Canadian Big Banks Declare War on Free Speech & Strong Arm Facebook to Up Censorship of “Hate Speech”

Sad to report, Canada’s five major banks and several other corporations like Lululemon have joined major U.S. firms like Coke in a campaign to try to force Facebook to censor “hate speech” and divisive or misleading posts. The campaign has been organized, not surprisingly, by the militantly anti-free speech and very well funded Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith in the U.S. If you are a client or shareholder of any of these companies, complain. “Hate speech”, of course, is very vague. Actually, it is speech the accuser hates. The complaint about “divisiveness” is ludicrous. Surely, any comment that takes one side of an issue is divisive and may offend people who take the opposite side of the issue. The major corporations are using their might to try to crack down on opinion on the hugely popular platform to people to share their lives and express their opinions.

CBC (July 1, 2020) reported: “All five of Canada’s biggest banks are joining an international boycott of Facebook over concerns that the platform is complicit in promoting racism, violence and misinformation. Scotiabank, RBC, CIBC, BMO and TD have pledged to stop purchasing ads on the site for the month, aligning themselves with brands such as Lululemon Athletica and Mountain Equipment Co-op in signing onto the StopHateForProfit campaign.

The initiative, spearheaded by organizations like the NAACP and the Anti-Defamation League, began in response to growing anti-Semitic and anti-Black rhetoric found on the social media platform. Participating brands will suspend all advertising on the platform for the month of July.

Scotiabank announced its intentions on Tuesday, while the four other banks confirmed on Wednesday that they would follow suit. A spokesperson for RBC said the company understands that systemic racism has disadvantaged Black people, Indigenous people and people of colour, and the bank intends to combat that. ‘One way we can do that is by standing against misinformation and hate speech, which only make systemic racism more pervasive,’ AJ Goodman said. A spokesperson for Bank of Montreal told CBC News that the bank ‘will pause its advertising on Facebook and Instagram during the month of July, while continuing our ongoing dialogue with Facebook on changes they can make to their platforms to reduce the spread of hate speech.’ TD said it had also “paused” its advertising for the month and added that the bank is ‘committed to the fight against racism and hate speech and to the work needed to help create a safer and more inclusive society.'”

Not that Facebook is a stalwart supporter of free speech. Last year, it banned “White Supremacists” and “White nationalists”, but not Zionists (Jewish nationalists) or any assortment of haters of Christians and White people. Indeed, we see few supporters of free speech in many important areas of our society: “At the beginning of June — shortly after Trump threatened via social media to order the military to shoot anti-racism protesters — hundreds of Facebook employees staged a virtual walkout to protest the company’s refusal to label the post as hate speech. A spokesperson for Facebook noted that the company has suspended more than 250 white supremacist groups from the platform but did not specifically comment on the boycott.”