- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Summary:
Concerns About Social Media: The author draws parallels between concerns that led to discussions about banning TikTok in the U.S. and the current state of X (formerly Twitter).
X as a Threat: The author argues that X, under Elon Musk’s ownership, poses a threat to Canadian democracy.
Increased Racism and Misinformation: The platform is described as having become more racist and a source of increasing misinformation since Musk’s acquisition.
Content Moderation: Musk’s leadership is criticized for gutting content moderation, unbanning alt-right figures, and turning the platform into a partisan propaganda machine.
“Free Speech Absolutism”: Musk’s defense of his actions using “free speech absolutism” is dismissed as untenable.
Canadian Law: Canadian freedom of expression law is noted to be more robust than that of the U.S., allowing for reasonable limits on speech.
Foreign Influence: The author suggests that X’s current conduct would not be tolerated if it were aligned with a government like China.
Musk and Trump: Musk’s close ties to Donald Trump and the potential for pro-Trump propaganda targeting Canadian voters are highlighted as a specific threat.
Echoes of the Broadcasting Act: The author draws a parallel to the Broadcasting Act of 1958, which restricted foreign ownership of broadcasters to protect Canadian discourse.
Message to Social Media Companies: Banning X would send a message to other social media companies about their responsibilities to Canadians.
Call to Action: The author urges the current Prime Minister to ban X before the next election.
Trump’s annexation comments: Notes Trump’s comments about annexing Canada.
X as an Anti-Canadian Propaganda Machine: Concludes that X should be treated as a real threat.
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SIGN THE PETITION! BAN TWITTER!!!
I wrote all of the MPs and a lot of the media in Canada saying this. We would not use weapons provided by the opposing side in a traditional, why are we using them in a trade war?
I’m not for adding a great Internet firewall. Just see it for what it is, advertise against it instead. Adding a great Canadian firewall is going to introduce other issues.
Nah. You shouldn’t be able to say Nazi shit in Canada without repercussions. The owner of twitter is a Nazi. It should be banned here. The free market of ideas is a lie told by Nazis to make it legal for them to recruit others into Nazism.
You’re not really arguing against the point. My point is I don’t agree with a firewall on Canada’s internet. I believe it should be free and open.
TwitterX is a different thing. Go after the business instead. The real enemy is lack of education. Having a firewall on Canada is not going to prevent people from being convinced to be Nazis.
I don’t think they should ban it but ever since they are forcing a sign in to view anything they should stop using it for all levels of government.
And Post Media
Absolutely, not sure why we allow an institutionalized foreign influence campaign like this. It’s actively undermining our nation
This would be like if Canada got rid of all national newspapers, news broadcasters and news organizations and instead handed the responsibility of delivering the news to the people of Canada to one company owned by one billionaire who isn’t even Canadian.
We would never allow that to happen … but the fact that X exists and has so much power over people … we essentially made this possible.
Alas, we’re trying it South of the border. The review: 0/10 would not recommend. :-(
Outright ban is not good. They need to give people an off ramp. Move officials to other platforms. Promote those accounts. Release news first on mastodon or bluesky and part article writers to use that screenshot over the x post.
Beyond the sensationalized article headline, the key is for politicians and community leaders to leave twitter all together. We don’t need to ban it, we need to make twitter obsolete.
I don’t think banning things is the right approach. That is censorship & bolsters fascism, not stop it. Education is the most important. If you’re worried about misinformation, then educate people about it.
banning creates un intended consequences, and i agree, grass roots boycott is a better approach here
I would have agreed with you before I’m not sure about that any more. Musk and his oligarch buddies are in open war against the working class at this point and social media is their primary weapon.
If not outright ban, at the very least insist on heavy regulations. Allowing them to shape the discourse is a sure fire way to lose this battle.
Education hasn’t worked seeing how fascism has successfully taken hold through american social media, and no transparency over algorithms. And the people in charge pushing for fascism owning the sites and tuning the algorithm to their liking to promote and suppress information they want the masses to hook on to.
