Juno News - June 08, 2019


Government might shut down social media companies during election


Episode Stats

Length

6 minutes

Words per Minute

161.42337

Word Count

1,122

Sentence Count

1


Summary

In this episode, I discuss the possibility of the Canadian government declaring a crusade against social media giant, Twitter, and why it might actually shut them down. I also discuss why a company like Twitter might not be willing to co-operate with the government in order to protect democracy.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould says that social media companies allow for the
00:00:08.320 subversion of democracy and as such the federal government has issued a charter a declaration it
00:00:14.840 wants social media giants to sign but what about those who don't sign it well Karina Gould says
00:00:20.740 that Justin Trudeau and his liberal government might actually shut them down this is not
00:00:26.840 conjecture this is not speculation this is not conspiracy or fear-mongering this is legitimately
00:00:32.880 an option that Karina Gould has said the government is not taking off the table with regard to how to
00:00:39.440 engage social media companies that don't want to engage with the government this is an article from
00:00:44.820 the Journal de Montréal it's in French but here's the quote translated to English when asked how
00:00:52.340 Ottawa could crack down on social networks that do not seem to collaborate the minister did not rule
00:00:58.120 out the idea of temporarily closing them however she added that this is not the preferred route at
00:01:04.120 the moment quote it's something to think about but now I think the important thing is the pressure from
00:01:10.040 the Canadian public to have more information more transparency with these platforms she said
00:01:15.840 it's something to think about to shut down social media companies now how the Canadian government
00:01:23.520 could shut down these social media giants who have a GDP that's larger than that of many countries in
00:01:29.640 the world I have no idea but what the Canadian government could do is shut down access give a
00:01:35.280 directive to companies like Rogers and tell us and Bell that Canadians are not able to access Twitter
00:01:41.340 just because Twitter did not comply with the federal government this is legitimately fascism and I
00:01:49.320 don't use that word lightly this is legitimately what happens in dictatorships when the government
00:01:55.380 says to private companies we are denying your right to operate and by extension saying to the Canadian
00:02:01.440 to communicate on these platforms we are denying your right to speak freely now whether government
00:02:07.320 would actually flip the switch on Twitter or not I don't know or whether it could but Twitter is
00:02:12.660 specifically the company that the government is taking aim at this is what Karina Gould said in a
00:02:18.820 press conference on Parliament Hill talking about this very declaration we haven't heard from Twitter
00:02:25.380 on the declaration we haven't heard from Twitter in terms of what they're planning on doing for the
00:02:30.140 upcoming election I think it's important for Canadians to be aware that Twitter has essentially decided not to
00:02:36.600 take responsibility for these activities that Twitter is not committing to what they'll do here in Canada and quite
00:02:42.740 frankly we're facing a time crunch now the bulk of this is about political advertising Facebook has said that it's
00:02:50.080 going to put a registry forward of all political ads to be transparent about it and to not allow ads from
00:02:56.780 non-Canadians about Canadian electoral issues Google for its part said that it couldn't comply with what the
00:03:02.720 government was demanding so Google is not going to allow any political ads in the upcoming Canadian election
00:03:08.860 Twitter has thus far not rendered an opinion one way or another but let's look at what's actually in this
00:03:16.080 declaration and perhaps it suggests why a company might not want to play a role in it
00:03:21.080 the Canada Declaration on Electoral Integrity Online says that social media and other online platforms play a meaningful role in promoting a healthy and resilient democracy
00:03:30.860 but it says that these can also be used to spread disinformation in an attempt to undermine free and fair elections and core democratic institutions and aggravate existing societal tensions
00:03:44.860 it says that platforms will intensify efforts to combat disinformation apply their latest advancements and effective tools from around the world for the protection of democratic processes and institutions
00:03:56.860 it talks about transparency and advertising that platforms will remove fake accounts and inauthentic content but what's interesting here is that idea in the preamble that I want to go back to to aggravate existing societal tensions that goes beyond the
00:04:14.840 misinformation that goes beyond foreign election meddling and interference that goes beyond
00:04:20.840 legitimately disruptive content designed to manipulate an election what we're discussing here when the government says societal tension is what many other people would just say is political debate are they talking about content about immigration are they talking about content on tax policy are they talking about supply management are they talking about Sharia law it is
00:04:44.820 it doesn't matter there is no definition given the government has however essentially forced social media companies to sign this declaration saying that these are all the things that we need to avoid and these are all the things that social media companies and the Canadian government need to work together to avoid and what happens Twitter doesn't want to play a role in this now Karina Gould is taking aim at Twitter saying that Canadians need to put pressure on the company I have a lot of issues with big tech and Twitter is one of the
00:05:14.800 examples of the examples of the examples of a company that I don't think is exactly squeaky clean when it comes to the problems that we have in Canada around free speech but I don't like the idea of the Canadian government declaring a crusade against this company the company that ultimately it's hoping is going to do what the government wants it to do come election time we don't know how the government is going to enforce these rules in this declaration we similarly don't know how the government is going to define
00:05:44.800 they are but now that they're talking about the threat of shutting down companies that don't comply Canadians need to be very wary of whether these companies will ultimately become state enforcers of what the government decides the limitations on speech should be and this idea of shutting them down is not just Karina Gould slip of the tongue here it was actually a suggestion put to the government by a former Facebook executive
00:06:14.800 at least temporarily any country can go first the platforms have left you no choice the time has come to call their bluff
00:06:21.800 that was a former Facebook advisor venture capitalist Roger McNamee speaking to the House of Commons Privacy and Ethics Committee these are the arguments that are going to the government and it seems like Karina Gould is at least taking them in stride that speech in Canada that takes place online may actually result in a
00:06:44.800 a fascistic shutdown of online companies and their platforms because it's 2019 no more like because it's 1984 for true north I'm Andrew Lutton