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Canada’s Censorship Crusade Targets Tech Giants in a Push for “Disinformation” Control

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19 mins ago

3 minute read

Over the last four years, Canada’s Liberal government headed by Justin Trudeau got itself heavily aligned with the neighbor to the south on several key but also very contentious issues – such as restrictive Covid measures, various forms of pressure on tech companies, and “disinformation” censorship.

A flurry of controversial bills in Canada, some of which became law, serve to cement this impression.

Now, as President Trump prepares to start his second term in office in the US, Canada’s “orphaned” ruling class continues with the “disinformation” narrative – either as a sign of long-term commitment or looking for new “disinformation partners” elsewhere in the world – or simply as a sign of inertia.

Time will tell, and it will be interesting to see, but for the moment, news out of Canada speaks about a report compiled by the House of Commons Heritage Committee, titled, “Tech Giants’ Intimidation and Subversion Tactics to Evade Regulation in Canada and Globally.”

How about the tactics deployed in Canada – and globally – using all manner of intimidation and subversion to evade citizens’ right to free speech?

Maybe another day, by another ruling coalition.

Right now, the Liberals, the New Democratic Party, and Bloc Québécois stand behind statements such as this one, found in the cumbersomely-named report:

“The Government of Canada notes some individuals and groups create disinformation to promote political ideologies including extremist views and conspiracy theories or simply to make money.”

This looks like a call to combine (yet more) censorship with (yet more) deplatforming. And the ones to “fix” things for Canada’s current government are companies behind major social platforms, like Meta and Google.

It’s always fascinating to see that even today, there are still those willing to claim that these giants could possibly “do more” (censorship, that is) than they have been earnestly doing, for years.

But the group of Canada’s MPs behind the report believes so.

They want mechanisms put in place “to detect undesirable or questionable content that may be the product of disinformation or foreign interference and that these platforms be required to promptly identify such content and report it to users.”

Does Canadian parliament’s pressure on US tech companies not count as “foreign interference”? Unclear. Another thing that’s unclear –  as in, undefined in the report – is what its authors have in mind when they mention “disinformation” and, “conspiracy theories.”

It’s as if these terms have become “art for art’s sake.”

Whatever that may be, Canada’s ruling parliamentarians want specific actions against these undefined phenomena to be enforced by tech companies.

“Failure to do so should result in penalties,” reads the document.

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Censorship Industrial Complex

Police Probe Journalist Over Year-Old Social Media Post

Published on November 14, 2024

By

 By Cindy Harper

British Journalist Allison Pearson of The Telegraph has found herself under an unexpected police investigation following a social media post she made last year. According to Pearson, the inquiry began with a knock on her door at 9:40 am when two officers informed her that she was under scrutiny for allegedly inciting racial hatred in a post on X. Yet, they won’t tell her what the supposedly offending post was.

Pearson recounted the visit in an article, describing her surprise as the officers delivered the news. “I was accused of a non-crime hate incident. It had to do with something I had posted on X a year ago. A YEAR ago? Yes.

Stirring up racial hatred apparently,” she recalled one officer telling her.

Despite her attempts to understand the specifics, the officers refused to reveal the details of her alleged offense or identify the complainant, noting only that the individual in question was designated as “the victim.”

Essex Police has since clarified that the investigation is based on a report from another police force and is being pursued under section 17 of the Public Order Act 1986, which addresses materials potentially inciting racial hatred. In a statement, a spokesperson confirmed that officers had attended Pearson’s residence “to invite a woman to attend a voluntary interview on the matter.”

This approach, however, has drawn criticism from free speech advocates who argue that police intervention in non-crime incidents has a chilling effect on public discourse. Pearson’s experience follows recent shifts in policing policies, stemming from a Court of Appeal decision favoring former officer Harry Miller. Miller had argued that police tracking of gender-critical opinions as hate incidents without criminality stifled free expression.

Current UK Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is exploring ways to reinforce police surveillance of non-criminal hate incidents.

Meanwhile, X owner Elon Musk, who has previously condemned Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s attacks on free speech, has publicly criticized British law enforcement for investigating social media posts, raising further questions about the role of police in moderating online speech.

