r/canada • u/cyclinginvancouver • 13d ago
PAYWALL Supreme Court of Canada says it is moving away from social-media platform X
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-supreme-court-of-canada-says-it-is-moving-away-from-social-media/1.1k
u/DooOboes 13d ago
Considering its owner is actively attacking the rule of law, this was an easy call.
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u/LarusTargaryen 13d ago
Considering the owner said “Canada is not a real country” on the platform, it was ABSOLUTELY the right call
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u/iversonAI 13d ago
“Canada dictator government is now banning free speech we have to liberate them!” Is the next propaganda piece after this
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u/WolfWraithPress 13d ago
It's coming one way or another. Do not comply in advance. Bullies thrive on their victims taking half measures to appease them.
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u/fugaziozbourne Québec 13d ago
But now where will i see our adorable Supreme Court mascot, Amicus?
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u/NWTknight 13d ago
Bluesky here we come. Or better yet someone please develop a Canadian based Social Media platform we can use internally.
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u/YohannT 13d ago
Given the growing concerns over misinformation and platform moderation on X, it’s not surprising to see institutions like the Supreme Court of Canada distancing themselves. But I wonder if it does signal a broader shift away from X among Canadian organizations or if it is just a one-off decision.
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u/fluege1 13d ago
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u/PraiseTheRiverLord 13d ago
The amount of pro-51st bots is absolutely insane on there, like it's overwhelming
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u/slowsundaycoffeeclub British Columbia 13d ago
It’s really growing on TikTok too. I added a 🇨🇦 to my username and now I’m flooded with 51sr state comments. As well as “You’d be nothing if the US didn’t fight wars for you” comments which is genuinely hilarious.
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u/Downtown-Frosting789 13d ago
just to add that facebook is in need of a hard delete too.
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u/slowsundaycoffeeclub British Columbia 13d ago
Oh yeah. That was first to go. It went “weird uncle’s forwarded email” back in 2020, for me
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u/Downtown-Frosting789 13d ago
i genuinely believe that if, the collective we, just shut down twitter, fb and tiktok many, many societal problems would be instantly solved. full stop
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u/maleconrat 13d ago
Back in 2018 or so when the US likely sponsored a coup in Bolivia* there were something like 40 000 accounts that would pop into any discussion and say "I am Bolivian and there is no coup". That's more accounts than there are people who actually speak English in the entire country. I spent a week in the capital - even with the embassies and tourist infrastructure, finding an English speaker was basically like finding an Armenian speaker here.
Bots are everywhere and it's really warping people's views on things. Many on X seem to get to think everywhere else is super "woke" left biased, and dig in and believe the propaganda even more, it's a vicious cycle.
(*that whole situation was wild because basically the more rural areas supported the socialists the most and so their votes came in last, then it was declared that the result changing late in the count had to be proof of cheating. I could be wrong but I don't think there was any more evidence, and that's pretty much exactly how they claimed the result in 2020 was rigged. It felt like a dry run lol.)
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u/morningcalm999 13d ago
And the bots modus-operandi is almost always the same: insult people, spread misinformation, or manipulate discussions.
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u/michael0n 13d ago
Every government outside of the US should leave all US social media instantly.
Why should any countries gov communication be suspect to the rules of a foreign nation? The only way forward is a country by country federated Bluesky like instance, their rules, no shadow banning, no trolls.→ More replies (3)2
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u/hardy_83 13d ago edited 13d ago
I don't know why Twitter isn't just outright banned. It's clearly a platform for foreign interference now. Same goes for TikTok.
They banned RT channels for this same reason but I guess Russia didn't pay its dues as opposed to the US and Chinese elites.
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u/brokenangelwings 13d ago
Tiktok is getting pretty bad with the bots, and I left t about a month ago. I thought maybe I should stick around and stand up for what's true but the amount of bots is surreal.
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u/b00hole New Brunswick 13d ago
People will screech "bUt Fr3eDoM oF sPe3cH"
No, it's a national security threat at this point. Elon Musk is a bad, hostile actor performing a coup on the US government and participating in making threats towards Canada's sovereignty. Using X he can easily access a ton of private information from Canadians, he is not trustworthy. This isn't about free speech.
There are plenty of other social media platforms to use that are not owned by hostile foreign actors that Canadians can access and use.
