperable, open-source social media as digital public infrastructure supporting public communication and local governance. Built on open standards such as ActivityPub and the Authenticate Transfer or AT Protocol, these systems demonstrate both the viability of this model and the growing demand. The challenge is sustained stewardship and funding, but Canada has a model in the Canadian Internet Registration Authority that can coordinate shared infrastructure. Building on this model, Canada could invest in interoperable Canadian social media and enable public institutions to operate on open networks rather than remain on US-centric platforms.
