{"id":8652,"date":"2023-03-29T20:34:48","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T00:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=8652"},"modified":"2023-03-29T20:34:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T00:34:48","slug":"govt-sneaky-censorship-federal-government-requested-removal-of-online-content-document-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=8652","title":{"rendered":"GOV’T SNEAKY CENSORSHIP: Federal Government Requested Removal of Online Content, Document Shows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Federal Government Requested Removal of Online Content, Document Shows<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Twitter logo is seen on a sign on the exterior of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, Calif., on Oct. 28, 2022. (Constanza Hevia\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No\u00e9<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a> By No\u00e9 Chartier<\/a>March 29, 2023Updated: March 29, 2023 biggersmaller<\/a>Print<\/a> 0:008:33<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple federal departments and agencies have interacted with social media companies to request online content be taken down, often to have impersonating accounts removed but also to purge posts they deemed offensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Canadian government provided the information on March 27 in response to an Inquiry of Ministry submitted by Conservative MP Dean Allison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allison asked for an account from each governmental organization on requests to \u201ctake down, edit, ban, or change in any other way social media content, posts, or accounts, since January 1, 2020.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most serious case<\/a> involved Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employees sharing private taxpayer information in a Facebook Messenger chat group not approved for use by the agency. CRA requested the information be taken down but said it didn\u2019t receive confirmation it had been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations in general didn\u2019t provide the name of the accounts they were targeting, only giving generic information, but the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The director general for communications at CBSA sought to have posts removed for \u201chate speech or symbols,\u201d \u201charassment or bullying,\u201d as well as nudity and impersonation.

The agency flagged accounts associated at one point to former CBSA employee Patrick McNulty<\/a>, who was reported to be under investigation last summer. McNulty made social media posts critical of COVID-19 measures and advised travellers on how to avoid the once-mandatory ArriveCAN app to enter Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instagram flagged posts by accounts \u201cexbordercop\u201d and \u201cthe_real_mcnulty\u201d for \u201charassment or bullying,\u201d but the social media company reportedly did not take down those posts. Those accounts currently appear to be inactive. https:\/\/7747da1e68c728378791e7e383630aec.safeframe.googlesyndication.com\/safeframe\/1-0-40\/html\/container.html<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Post wrote<\/a> in August 2022 about a social media post made by McNulty in which he reportedly made disparaging comments against a CBSA superior who contacted him regarding one of his videos denouncing the ArriveCan app. The Epoch Times has not seen the post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBSA could not comment on the case of its former agent due to privacy reasons but said its employees are expected to ensure that their comments and behaviour \u201cdo not impair, or are not perceived as impairing, their ability to perform their duties in an impartial manner as public servants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAny social media posts that were flagged for removal was done as it was deemed that these violated CBSA\u2019s Code of Conduct and Instagram\u2019s own policies on abuse and harassment,\u201d said spokesperson Guillaume B\u00e9rub\u00e9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McNulty could not be immediately reached for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other agencies under the Public Safety portfolio did not report sending many requests to social media companies. Public Safety Canada itself said it hadn\u2019t and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service declined to answer citing operational security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RCMP reported making a single request for a takedown, saying that it involved a Facebook account impersonating then-commissioner Brenda Lucki that was sending out fake messages. Facebook deleted the account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flagging Offensive Content<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another reason multiple federal organizations contacted social media companies was to have content they deemed offensive removed. The accounts involved and details of the targeted posts are not available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Public Health Agency of Canada\u2019s online actions focused on \u201coffensive language\u201d on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since December 2020, it has made 21 requests to the social media company to have the flagged tweets removed, but Twitter only took action on three occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Health Canada had more success with its requests to Facebook to have posts removed. In February 2021, its social media chief requested that three posts on \u201cdisinformation about lifting of COVID 19 restriction\u201d be taken down. The document says that the company followed through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two requests to Twitter in December 2022 to remove posts showing \u201cabusive behaviour towards a Health Canada employee\u201d were also successful, along with another post exposing private information about an employee of the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Digital Innovation and Engagement Division at Global Affairs Canada (GAC) handled all of the departments\u2019 requests for takedowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GAC reported having submitted eight requests to Twitter and Facebook over the period being examined, mostly for \u201ccontent violating terms of use.