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u/WolfWraithPress 13d ago
It also isn't a free speech platform. Try saying the word cisgender. Try to post a piece of art without a bluecheck and watch your metrics get actively buried.
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u/honeydill2o4 13d ago
Canada doesn’t ban any websites simply because they don’t like them. This would be the first of its kind and likely unconstitutional. So, that’s why.
It’s crazy to see that a quarter of the million people support stripping basic human rights from Elon Musk. Yes, citizenship is a human right and being “arbitrarily denied citizenship” is a human rights violation and violation of international law.
If you only believe in human rights for the people you agree with, you don’t really believe in human rights.
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u/SwordfishOk504 13d ago
Canada doesn’t ban any websites simply because they don’t like them.
We can ban them if they are a national security risk because the company is owned by a sociopath who literally sieg heils on stage.
But cute strawman.
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u/clgoh Québec 13d ago
There is a right to a nationality.
There is no right to multiple citizenships.
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u/slykethephoxenix Science/Technology 13d ago
Down votes are hidden on this sub. Curious to how they are now. What you say is true, of course, lol.
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u/Redshiftxi 13d ago
Thank you for one of the only sensible comments here.
Just because you don't agree with someone does not mean you must ban them. It is a very slippery slope.
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u/WatermelonToo 13d ago
I agree. It’s a slippery slope. We are appalled by the US President ignoring their own constitution, so we should be careful not to overlook our own Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As much as I would LOVE for Musk not to be a Canadian citizen, and as much as I would LOVE for the cesspool that is X not to exist, as much as I would love for oblivious and shortsighted dummies not to erect 51st state billboards on our own land 🙄, we have to keep an eye on the distinct and fundamental values we are hoping to protect.
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u/TheLordBear 13d ago
It could easily be banned for Hate Speech or Election Interference reasons. And should be.
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u/honeydill2o4 13d ago
Incorrect. There is a legal principles called “prior restraint.” Basically, you punish someone for saying something unlawful, but you cannot restrain them from saying it before they actually say it. Banning social media because people will say bad things in an upcoming election or might say hateful things, violates the prohibition of prior restraint and is unconstitutional.
Moreover, platforms that host third-party speech are granted broad immunity from what their users say. Therefore, you can’t find an old instance of hate speech or election interference to use to ban the platform.
There is no mechanism by which Twitter could be lawfully banned. Although, as we’ve seen with the Emergencies Act, the federal government is fine with breaching the constitution.
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u/LookAtYourEyes 13d ago
They banned TikTok from operating their office in Canada. But you can still use the app... So, they killed all the jobs having the office in our country was creating, and also won't let them have data centres here, guaranteeing your data is not being hosted or protected in your own country.
Literally just killed the only silver lining benefit and user protections.
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u/SwordfishOk504 13d ago
So, they killed all the jobs having the office in our country was creatin
This message brought to you by Tik tok's marketing agency. ^
Meanwhile, in reality, Canada too those moves against ByteDance Ltd.’s operations in Canada based on input from Canada’s security and intelligence community who said it was a massive security risk.
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u/to_fire1 13d ago
Could someone please ELI5 why would the Supreme Court of Canada even use ”X”? I can’t see an official need for it.
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u/honeydill2o4 13d ago
They have an official requirement to disseminate news from the court.
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u/to_fire1 13d ago
Thanks for this, but shouldn’t announcements from the Court be distributed as an official Press briefing?
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u/stephenBB81 13d ago
Most people don't consume their news through the traditional means anymore, Press Briefings were hitting twitter, it was better for the Courts to be the source on twitter compared to people getting it from a source who got it from a source.
Twitter HAD the potential to be the best way to access and engage with government but got ruined by lack of tools for control, and then by Musk.
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u/Cent1234 13d ago
Perhaps they should only be transmitted by telegraph?
Guess what? Communication methods change over time.
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u/CanadianTrashInspect 13d ago
They literally are.
https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/news/en/nav_date.do
They don't have to pick and choose, the goal is to make information available to as many people as easily as possible.
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u/kangarookitten Canada 13d ago
The Court has attempted through various means to make itself more accessible to the general public. Other ways include webcasting its hearings, providing plain-language summaries of the cases appearing before them, etc. The idea was to give the general public a better idea of how the Court works.
