“Surveillance Society”

Minister suggests with Bill C-10, regulations could apply to accounts with a large enough following

Minister suggests with Bill C-10, regulations could apply to accounts with a large enough following

OTTAWA — While the government continues to insist that individuals’ online audio or video content won’t be subject to federal regulations under Bill C-10, the Canadian Radio-television and telecommunications Commission (CRTC) could impose regulations on accounts that have a large enough following or are making enough money off of it, according to Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault.

In an interview on CTV’s Question Period with Evan Solomon, the minister said that while the CRTC isn’t going to be regulating user-generated content, they may be able to have certain regulating powers related to discoverability of online content, if an account’s channel has “millions of viewers,” are “generating a lot of money on social media,” and are “acting like broadcasters.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Canada's Corrupt Political Class

Liberals’ new proposed amendment to Bill C-10 doesn’t address free speech concerns: expert

The Liberal government has proposed new limits on how CRTC can regulate social media posts under Bill C-10, which would still give the broadcast regulator some oversight what content Canadians see on digital platforms.

The amendment proposed at the Heritage committee meeting Thursday evening would allow the CRTC to issue orders relating to discoverability – the ability to force social media platforms to show a certain amount of Canadian content to users.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

Bill C-10 opens the door for regulating government accountability

Canadians can choose to watch virtually anything from anywhere in the world online. And they can share virtually any opinion globally through their cellphone. It’s astonishing freedom.

But the federal government sees a problem. Canadians aren’t watching enough of the right stuff and sometimes they say the wrong things. So, the Liberal government introduced Bill C-10 to give the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission more power to oversee what we’re watching and sharing to make sure it conforms to government-approved standards.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Canada's Corrupt Political Class, Freedom of speech

Peter Menzies: Who’s killing free internet speech? Canada’s culture industry

Canada’s cultural sector, long a champion of rights and social justice, now finds itself — despite Monday’s government pullback — in the awkward position of having inspired the mugging of free speech and expression on the internet.

To say this is a unique position for this group, which has successfully lobbied the federal government to “get money from web giants,” is an understatement. Whether through courageous historic battles on behalf of artistic freedom or leading the vanguard on behalf of women’s rights, gay rights, trans rights, Indigenous rights, workers’ rights, the battle against racism and more, no single group can claim more success in the virtuous use of its profile to advance progressive causes.

He’s absolutely right about Canada’s Culture industry, which is why few care for their woke Pablum. It’s not so much a culture industry as a welfare dependency.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society"

FBI Caught Snooping Through NSA Records to Look for ‘Racially Motivated Violent Extremists’

The Daily Beast reported last week that “The FBI, without any court order, sifted through the National Security Agency’s massive troves of foreign communications for information on American “racially motivated violent extremists,” even though the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court warned the FBI in 2018 that its warrant-free queries” were unconstitutional.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", FBI

Rex Murphy: Liberals’ dangerous arrogance didn’t begin and won’t end with internet-regulation bill

The all-knowing Liberals put up a tactical white flag when the national storm of who-the-hell-do-you-think-you-are swept over them concerning their attempt to regulate the internet.

Debate on a Conservative motion related to Bill C-10 was shut down, though the Liberals said Monday the bill will now be amended so social media posts are not regulated. What is more galling and more threatening than the bill itself however, is the set of mind behind it.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

GUNTER: Here’s why Bill C-10 is such a big problem

Understand one thing: If the Liberals are able to pass Bill C-10 – an update of the Broadcasting Act – Canada will have the most-regulated Internet in the free world.

“The plan is not for us to regulate all of the Internet,” Toronto Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin, told the Commons Heritage committee this week. Dabrusin is parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Heritage, Montreal Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Canada's Corrupt Political Class, Freedom of speech

Jen Gerson: Do the Liberals not have other priorities right now?

Jen Gerson: Do the Liberals not have other priorities right now?

Nah, let’s just regulate the Internet.

As one of Ontario’s hospitals almost runs out of oxygen, and our defence minister announces a review of sexual misconduct in the military, the Liberals have decided that this seems like as good a time as any to fix the Internet.