This incident has sparked a wave of criticism from various corners, including Chris Philp, the Conservative shadow home secretary, who argues that the police should focus on actual crimes rather than policing thoughts and opinions. Echoing this sentiment, Liz Truss, former prime minister, and Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, have also voiced their concerns, with Truss decrying the investigation as a direct attack on free speech.

Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, pointed out the irony of the police’s timing, noting that such actions on Remembrance Sunday, a day dedicated to democratic values and free speech, were particularly egregious.
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Business

Trudeau gov’t threatens to punish tech companies that fail to censor ‘disinformation’

Published on November 13, 2024

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

A report from the House of Commons Heritage Committee claimed that ‘some individuals and groups create disinformation to promote political ideologies including extremist views and conspiracy theories or simply to make money.’

A report from a Canadian federal committee said MPs should enact laws to penalize social media and tech companies that don’t take action to quell so-called “undesirable or questionable” content on the internet.

MPs from the ruling Liberal, New Democratic Party (NDP), and separatists Bloc Québécois party on the House of Commons Heritage Committee summarized their opinions in a report.

“The Government of Canada notes some individuals and groups create disinformation to promote political ideologies including extremist views and conspiracy theories or simply to make money,” reads the report titled Tech Giants’ Intimidation and Subversion Tactics to Evade Regulation in Canada and Globally.

“Disinformation creates ‘doubt and confusion’ and can be particularly harmful when it involves health information,” it continues.

The report notes how such “disinformation” can cause “financial harms as well as political polarization and distrust in key institutions,” adding, “The prevalence of disinformation can be difficult to determine.”

As noted in Blacklock’s Reporter, the report claims that many of Canada’s “major societal harms” have come from “unregulated social media platforms relying on algorithms to amplify content, among them disinformation and conspiracy theories.”

Of note is the committee failed to define what “disinformation” or “conspiracy theories” meant.

Most of the MPs on the committee made the recommendation that Google, Facebook, and other social media platforms, which ironically have at one point or another clamped down on free speech themselves, “put mechanisms in place to detect undesirable or questionable content that may be the product of disinformation or foreign interference and that these platforms be required to promptly identify such content and report it to users.”

“Failure to do so should result in penalties,” the report stated.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, Canadian legal group The Democracy Fund (TDF) warned that the Liberal government’s Bill C-63 seeks to further clamp down on online speech and will “weaponize” the nation’s courts to favor the ruling federal party and do nothing but create an atmosphere of “fear.”

Bill C-63 was introduced by Liberal Justice Minister Arif Virani in the House of Commons in February and was immediately blasted by constitutional experts as troublesome.

Jordan Peterson, one of Canada’s most prominent psychologists, recently accused the bill of attempting to create a pathway to allow for “Orwellian Thought Crime” to become the norm in the nation.

Conservative MPs fight back: ‘A government bureaucracy should not regulate content’

Conservative MPs fought back the Heritage Committee’s majority findings and in a Dissenting Report said the committee did not understand what the role of the internet is in society, which is that it should be free from regulation.

“The main report failed to adequately explore the state of censorship in Canada and the role played by tech giants and the current federal government,” the Conservatives wrote in their dissenting report, adding, “Canadians are increasingly being censored by the government and tech giants as to what they can see, hear and say online.”

The Conservative MPs noted that when it comes to the internet, it is “boundless,” and that “Anyone who wants to have a presence on the internet can have one.”

“A government bureaucracy should not regulate which content should be prioritized and which should be demoted,” it noted, adding, “There is space for all.”

LifeSiteNews reported how the Conservative Party has warned that Trudeau’s Bill C-63 is so flawed that it will never be able to be enforced or become known before the next election.

The law calls for the creation of a Digital Safety Commission, a digital safety ombudsperson, and the Digital Safety Office, all tasked with policing internet content.

The bill’s “hate speech” section is accompanied by broad definitions, severe penalties, and dubious tactics, including levying pre-emptive judgments against people if they are feared to be likely to commit an act of “hate” in the future.

Details of the new legislation also show the bill could lead to more people jailed for life for “hate crimes” or fined $50,000 and jailed for posts that the government defines as “hate speech” based on gender, race, or other categories.

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