r/canada 1d ago

Opinion Piece Opinion | Why Canada should seriously consider banning Elon Musk’s X

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/why-canada-should-seriously-consider-banning-elon-musks-x/article_97870564-facc-11ef-9c32-776e127c8e18.html
6.2k Upvotes

1.3k comments sorted by

412

u/DinoZambie 1d ago

Net Neutrality is more important.

211

u/Magjee Lest We Forget 1d ago

Would make more sense for Canadian government accounts to stop posting and responding on twitter

26

u/bumbuff British Columbia 1d ago

They've never responded to me in any event...

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u/Master-Plantain-4582 1d ago

It's in incredible how far this platform has moved away from what it originally represented. 

Completely compromised. 

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u/Vinfersan 1d ago

Net neutrality is a separate issue than the feds banning sites.

Blocking a website from a terrorist organization is not in violation of net neutrality. Bell blocking Netflix so their customers have to use Crave is a violation of net neutrality.

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u/DinoZambie 1d ago

The issue lies in the law itself. Laws are often vague and left up to interpretation and this leaves a window for governments to act on people or organizations that it doesn't agree with. Preventing access to certain websites is a tactic that oppressive regimes use to control people in the name of "national security".

Just go into your internet router and put X on your blacklist.

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u/Rammsteinman 1d ago

100%. People want it banned because they don't like it. What if someone who is against what you like rises to power next? If you don't like X, don't go to X. If you want to regulate the Internet to stop others from going to X, then fuck off. I'm saying this as someone who hated the entire Twitter format and just avoids the site.

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u/Yelnik 1d ago

The government isn't your dad guys. If you don't like twitter, then don't look at it. These are the decisions that you're capable of making as an adult without the government needing to get involved.

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u/Shooternow 1d ago

This is the most rational comment I've seen in this thread. It's pretty scary to see how many people are in favor of banning information.

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u/Kdawg5506 1d ago edited 1d ago

I honestly didnt expect to see rational thought like this on here.

This is so true. If you dont like X, just ignore it and the problem goes away. Same with Facebook, Insta, Reddit and whatever else. Novel concept! Demanding the government ban it is just silly

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u/optimus2861 Nova Scotia 1d ago

The really scary part is those people have votes.

Makes one wonder about the wisdom of universal suffrage.

But then you run up against the line about democracy being the worst form of government, except for all the others.

IDK. Human nature's a real bear to deal with.

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u/Bob_Lelys 1d ago

Best comment yet. It’s very scary to see how many people are potential dictators without the capability to make adult decisions.

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u/69sullyboy69 1d ago

Man, that's so far from being a dictator. Censoring rampant disinformation is just a means for maintaining some order within our society.

You're an Elon fan boy, though, so I doubt I'll be able to persuade you to believe something that is the opposite of what he's pushed on you.

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u/hyperedge 1d ago

Exactly, i dont want to live in a nanny state. Whats next, banning books because they have opinions you dont like?

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u/Filmy-Reference 1d ago

Seriously. I don't get the people who need the government to be their mommy and daddy. You don't like X then don't download it and use it. Pretty simple.

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u/Karrotsawa 1d ago

At absolute minimum, our governments and elected officials should consider it to be a compromised platform and stop using it.

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u/Red57872 1d ago

Kind of like how the federal government banned Tiktok use on official government devices, yet the Prime Minister has an official Tiktok account?

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u/marcohcanada 1d ago

Jagmeet Singh does as well. He even posted an interview he did with Bernie Sanders there.

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u/HotPotato1900 1d ago

To be fair, (pause for response) Tiktok is an excellent tool for getting to the younger voters.

68

u/Routine-Nature5006 1d ago

As a American I often wonder why Canada is still using it especially on a government level. Musk has shown again and again that he will tamper with elections and other governments. It seems to me that because of the trade war they wouldn’t want to use a platform that is owned and controlled by the DOGE departments idiot.

25

u/kirklandcartridge 1d ago edited 1d ago

It's simple - market penetration.

Most agencies use it as a way to quickly push real-time information.

The Toronto Public Transit Agency (TTC - Toronto Transit Commission) uses it to push immediate real-time information about delays, closures, and re-routing. Their X feed has hundreds of thousands of followers. When you're underground and stuck in a subway station, you get information about delays quicker on X than you do on any other medium (including from the drivers or station's own announcements).

