LILLEY: Facebook embraces free expression, not Canada though
Laws passed by Trudeau's Liberals and supported by the NDP and Bloc are suffocating online free expression.
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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made an astonishing statement this week, he said his company was embracing free speech once again. It’s a welcome move after years of one-sided, politically biased censorship ruined what was once a great platform.
In a video released on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said that his company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, will be ending its reliance on mistake-prone or agenda-driven fact-checkers. Instead, they will embrace the community notes approach implemented on X by Elon Musk, saying this will allow for a greater diversity of voices to be heard.
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“It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram. I started building social media to give people a voice,” Zuckerberg said.
“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech.”
While it’s great to see Americans and American companies embracing free speech again, we can’t say the same thing is happening in Canada. At least not yet at the political level, where three of the four main parties in Parliament still want government censorship of the internet.
Bill C-63, the so-called online harms act, has died on the order paper due to Parliament being prorogued but it had the support of the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois. The bill included changes to the Criminal Code that could have seen penalties for speech crimes ranging from a preemptive peace-bond to life in prison.
The bill wasn’t just being criticized by conservative-minded voices who rightly worried what a Justin Trudeau-led government would do, but was also seen as going too far by groups like the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Amnesty International and Open Media.
Yet, without Trudeau’s decision to shut down Parliament, that bill would have proceeded with support from all parties but the Conservatives.
Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, which passed in 2023, was also backed by the Liberals, NDP and Bloc while opposed by the Conservatives. This bill is currently being implemented and will see the CRTC, the country’s broadcast regulator, establish rules for the internet which could limit or alter what you see, read, listen to or watch.
Thanks, also, to the ham-fisted way the Trudeau Liberals approached news on search and social media, the content of Canadian news outlets is currently banned from Facebook and Instagram.
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None of this is going to change unless we have a change in government. Trudeau may be going but his attacks on freedom of expression remain.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said that if elected, his government would scrap Trudeau’s bills and laws that have attacked our Charter-protected right to free expression, which Trudeau has strangled often by proclaiming the need to stop misinformation and disinformation.
In a speech in the House of Commons speaking against C-11, Poilievre showed that he understands that free expression is what is needed to combat misinformation, not government censorship.
“It is by challenging false ideas that we overcome those ideas,” he said. “It is by smashing bad information with good information that the better information comes out on top. It is precisely in the pursuit of truth that we must allow freedom of expression online and everywhere to prevail.”
That’s the true Canadian way of dealing with speech and expression, not the command and control method now backed by the Liberals, NDP and Bloc. It’s also what Zuckerberg wants to bring back to Facebook.
Right now, it’s not clear that he could implement all the changes he wants to bring to the American side of the platform to Canadian users. Our laws and regulations are still too restrictive under C-11, C-18 and the threat of C-63.
It took an election to change the mood in America. In Canada, we need that election to change laws and bring back true freedom of expression.
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