My latest: the revenge of angry little men
The Trudeau government wants to regulate the big players on the Internet. Lots of people are concerned about that.
Here’s why, in the form of a cautionary tale.
This writer has a website, www.warrenkinsella.com. I’ve had it for more than 20 years. In the past, during election years, it could get as many as six million visitors a year. Since the advent of social media, not as much.
Anyway. There’s a guy in Ottawa, an angry little guy. He doesn’t like me very much. He has sued me a few times and lost every time. He’s complained about me to the Law Society and the police, and lost there, too. In any legal or regulatory battle I’ve had with this guy, in fact, I’ve won.
A few years ago, this angry little man got angry about something on my website. I don’t remember what it was. It doesn’t matter.
Instead of suing or complaining to the Law Society or whatever, the angry little man contacted Media Temple, the American company that hosts my website. They got in touch with me. My lawyer said I had nothing to worry about, and to ignore it.
But Media Temple didn’t. They said they didn’t have the time or the interest in mediating any disputes involving small fry. They didn’t care about a fight up in Canada.
So – even though their lawyer agreed I had done nothing wrong whatsoever – they said they would deplatform my website if I didn’t remove what had made the angry little man angrier.
That’s the problem, you see, with the Trudeau government’s plan to give the CRTC power over podcasts, personal websites and blogs. Angry little men and women, who can’t get at you directly, will use the legislation – to get at you indirectly.
Facebook and Google and the like have enormous power. They have enormous resources. But I guarantee you: if they hear from the CRTC about a complaint about small fry like me, the small fry will be vaporized. Poof. Gone.
Both Facebook and Google have shown how mercenary and deeply unethical they are, in their battle with Canadians over Bill C-18. The Bill simply asks that they share some of the benefits they reap from the hard work of Canadian journalists and editors.
Their response? To block your access to Canadian news – even during life-threatening events like the wildfires in Kelowna and Yellowknife, when Canadians desperately needed timely news reports.
So, that’s why the Trudeau governments plan will lead to censorship, as Elon Musk and others have said. That’s why it is dangerous: it gives angry little men a way to silence you online.
This legislation represents a real and significant threat to a free press and free expression in Canada. It is a huge mistake.
It must be stopped.