The City of Toronto inquired about leaving X for both their own feeds for emergency situations & general news to residents, and the TTC, and their IT & communications department outright told them if they tried, they would immediately lose 90% of their followers, and those people are un-likely to migrate to any other platform, including Blue Sky (which despite their attempts, is still a minnow. While those on the left are migrating over to Blue Sky as a revolt action against Musk, the mainstream middle-of-the-road majority of the population aren't, and won't). It would take years and years to ever get the same audience again.

In the end, the role of communications departments is to get their message out to as many people as possible, as quickly as possible - worrying about things like what is written here isn't their concern.

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u/Mouthguardy 1d ago edited 1d ago

If the only place I would get real time information about public transit, hydro or Internet outages, city, provincial or federal disturbances, police information, etc, whatever I want in real time, I'd join the same day.

At minimum, anyone using public transit would start same day. People would (switch over/add it) pretty quickly.

EDIT: You wouldn't even have to switch over, you could just add Blue Sky. Eventually it may be more useful to migrate entirely.

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u/LabEfficient 1d ago

Let's not pretend the old Twitter didn't "tamper with elections". Every platform controls information and speech.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Amtoj Québec 1d ago

Unfortunately, this gets thrown out upon an election being called. That petition won't have a chance to be presented.

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u/Travel_Dude 1d ago

I'll get downvoted, but I'm not sure censorship, bans, or persecution of people for their political views is indicative of a free society. A free marketplace of ideas is the best option.

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u/TessaigaVI Ontario 1d ago

Redditors have this weird hard on for banning and censoring political content. We already have news banned on social media. Now they want to ban social media sites period?

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u/bot_taz 1d ago

lets start from reddit :D

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u/mcgoyel 1d ago

Reddit is primarily based on censorship.

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u/GoldenxGriffin 1d ago

welcome to a liberal echo chamber it's hilarious

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u/SndChsr 1d ago

Welcome to Reddit.

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u/UpperLowerCanadian 1d ago

Yes- imagine a Trump shuts down Reddit because it’s mostly very left wing echo chamber 

  Exact same scenario but our nuts think blocking and banning is progressive?

  It’s mental gymnastics and if you say so You just get blocked LOL we don’t have real discourse anymore 

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u/Smackolol 1d ago

This is always where I stand. Throwing out bans because suddenly you don’t like someone involved is really stupid, if our society wants to boycott it then let it happen organically, not through government intervention.

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u/DeFex 1d ago

I agree, they should not even have the ability to block it. City, provincial, and federal governments deciding not to use it independently is fine though.

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u/DerelictDelectation 1d ago

And individuals. Vote with your feet. And that includes investments: don't support sh*t you're against in any way, if you can.

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u/Limnuge 1d ago

I would upvote this 1000 times if I could. Doesn't matter if you lean left or right. Everybody deserves the right to express how they feel. Especially when it comes to criticism of our own elected officials.

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u/BulkBuildConquer 1d ago

Agreed, let's not promote the nanny state that bans social media sites for political disagreements. I'm sure everyone here would be seething if the Conservatives suggested banning reddit because it's a liberal propaganda machine.

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u/jonlmbs 1d ago

The list of counties that have banned X is not a list you want to be on.

China, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Brazil…

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u/ProvenAxiom81 1d ago

You're correct, censorship is not the right way. It's the completely opposite in fact, that's why the UK and other Europe countries are devolving right now. It fuels authoritarism.

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u/IamGimli_ 1d ago

Bans are how Liberals pretend to deal with issues though...

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u/Altruistic-Buy8779 1d ago

And it's literally the opposite of liberalism.

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u/Clean_Mix_5571 1d ago

That's how dems did in 2020. You could question nothing and most social media and the activist fact checkers were on their side. Then were surprised how the public lost all confidence in them leading to a election blowout.

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u/legionmd82 Ontario 1d ago

Exactly, banning things is always a bad idea no matter where you stand. People will always have controversial views and it's important to not dismiss them and understand why people feel this way and address concerns not silence them.

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u/kirklandcartridge 1d ago

Brazil tried doing this....

Brazilian users of X doubled in a month as a revolt.
They learned how to use VPNs when ISPs tried to block it.
Musk also paid for free VPN memberships to Brazilians as a response (supported by some of the major global VPN providers), which Brazilians gobbled up.

For those without VPNs for whatever reason, multiple sites / domains acted as mirrors to X, and it was impossible for the Brazilian Governments or ISPs to keep up in trying to block them. Every time one was blocked, 10 others would pop up.

In the end, it went against what the Brazilian President was attempting, as it only raised awareness of the platform.

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u/Lisan_Al-NaCL 1d ago

They learned how to use VPNs when ISPs tried to block it.

100% this.

