Canadian Government Forces Citizens to Watch What They Tweet

Canadian Government Forces Citizens to Watch What They Tweet

newsfeed.time.com

Canadians need to be careful what they tweet about if they don't want to end up with a fine of $25,000 or five years in jail.
A Canadian law that prohibits citizens from publishing election results before all the polls in the country have closed holds new meaning in today's digital age. The law was initially directed at public radio and created to prevent Eastern voting results from affecting Western voting behavior. But given the rate and frequency at which today's news flows through cyberspace, the law is not only somewhat obsolete but also has significant implications for some channels

(visit the link for the full news article)

What do you guys think about this? I'm personally on the fence with this one. It is definitely an interesting article to say the least as I personally had not even taken into consideration of the implications this could have.

private emails and Facebook messages are allowed but anything visible to the public--like tweets and wall posts--is forbidden

What do they consider public and private? One could personal message each and every person, how is that different then posting a public tweet?

Do you thing this law is legit in what it's trying to achieve? I personally think the penalty of 25 000 Dollars is a little hefty along with 5 years in prison. I would think those would be the maximum penalties based on the situation i'm guessing.



newsfeed.time.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I can see their point but it's also impossible to stop the spread of this kind of info. They could get their information from multiple sources outside of Canada just as quickly but they probably feel it's better to try something than nothing at all.

reply to post by kro32

Canadian voters have reacted in anger and many plan to protest the law by organizing a mass tweeting on election night. Will the government be able to enforce a law that everyone breaks? "The sheer number of users on Twitter would make it very difficult to enforce this law in terms of resources," said Camille Labchuck, a communication strategist for Canada's Green Party told the Montreal Gazette. "Even if everyone who flouted the law was identifiable, I can't see how Elections Canada could possibly prosecute all violations."

We also have people organizing a mass tweet in protest. I'm not quite sure how the Canadian government should react to such a situation. On one hand if they are supposed to be for the people, i'm not quite sure what throwing ever in jail or slapping them with a large fine would accomplish other than public outrage. I guess it depends how many people get on board. On the other hand the law is the law for a reason.

They can't prosecute that many people and plus it would be a public relations nightmare for the government. They will probably take no-action and hope this all dies down. It's a new age and this is one problem that governments have to face to try to ensure fair elections.

Not really any easy answers.

This is one of those good ideas / intentions gone wrong...

We had the same issue here in the States, where media outlets would report tracking all day, and by the end of the night, the west coast would already know who won without ever having to go to the polls.

Its bizarre to me that anyone would even get upset about this law. Who's going to die because they aren't allowed to tweet the election result? Why would you even need to do that??

If for some reason you are desperate to let your west coast friend or relative know what's happening in the east go ahead and send them an email or phone call. Why do you need to post that info publicly so anyone can read it????

We don't like "spoilers" in the movies, but its OK to **** up the election system??

These people need to get a life. I can see no reason for this law to be an issue at all. It is basically a good one without drawbacks. Just shut the "tweet" up until the election is over and then give your 2 cents to the world if you are so frick'n ache'n to do it.

reply to post by wayno


The agument used here in the states, and its valid from what I have seen and researched, is reporting polling results from the east deters people from voting in the west. It caused enough issues here where they are prohibited from reporting (suggesting winners) until the poll closes completely for the entire state.

I would imagine in a country like Canada, where coalition governments can occur due to the number of parties involved, it could be more problematic if voter turnout is low because of reporting.

However, and imo only, people should be responsible for voting regardless of the news.

Stand up, ne heard, be counted.

The title is dramatic the government would never enforce this vs. someone tweeting .. Never.
As stated this was to prevent radio (yes lol radio) as it is a huge problem having the heavily populated Eastern Canada voting earlier then the west. You really start to understand when you notice how much of our industry is in the west.

This is one of the most un-Canadian thing I have heard in a long time and if Canadians are one thing they are Canadian. There would be a # storm if Little Suzie got a 25k dollar fine for tweeting anything, multiply that by a 1000 when you include the tweets subject as a election no one gives a # about. Come on we have had like 937 of them in the last 2 years ...

reply to post by Xcathdra


Covering at least as many time zones as the US, its exactly the same issue for us here in Canada. This rule has applied to media like t.v. and radio here for a long time, and it makes sense.

Twitter is something that relatively fewer people have access to. The same goes for people's facebook "wall", so whether it should apply to those is not as clear. I also think that the fine for an individual and for a news corporation with national exposure should not be the same.

Is it conceivable that one tweet about the election could get re-tweeted enough times to amount to something? I suppose so, but at this point it hardly seems a threat.

Then again recent history has shown the power of the internet to be underestimated time and again.

Solution: Don't start counting votes until the polls close in the West.

In essence a media blackout until all votes are in. Its obvious election laws are outdated and arguably this problem has been in the clear far before tweeting or mass social networks were put in place. They will not fine people this is simply sensationalism.

Quite honestly it won't matter as the province of ontario typically drives the results anyhow.

brill

this is fornicating bullpoo is what it is incrementally stripping man of their free will

This law doesn't seem to realistically be enforceable in this day and age. I would guess they are trying to scare the larger media networks into towing the line. How could you possibly enforce this on a large scale with a large population?

I think the point is that it's an outdated system that need to be changed. In this day of information they should have to wait to this west closes their polls. It really doesn't make sense. Maybe we need people to tweet and disrupt the system so we get a re-vote and they have to change the way it's done, change the system. Realistically it doesn't make sense the way it is done now and eventually they are going to have to change it anyhow.

Originally posted by born2BWild
I think the point is that it's an outdated system that need to be changed. In this day of information they should have to wait to this west closes their polls. It really doesn't make sense. Maybe we need people to tweet and disrupt the system so we get a re-vote and they have to change the way it's done, change the system. Realistically it doesn't make sense the way it is done now and eventually they are going to have to change it anyhow.

Imagine for a minute not even voting and already knowing the outcome, doesn't make a whole lot of sense does it. The notion here seems to be siding more with the impact of using social networks instead of dealing with the actual problem at hand. Just don't count the votes or make the data public until the polls close and everyone has cast their vote. Seems simple.

brill

Well whats the advantage of them doing the count in their current way? It would be easy to take advantage of politically if you could personal message somebody who's at a large event of people who are voting a certain way. I guess things would get spread by word of mouth and voters lose incentive and not vote. You're right when you say they should just hold all results until the closing of the polls.

If I remember correctly, the numbers out west were lower for Federal elections when the vote had clearly shown one party or another were clearly going to win the election. I'll have to look it up again but I do recall the turnout in Alt. and BC being lower in both the 84 election and the 93 elections. The party that was far ahead, their supporters turned out and the opposition voters stayed home, due to knowing their vote meant nothing.

I think this is a smart law but trying to enforce this online would be difficult. They did say though that they wouldn't be actively looking for violaters but if there was complaints, they would investigate.

This is just a smoke screen, they want to keep up the illusion that all of our votes are not rigged

Indeed Twitter has been proven in disobeying this law. Many fake accounts. Even people emailing Americans who are not subject to this law being able to tweet the results before the close of polls.