Juno News - January 30, 2019Liberals don't want ＂misinformation＂ to influence election. But who defines it？
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Summary
With nine months to go until the federal election, Justin Trudeau s cabinet has finally unveiled its plan to combat the possibility of foreign influence having a role in this year s election. Social media companies are also being told they have a role to play here, and that is to put in a platform that reigns in misinformation.
Transcript
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With nine months to go until the federal election, Justin Trudeau's cabinet has finally unveiled
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its plan to combat the possibility of foreign influence having a role in this year's election.
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The announcement was made this week by Ralph Goodale, the Public Safety Minister, Karina
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Gould, who runs the Democratic Institutions Department, and Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan.
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A number of protocols and policies being put in place were announced, and most of them
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were unobjectionable, in fact quite good and I would argue long overdue policies to implement
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For example, the government will be putting a task force together that is specifically
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designated as the body responsible for investigating and preparing for these things.
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Senior party leadership officials across the spectrum are going to get classified security
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briefings about potential threats, foreign and domestic.
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Social media companies, however, are also being told they have a role to play here, and
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that is to put in a platform that reigns in misinformation.
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And this is where I have a healthy dose of skepticism about what the federal government is trying
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You see, Justin Trudeau's government has a long history of lambasting anything remotely
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Gerald Butz loves taking aim at coverage he doesn't like on Twitter as fake news.
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Catherine McKenna calls it fake news whenever anyone disagrees with her on climate change.
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In fact, she actually went after a column my colleague, Candace Malcolm, wrote, calling
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it fake news for saying that the carbon tax was a tax.
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And then we have Mark Gerritsen, a Liberal member of Parliament from Kingston, who was in
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a Twitter exchange with David Aiken, a global news journalist.
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And they were talking about the budget, and Mark Gerritsen called something fake news.
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He later walked it back, but this is the go-to response now from the Liberals to just throw
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away anything they don't like and dismiss it as misinformation or fake news.
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Now, this isn't to say that a few throwaway comments on Twitter are indicative of something
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The report that came about from the anti-Islamophobia motion had a significant chunk of it that was
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devoted to what it called misinformation, and the need to ensure that no misinformation is
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Well, the Liberals were calling pretty much anyone who criticized M103 out for fake news
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when people like me were sounding the alarm about parts of it that were very concerning.
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This was now dismissed in an official government report as being a misinformation campaign.
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So if the Liberals are trying to make sure that the election is free from influence by
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If they're putting pressure on social media companies to make sure no misinformation is
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seeping in, I think they need to do a much better job of explaining what something would
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have to do to be called misinformation, and more importantly, who gets to make that determination.
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You see, there is a wide range of opinions, perspectives, and analyses that are going to be offered
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People are going to criticize different parties.
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People are going to hopefully put some news reports out that go right down the middle.
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But we can't have people that are loyal to a particular government deciding what's
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And we can't be strong-arming social media companies in putting an editorial perspective
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on their platforms more than they already do to favor one particular government.
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And even though I think it's paramount that we protect our democracy, we can't do it in
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Right up until the next election, we're going to be sounding the alarm about any misinformation
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we see, any examples where the mainstream media is missing the mark on coverage.
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Lend us a supportive hand by joining the Andrew Lutton Heritage Club over at www.truenorthinitiative.com
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For just a few dollars a month, you can keep your mind filled with what the mainstream