Or, more specifically, the Broadcasting Act, which is currently before committee; the reforms to the act have been presented as a way to expand things like content requirements and other Canadian norms to digital streaming services like Netflix and Disney+. This is misguided for a host of reasons, but well within the usual bounds of nanny-state nonsense we already generally accept from our government. 

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Freedom of speech

Trudeau’s plan for the Internet: More patriotic propaganda, less choice for users

Several years ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quipped that he sees Canada as the world’s “first postnational state.” It’s become an iconic catchphrase of his tenure — admired by liberals as a mantra of inclusivity; mocked by conservatives as an admission of the vacuousness of progressivism.

It’s a fine debate to have but, in the context of Trudeau, it’s also fairly pointless, given the prime minister has never shown much interest in actually governing in a postnational way. His is, in fact, a quite explicitly nationalist government that has repeatedly shown itself happy to use the power of the state to push a particular notion of correct patriotic behavior.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Canada's Corrupt Political Class, Freedom of speech

Why the Government’s Secret Forthcoming Bill C-10 Amendment Confirms Its Plans to Regulate User Generated Content

Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault and the Liberal government’s response to mounting concern over its decision to remove a legal safeguard designed to ensure the CRTC would not regulate user generated content has been denial. The department’s own officials told MPs that all programming on sites like Youtube would be subject to regulation, yet Guilbeault insisted to the House of Commons that user generated content would be excluded from regulation as part of Bill C-10, his Broadcasting Act reform bill.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Canada's Corrupt Political Class, Freedom of speech

Your free speech is at risk with Ottawa’s push to regulate online content, experts warn. Here’s why.

Liberal government says controversial changes to broadcasting bill will only apply to professional content (ED. Bullshit)

The federal government is facing an uproar over controversial changes to a bill that would bring videos and other content posted to social media sites like YouTube under the purview of the country’s broadcasting regulator.

The changes to Bill C-10 — made at the behest of Liberal MPs on the heritage committee — would allow the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to regulate user-generated content uploaded to social media platforms, much as it regulates radio and TV content now.

The government says the changes apply only to professional content and are necessary to make wildly successful online streaming services and apps contribute to Canadian culture.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Canada's Corrupt Political Class, Freedom of speech

Freedom of Expression Under Attack: The Liberal Government Moves to Have the CRTC Regulate All User Generated Content

Freedom of Expression Under Attack: The Liberal Government Moves to Have the CRTC Regulate All User Generated Content

… Read that again: “all the programming that is on those services would be subject to the Act.” Despite the warning, Parliamentary Secretary Julie Dabrusin put forward a motion to remove the exclusion, which gained the support of the committee.

This is a remarkable and dangerous step in an already bad piece of legislation. The government believes that it should regulate all user generated content, leaving it to regulator to determine on what terms and conditions will be attached the videos of millions of Canadians on sites like Youtube, Instagram, TikTok, and hundreds of other services. The Department of Justice’s own Charter analysis of the bill specifically cites the exclusion to argue that it does not unduly encroach on freedom of expression rights. Without the exclusion, Bill C-10 adopts the position that a regulator sets the rules for free speech online. As Emily Laidlaw tweeted, human rights apply online and offline.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Canada's Corrupt Political Class, Freedom of speech

The Postal Service is running a ‘covert operations program’ that monitors Americans’ social media posts

The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly running a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned protests, according to a document obtained by Yahoo News.

The details of the surveillance effort, known as iCOP, or Internet Covert Operations Program, have not previously been made public. The work involves having analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as “inflammatory” postings and then sharing that information across government agencies.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society"

Police turn up at the home of ‘shaken’ California podcaster for ‘threatening AOC’ after he posted a tweet criticizing her comments on Palestine and Israel

Police visited the L.A. home of a podcaster this week a day after after he posted a tweet criticizing AOC and her comments on Israel and Palestine.

Ryan Wentz runs the online show Soapbox and tweets under the handle Queelamode.

On April 7, he posted a link to an interview where AOC stumbled and struggled to answer questions on how to resolve peace in the Middle East. Wentz called her answers ‘incredibly underwhelming’.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society", WTF?