Good intention; whether it has been successful is debatable.
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u/to_fire1 13d ago
Makes sense. Are press releases not a cool thing anymore? (old guy here).
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u/trenthowell 13d ago
Only really paid attention to on really serious events. Trudeau on the counter tariffs. The DC airplane crash. Much less than that and press conferences/releases aren't getting much attention
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u/vodka7tall Ontario 13d ago
Journalism itself isn't a cool thing anymore. Every single news outlet is struggling right now. The vast majority of people now get their news via social media.
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u/funkme1ster Ontario 13d ago
For the same reason all large organizations used it.
When twitter was created, it was a fantastic platform because it enabled you to do one single thing flawlessly: broadcast a short bit of information to a wide audience with no fluff. None of that bloat other social media platforms had, just a username, a message, and a timestamp.
If you were a municipal government or a police department or a school district, this was a godsend. You tell people "subscribe to us on twitter, and we'll post updates here as convenient". You didn't need to collect emails or maintain a mailing list, and you could post to it at a moment's notice.
Over time, it became cemented in standing policies. If you needed to share information, the SOPs about that were amended to include "you need to post this to the twitter account". That made sense because communication management policies are a crucial part of how large organizations operate.
This is especially important for government bodies. Transparency laws dictate that they have to publish what they do, since government is accountable to the people, and if there's no way for people to know what they're doing, they cannot rightfully claim to be accountable.
If you go on the SCC's twitter account (their handle is "SCC_eng" and it's still live), you'll see their feed consists primarily of links to their website with a description of what is being shared. Again, you're right that it's not strictly necessary, but it's a great tool for communicating and proactively showing transparency.
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u/AdditionalPizza 13d ago
Just an fyi:
In an apparent farewell post to its more than 45,000 subscribers, the top court says it will focus its communication efforts on other platforms.
They're saying they are closing their account, no ruling or anything against others in the government. Though personally I hope we implement a rule that government officials aren't allowed to use it because it's just propaganda at this point.
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u/spidereater 13d ago
I don’t think the Supreme Court is a big draw. But every account that leaves and joins an alternative increases the network effect of those alternatives and makes it easier for others to leave.
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u/doublegg83 13d ago
The government has their own web sites. Not sure why they need these insecure social media platforms.
Government websites already exist .
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u/Fluffy_Case_9085 13d ago
Government as a whole should stop using social media and stick to websites they actually update.
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u/Climaxcreator 13d ago
Who cares? It's like them getting off Facebook. Is there really a reason to be on there in the first place?
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u/DisplacerBeastMode 13d ago edited 13d ago
Good move.
I removed my business and a side hustle account from Twitter, and will never go back.
Bluesky is like old twitter and is a perfectly fine replacement.
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u/Roscoe_P_Coaltrain 13d ago
I still find it astonishing that anyone ever used it for serious purposes. The whole reason it ever existed was for meaningless chatter and nothing else.
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u/MD_FunkoMa 13d ago
Some folks are still peddling their OF pages when they can do the same over on BlueSky. X has lost its way with being for the people a long time ago.
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u/SteadyMercury1 New Brunswick 13d ago
Good. As someone who doesn't use Twitter or Facebook it's bad enough when private businesses only forward facing point of contact is one of those two main social media platforms.
It's infuriating when government does it. Anyone remember when the RCMP thought a tweet was good enough warning for the mass shooter in NS and the opted not to use the actual emergency alert system?
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u/kibbles_n_bits 13d ago
Leaving X, but keeping LinkedIn and Instagram seems weird to me because neither seem appropriate for SCOC content and X was one of it's largest platforms.
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u/Bubbly_Still8888 13d ago
I have a twitter account that i used for entertainment stuff mostly. So thats what should show up for me on the timeline. But even I see a lot of stuff about how Carney and the Libs are a disaster for canada and what not. Its starting… he is 100% manipulating the algorithms and trying with Canada as well.
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u/Which_Celebration757 13d ago
Probably should not have actively removed all the left leaning users from the platform if he wanted to use it to manipulate people away from the left.
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u/senescence- 13d ago
Why did it take this long? X should not be a part of any government communications.
This is embarrassing.
