Were there a ‘Genie’ for the most disingenuous performance by a government minister defending flawed legislation, the press conference held by puffy-cheeked Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez Wednesday would surely put him over the top..It was actually hard to watch him heaping calumnies upon Meta (Facebook and Instagram,) Google and “tech giants” in general while all the while protesting that the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois were forming a “united front” to “protect democracy:” The tech giants must obey Canadian law. Harumph..That’s rich. If Meta and Google decide not to carry Canadian news to avoid paying Canadian media, they will not be breaking Canadian law any more than somebody who kept his income under the threshold would be breaking no law if he paid no tax. Mr. Rodriguez is a serial kidder..More important, the present Liberal government of Canada is not protecting democracy..It is in fact the least democratic government to hold office in the memory of quite elderly people..Not to go too far down that rabbit hole, it is not possible to lock down a country, force people who won’t vaccinate out of their jobs, spy on their phones, freeze their bank accounts and write a new narrative that nobody voted for, and still pretend to be democratic..These people seem to get a kick out of blunt-instrument politics, artfully dividing Canadians against each other to their own advantage at all times, now apparently using fairy-tale language — “tech giants” — to scare us as we go to bed..Not that we don’t have issues with these "giants" ourselves..When you’re talking ball scores with somebody and your phone isn’t even on, and the next thing that arrives in your email is a deal on tickets to the next game, that’s creepy. And it happens..And it was Facebook after all, that during the COVID-19 alarm prevented any discussion of the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, whether in the media or on individual accounts..News outlets that refused to be stenographers for the federal and provincial communications officers, found themselves blocked. It was a shameful abuse of monopoly power on Meta’s part, end of story..But, it’s also interesting, isn’t it?.When Facebook was enforcing the federal government’s often mendacious and at all times tone-deaf COVID messaging, the government loved them..There was no talk then from Ottawa about tech giants as obstacles to democracy, who needed to obey Canadian laws. Quite the reverse; like truckers (in the early months) they were good citizens, helping the government fight misinformation. Certainly, in respect of suppression of discussion, they were enforcers, an arm of the state..Today of course, they were variously condemned as irresponsible and greedy, the digital equivalent of snatchers of pennies from the eyes of the dead, with Mr. Rodriguez as prosecutor, witness and judge..One more thing: Why didn’t the mainstream media just ignore the COVID censorship of the giants? Publish and be damned, and all that?.Answer, because Facebook was so important to their circulation and the number of pageviews that they could offer their shrinking advertiser base, that they dared not risk upsetting ‘the giants.’.So now where exactly is the threat to the informed discussion that underpins the democracy that Mr. Rodriguez honours with his lips but scorns in fact? Is it the giants, or is it the government itself?.Let’s not forget what’s really going on here..The advertising-based model that has supported newspapers and electronic media for decades no longer works. The ads have moved onto the Internet..So the mainstream media went to the government and asked for money. They received $590 million over five years. It wasn’t enough and nobody ever thought it would be. So they switched up the narrative. All their hard work was being ripped off by Facebook and Google; make them pay..The Liberals went for it. And, here we are, with Rodriguez making a little fist and pulling back $10 million worth of advertising from Facebook. (Contra the National Post headline, that is not ‘escalating’ the confrontation. Facebook’s market cap is US$759 billion.).It’s a little early to say that Canadians will no longer be able to search the Internet for Canadian news. It will take six months to write the regulations..Shadow Heritage Minister Rachael Thomas (Lethbridge) accurately summed up the situation when she said the Liberal laws are “limiting what Canadians see and share online” and that federal legislation “takes away choice and puts it in the hands of a big powerful bureaucracy to control the Internet and limit who can have a voice.”.Quite. Their ever-preferred blunt-instrument approach. Thomas also promised a Poilievre government would “replace Bill C-18 and bring home freedom and choice for Canadians.”.Remove, destroy and grind up into small pieces would have been our preferred language, but “replace” is a start..At any rate, Thomas’s remarks leave the Opposition Conservatives as the only credible people on this file, at the moment..Mr. Rodriguez should consider the ironies here: If he really did win a 'Genie,' or even a participation trophy, nobody would know. Under his legislation, they’d never find it on the Internet.
