By Candace Malcolm
August 23, 2021
-True North
Big tech and Canada’s state broadcaster are teaming up to censor what you can see and what you can share during this election.
Facebook Canada announced that it has entrusted the CBC to be its “fact checker” during the campaign. According to a 2021 election memo posted by Facebook Canada, CBC’s French language division Radio-Canada will be in charge of this initiative.
“When a fact checker rates a piece of content as false we significantly reduce its distribution so that fewer people can see it.”
“We notify people who try to share the content or previously shared it that the information is false, and we apply a warning label that links to the fact checkers’ article disproving the claim.”
Facebook plans to censor and hide material it doesn’t like, and it’s getting the CBC to do its dirty work. Make no mistake. This is an incredible amount of power to be given to the state-run broadcaster.
The CBC is already the recipient of $1.2 billion annually in taxpayer subsidies, giving it a significant leg up over its competition in the private sector. Now, it gets to regulate and potentially silence its competition too.
The CBC is not the arbiter of truth. In fact, they routinely get it wrong.
Just last week the CBC ran an article framing Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole as an anti-vaxxer over his stance on mandatory vaccines for the civil service. O’Toole supports vaccines and encourages all federal employees to get vaccinated, with the small caveat that he would make accommodations for those who fail to get the shot.
This is nearly identical to Trudeau’s position. A federal memo on vaccines similarly discusses alternatives and accommodations for those who do not get vaccinated.