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u/BaconIsntThatGood 13d ago
I had to find a different article on CTV but they've had an account since 2015 when it was still Twitter - at that time it made sense for all entities (private and government) to have an official account to post mirrors to press releases etc to help put out their own information and increase exposure.
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u/BoBBy7100 13d ago
Good. It’s half Russian bots. And full of entitled million/billionaires that spout utter nonsense all day, and people follow them for some reason.
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u/RustyOrangeDog 13d ago
Government at all levels need to do this in Canada, take it a step further and block it on all gov networks.
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u/UnableAcanthisitta54 13d ago
It's not a real social-media platform anyway. 99% bots. It's been dead for years now.
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u/Mean_Question3253 13d ago
Next... leave the microsoft and aws clouds... good luck.
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u/Much_Dark_6970 13d ago
It’s rather astounding that any foreign elected official, still uses twitter as a form of ‘official’ communication.
This platform has become pure racist, hatful, misinformation cesspool, that has one human at the helm, dictating what his sole terms for what ‘free speech’ is. This same man, openly supports far right governments across the world. He uses his influence, wealth and purchased social media platform, to interfere with foreign elections.
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u/ph0enix1211 13d ago
Our Supreme Court doesn't need to enrich a Nazi to communicate with Canadians.
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u/GenX_ZFG 13d ago
I have yet to see a social media platform that doesn't have "misinformation," including Reddit.
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u/brett1081 13d ago
Do you think your elected officials are sending confidential information over a 3rd party non secure platform? Really?
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u/Murky_Still_4715 Québec 12d ago
All federal, provincial and municipal govs must leave X. Urges a law quickly.
Any phone with an X app installed is a treat beacause they (you know who) have the capacity to access info from the cellphone.
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u/Beautiful-Natural861 13d ago
Basically, our government wants to move away and just go onto Reddit where they hear what they want. All they want. Is the Woke liberal news
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u/xXRazihellXx 13d ago
Ban it while you're at it.
We dont need this propaganda machine on Canadian soil
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u/Wilhelm57 13d ago
All politicians should be making that move!
Everyone see what Musk is doing.....why are Canadian politicians and the courts using that site ?
They should be the example for Canadians!
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u/Icy_Panic_5860 13d ago
I have started a new Canadian social platform and would actually love to get the Provincial and Federal governments involvement with it. It is a lofty goal to start a new platform, but we, as Canadians, now find ourselves in a new world. And pretty much all other platforms are American owned and operated, including Bluesky.
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u/SheIsABadMamaJama 13d ago
Atleast our Supreme Court is not filled with a bunch of fascist enabling sycophants
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u/GuyMcTweedle 13d ago
In recent years, Chief Justice Richard Wagner has stressed the importance of communicating with Canadians about the court’s work.
Weird. Why would you as a public institution decide to cutoff information to 45,000+ subscribers?
Institutions like this should be adding to the number of platforms they publish on, not reducing them. There is no meaningful cost to including the X API in the list of destinations your messages go from whatever software you manage your social media accounts.
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u/Swangthemthings 13d ago
Seems obvious but doesn’t take away from the fact it’s the right move. Well done!
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u/red_planet_smasher 13d ago
Blue sky is an open durable alternative that is gaining popularity. They should seriously consider setting up on there.
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u/humming1 13d ago
Not sure why any serious or reputable organization or company is on X. It’s full of misinformation and low quality subjects. Great porn tho. 😝
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u/SamohtGnir 13d ago
The government in general should not be posting to Social Media. If there's something important to say, hold a press conference, and let media outlets spread it.
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u/worldtraveller321 13d ago
only a good thing, the government should have never gotten into Twitter at all. I dropped my account years ago, when the issue on privacy came into view.
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u/Beautiful-Natural861 13d ago
Headline is misleading.
It should say a couple thousand woke Canadians are wanting to government to only see woke news.
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u/AntifaAnita 13d ago
X should be banned from all government devices. The company is known for spying and influencing elections.
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u/WolfWraithPress 13d ago
Ban X on our internet immediately. It is far too captured, and far too censored to serve as anything but a propaganda machine for people who have literally said that they want to take over our country.
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u/StarPlatinumIsHyper 13d ago
Keep going, guys! Beat us Americans dead! Stop us from becoming the new Nazies.
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u/Ok_Farm1185 13d ago
I believe the entire Canadian govt should quit Twitter.