\u201d One request to Twitter was for \u201cthreat of violence.\u201d All of the posts were removed, says the Inquiry of Ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) under GAC also complained about an offensive tweet directed at one of its employees, but Twitter did not remove the post. However, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram did remove accounts identified by the BDC as impersonating the bank\u2019s CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Treasury Board requested that LinkedIn and Facebook delete comments made on posts about diversity and inclusion. It said the comments were \u201cracist, hateful, sexist or defamatory.\u201d The document says the comments were not entirely deleted. Another containing \u201chate speech\u201d was removed by Facebook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Competition Bureau under Innovation Canada requested that Twitter take down an \u201coffensive reply\u201d to one of its tweets in March 2020, but the company did not take action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC), which oversees Service Canada and Passport Canada, flagged posts on Twitter for \u201cencouraging criminal activity\u201d by the promotion of fraudulent vaccination certificates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other ESDC takedown requests related to spam, impersonating accounts, and content making a \u201creference to violence (suicide\/self-harm).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Undermining Public Confidence\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The director of communications at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) asked Facebook and Twitter to take down a post in September 2021 that linked back to a Toronto Sun article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IRB said the article contained \u201cserious errors of fact risking undermining public confidence in the independence of the Board as well as the integrity of the refugee determination system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Inquiry of Ministry notes that the posts were not taken down given they linked back to the Sun\u2019s article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper had reported <\/a>on Sept. 6, 2021, that the Trudeau government was removing barriers for asylum claims in Canada, citing a leaked draft document from the IRB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IRB had more success when it asked Facebook to remove a post containing confidential information on a refugee claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not Tracking Takedown Requests<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Department of National Defence (DND) said it also makes takedown requests but did not provide any data, saying that it does not centrally track that information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen necessary, National Defence will ask social media companies to take down posts from other users if they contain information that poses a risk to operational security, or if the post violates the terms and conditions defined by the social media platform,\u201d said DND.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that its Public Affairs group contacts social media companies several times a month to ask for the removal of fake DND- or Canadian Armed Forces-related accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s eavesdropping agency under DND, the Communications Security Establishment, made numerous requests to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to have accounts removed for \u201cbrand infringement\u201d and impersonation, and all were successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBC also said it made requests to social media companies asking them to take down content that infringes on copyrights or that violates the platform\u2019s terms of use. However, the public broadcaster said it doesn\u2019t systematically track the information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heritage Canada, linked to internet regulation bills C-11 and C-18, said it did not made any takedown requests over the period covered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Twitter Files\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The self-reporting by government entities through the Inquiry of Ministry likely only provides a partial picture of efforts to remove content deemed undesirable, with some organizations involved not providing any data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Efforts in the United States by the government, NGOs, and elected officials to remove posts on social media have been more widely documented through the release of internal Twitter files since Elon Musk took over the company in October 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One recent release<\/a> by journalist Matt Taibbi, on March 17, detailed how Stanford University\u2019s Virality Project had contributed to the censorship of what he called \u201cTrue Stories\u201d on COVID-19 across \u201cat least six major Internet platforms.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wrote that Stanford\u2019s project, which started in 2021, \u201cworked with government to launch a pan-industry monitoring plan for Covid-related content.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Federal Government Requested Removal of Online Content, Document Shows The Twitter logo is seen on a sign on the exterior of Twitter headquarters in San Francisco, Calif., on Oct. 28, 2022. (Constanza Hevia\/AFP via Getty Images) By No\u00e9 ChartierMarch 29, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4718,470,4719,4679,4715,4717,4720,4716,406],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8652"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8652"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8653,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8652\/revisions\/8653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}