Mark Steyn and Lindsay Shepherd - Standing committee

[Merry]

People should never be afraid to hear points of view they disagree with.

[Scorp]

People should never be afraid to hear points of view they disagree with.

That’s a recurring theme throughout the testimony and the report.

Being afraid, and this can lead to reluctance to participate.

So what’s to assure them of no need to be that way?

Remember this?

“Online comments on news stories: a problem for everyone”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3391961

[Scorp]

The Google, Facebook, and Twitter testimony was something to read.

Here are some suggestions from several sources that were included in the report (page 27).

As noted by Kevin Chan from Facebook, since people use many different online platforms to communicate, the establishment of clear baseline standards applicable to all platforms would help to counter online hate.111 According to some witnesses, online platforms should be encouraged to put in place robust governance, such as codes of conduct,112 and should be required “to be more transparent about their content moderation, including their responses to harmful speech.”113 It was suggested more specifically that social media companies “be required to publish regular transparency reports, providing anonymized information.”114 They should also be “more forthcoming in revealing the factors and weightings they use to describe what posts are prioritized to their users, [and] they must give users greater and easier control to adjust those settings.”115

[Merry]

“Online comments on news stories: a problem for everyone”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.3391961

There used to be a time when newspapers would not post anonymous letters (unless there were some VERY exceptional circumstances).

So make people attach their name to their online comment and the problem is solved. Because a lot of folk who say mean things, are much less likely to do so when they are not anonymous.

Far better to make people identify themselves, than to start censoring what people say.

[Scorp]

Page 8 of the report.

Several factors contribute to the spread of online hate, such as the possibility of hiding “behind a veil of anonymity”,12 easy “access to an audience”,13 and easy access to hate content.14 Witnesses also indicated that since online platforms provide a wide audience, hateful ideas that would be considered serious in the real world, appear to be validated online, and then become normalized.15 According to the former President of the Centre culturel islamique de Québec, Mohamed Labidi, “[u]nfortunately, we're witnessing a form of impunity online.”16

While online hate may be trivialized by some people and not taken seriously enough by online platforms and Internet service providers, it still constitutes hate and has devastating consequences on its victims. Often, they are subject “to humiliation and degradation, resulting in grave psychological and social consequences.”17 Online hate “undermines the well-being and sense of security of victims” as well as their “sense of belonging.”18 More generally, it increases discord in society and contributes to the marginalization of certain groups “by convincing listeners of the inferiority of the targeted group.”19

Did anyone else hear about these people testifying?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGXHVrhh-z0

Cats and Rustled - you guys will really enjoy the testimony. Free speech is basically dead in this country, and the idiot Left is cheering this death with much vigour. Just disgusting.

[Scorp]

Mark Steyn's rant at the end of the video just about brought tears to my eyes. What an awesome statement. Leaving the idiot Leftists on the panel just babbling in response.

But here's what Steyn emphasized in his testimony.

The most important aspect...while we're quoting judges, John Moulton wrote a famous essay a century ago on the realm of manners. He said the measure of a society is not what one is forbidden to do, which is to murder and steal and rape, and not what one is compelled to do, such as pay taxes or join the army or whatever. You measure a society by the space in between, the realm of manners, where free people regulate themselves. Canadians do not bash gays or lynch minorities because they are enjoined by the state not to do so. They do so because they are operating in Lord Moulton's realm of manners where free people, civilized people, regulate themselves. That is where the internal contradictions of a fractious multicultural society should be played out.

And it's too bad how the members of the three participating political parties screwed up the decorum of this 'inquiry'. But it kinda reflects on how uncivil we've become and how that's been spread around as the 'free' internet has expanded its reach.

[Scorp]

Found Peterson’s (coming) platform, signed up, and here’s the email I got.

https://www.ts.today/

You're on the waitlist!
Thank you for registering for thinkspot,
a new collaborative community for intelligent discourse.

We are currently running a closed beta and are accepting new users regularly
throughout this test phase. You've been added to our waitlist. Watch your email
over the coming weeks for an exclusive invitation to join us.

See you soon on the thinkspot.

Got another update this evening.

The Beta version is coming soon.

[Scorp]

The first part is an interesting follow up from Lindsay about the *bleep* that members from all parties created, and she is accurate in what sparked the study, but she is inaccurate in her assessment that the committee ended up wanting to form a human rights tribunal and bring back Section 13.

Here is the tendered report:

TAKING ACTION TO END ONLINE HATE Report of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights

http://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Commit ... rp29-e.pdf

[Scorp]

Free speech activist Lindsay Shepherd on her Twitter ban: 'Your instincts should not be to celebrate'

Shepherd was permanently banned after an exchange with trans woman Jessica Yaniv . . ..

http://nationalpost.com/news/free-speec ... -celebrate

The company said it is banning some users as part of a bid to stem online harassment.

The Twitter Rules

Abusive behavior (harassment).

http://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-po ... e-behavior

Twitter Rules: You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. We consider abusive behavior an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.

And according to the Twitter rep’s testimony in front of the (non-partisan) Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights, this is how the Canadian arm of the company is now servicing that rule.

Earlier this year, we made it a priority to take a proactive approach to abuse in addition to relying on people's reports. Now, by using proprietary technology, 38% of abusive content is surfaced proactively for human review instead of relying on reports from people using Twitter. The same technology we use to track spam, platform manipulations and other violations is helping us flag abusive tweets for our team to review. With our focus on reviewing this type of content, we've also expanded our teams in key areas and locations so that we can work quickly to keep people safe. I would note: We are hiring.

http://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer ... t-10665205

[Glacier]

[Scorp]

The Twitter Rules

Abusive behavior (harassment).

http://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-po ... e-behavior

Twitter Rules: You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so . . ..

Shepherd engaged in the targeted harassment that was leveled against her.

Snakebit again!

(A saying my boss would console me with when I suffered the consequences of opening my mouth against my ultimate superiors in a meeting)

In her case: the University, the Standing Committee, and now this.

[Merry]

If JY tweeted all the stuff she claims he did, I have to wonder why he/she was also not banned.

And I'm inclined to agree that all the stuff about tampons, and *bleep*, etc. sounds more like a sexual predator posing as a transgender woman, than a truly transgender woman.

So again, I wonder why JY wasn't also banned?

[Scorp]

Jessica Yaniv

http://twitter.com/trustednerd?lang=en

July 15, 2019

http://twitter.com/trustednerd/status/1 ... 8464200706

http://twitter.com/trustednerd/status/1 ... 6391888896


"Neither Twitter or Yaniv responded to a request for comment by press time," (National Post, Last Updated
July 17, 2019, 11:13 AM EDT -- article above).

[Scorp]

Vice

"She (Shepherd) said she deleted the (her) tweets later but was still banned."

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/xwnbx ... s-very-sad

[Scorp]

Ah-hah, Toronto Sun

http://torontosun.com/news/local-news/p ... om-twitter