And it’s not like only dumb uneducated people who have been lured into it. Those with educated backgrounds are just as easily influenced. That there are antivax nurses tells you everything there is to know about how effective education is.
Education hasn’t worked seeing how fascism has successfully taken hold through american social media, and no transparency over algorithms.
This is because the very same people that were pro-oligarchy were previously seen by the left as being friendlies that they should entrust because of their big dollar donations. It is time to take money out of politics. I didn’t say you shouldn’t regulate social media, especially transparency of the code & algorithms.
And it’s not like only dumb uneducated people who have been lured into it. Those with educated backgrounds are just as easily influenced. That there are antivax nurses tells you everything there is to know about how effective education is.
I’ve known plenty of dumb nurses even before the pandemic. I’ve known alcoholic ones, drug-addicted ones, etc. To blame it on social media is ignoring everything else. Let’s not forget the number of nurses & even doctors that believe in a magical sky creature controlling what happens on Earth.
We are exposed to the same material as the people who choose to believe them. We aren’t anymore special or smart than anyone else when it comes to material we have available or see when people smarter than us like doctors can choose to believe it.
You say take money out of politics and I agree, but money is currently in politics and these type of talks of education while true are not effective enough in a system that has money in politics. And social media is currently run by oligarchs. These type of changes will take decades to undo. Education alone is not enough to combat the problem right now.
And as you said dumb people were dumb before, but what has drastically changed is what dumb people in masses choose to believe leading to an increase uptick in harm to society. First it was flat earth people laughed about. Then antivax and now support of dictators.
People keep underestimating the power of disinformation and how quickly it takes root, but how even harder it is to deprogram.
💯 the only correct response. It’s a hostile entity undermining your country.
Change our laws to make the social network responsible for what is posted if it is foreign owned. Canadian owned can have the shield. That’ll kill them, fb, reddit and the rest in Canada and we’ll see homegrown replacements take shape. Governments at all levels should not be using social media, they should have central websites/apps where they can post information that can be spread by RSS. Canadians would be free to repost to any network they want to discuss but the government, imo shouldn’t be on these networks.
Outright bans don’t work, viable alternatives and proper public messaging about who owns the platforms might do the trick.
Similarly for news and media outlets, too much Canadian news is controlled by American companies.
Charlie Angus is doing some heavy lifting. Respect.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to transition official government communications away from Twitter/X to more secure, community-regulated platforms that prioritise public safety, accurate information, and accessibility. We encourage the government to explore publicly accountable alternatives, including decentralised networks, to ensure reliable and responsible communication with Canadians. - 5359
We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:
- Ban the social media platform X on all government agencies’ communication channels;
- Ban political candidates at all levels of governments to campaign, promote, disseminate, and share contents or messages under public or official capacity; and
- Publicly encourage private Canadian entities and users to use alternatives to communicate and interact with their audiences. - 6378
Enough signatures means a petition HAS to be presented in the HoC and a government response MUST be tabled. The “revoke Elon’s citizenship” petition that got popular is the most symbolic gesture of these 3, but I think they’re all for the same main purpose: make our elected reps talk openly and on the record about the seig heil in the room. If they legislate deplatforming his main propaganda arm, that’s just gravy imo.
Yes, but first your government should operate a mastodon node and give all of your ministries and employees time to migrate.
Germany declared Facebook and X to be national security risks, so they’ve been running their own mastodon instances for years
That’s awesome! Yes each country, region, municipality should have their own instance. I’ve spun up a Lemmy instance and going to try and make grassroots in roads by going to local businessses and trying to get them to sign up.
Its a chicken and the egg dilemma. Trying to get users is hard, but if there are businesses that interact with local users then there’s something more whole some. Not zucc, musky, or the other broligarchs making pennies on each local interaction. Their power needs to be usurped by the people.
I think one instance per country is sufficient. Maybe per State. But there’s really no need for each city to have their own instance