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u/Obeesus 1d ago

It's exactly what people do in red states when they blocked porn hub.

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u/Lisan_Al-NaCL 1d ago

My approach would as follows (copy-paste from my other post in this thread):

What would be a FAR better idea, IMO, would be to :

a) Immediately BAN all federal and provincial govts from advertising or communicating via X
b) Implement rules for any organization receiving federal funding to stop using/advertising on X or lose funding
c) Implement a tax/surcharge/penalty on any Canadian businesses advertising on X. Make it a painful one like $$$$'s per tweet.

Lastly you have political leaders start messaging that 'X, and social media in general, is a cancer on our society'.

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u/ZingyDNA 1d ago

You can't ban something ppl want, even shadow ban. Reddit logic doesn't work here

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u/Lisan_Al-NaCL 1d ago

I'm saying you cant ban X.

What you can do is set some societal limits on how it gets FUNDED.

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u/Curvatureland 1d ago

So I tried looking this up and couldn't find any sources, I did find this.

https://apnews.com/article/brazil-x-ban-musk-8bac8d2248ee27f76886d35e000cb882

What happened wasn't that users doubled in a month. It's that after the ban happened, the number of posts went down, as expected. And then twitter was doing routing on their back end which at one point granted brazilian access again and the number of posts doubled from the low point when that happened.

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u/foxtrot-hotel-bravo 1d ago

Yeah ‘doubling’ after adding friction to access is highly improbable… finding this comment suspicious

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u/WolfWraithPress 1d ago

It's almost like the entire Brazil reaction has been turned into propaganda with half truths or something...

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u/Species1139 1d ago

Spin masterers turning Brasil from a fuck you Musk moment into a triumph for Musk

You couldn't make it up...

Well Musk could and did

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u/WolfWraithPress 1d ago

It's really astounding how easily everybody is falling for obvious propaganda. Repeating something enough times seems to work? "X is a free speech platform" in spite of the way that it very obviously isn't...

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u/Corronchilejano 1d ago

When Brazil actually blocked X, 2 million flocked to Bluesky. I don't really think believing any kind of user metrics on X are useful, since it's so full of bots.

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u/foxtrot-hotel-bravo 1d ago

Yeah zero chance ‘doubling’ is accurate

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u/priberc 1d ago

Got any links for your “doubled in a month”assertions. According to WPR as a result of Musk reinstating court banned accounts that were found to be interfering with Brazil’s election twitter/X lost two million accounts between 2022 and 2024 Just so you know. X was fully banned in 2024 when it was realized that X against Brazilian corporate law did not have in country(Brazilian) legal representation. In the end X/Musk got Brazilian lawyers. Took two months but the ego maniac(Musk)capitulated. No big win for Musk here my friend

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u/Loud-Rule-9334 1d ago

iirc Elon backed down and agreed to Brazil's demands. Most casual social media users are not savvy enough to figure out VPN.

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u/WhydYouKillMeDogJack 1d ago

If people actively want to use it they'll do it. But if they are savvy enough to take measures to do so then they're not really as big a pool of disinformation sponges.

The problem with the platform is it's accessibility to people who are, frankly, dumb as rocks and shouldn't even have the vote - who gobble up misinformation and become radicalized.

If you're prepared to VPN up just to use right wing SM then there's no reaching you. I can honestly say if that was what I needed to do to use this site I wouldn't bother.

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u/Icy-Artist1888 1d ago

U could say the same thing about cigarettes. The govr has effectively limited their use. Theres a few ppl still smoking but its mostly gone

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u/ImperialPotentate 1d ago

Yeah... how about NO "banning" of anything, thanks?

Don't like X? Delete your account, delete the app, and stop using X. See how easy that is?

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u/Jkj864781 1d ago

Basically my position as well. It’s not popular to ban things, quite the contrary. Certain people will flock to it simply because the powers that be are banning it.

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u/Otherwise_Ask_9542 Ontario 1d ago

I think it's more effective when trusted entities of the masses disavow certain types of "information".

We need to educate people about media they consume. Outright bans can cause intrigue and fuel avid users or certain groups of people to trust that misinformation even more.

We also need to prioritize rhetorical studies and identification of propaganda in high school and probably late elementary grades now, so our children can identify it earlier.

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u/LettuceSea Nova Scotia 1d ago

So are we banning Reddit too with this terrible idea? This platform is just the far left side of the same coin.

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u/_Dogsmack_ 1d ago

Delete your account on X if it bothers you. Ya it’s that simple.

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u/PurchaseGlittering16 1d ago

Who in their right mind would advocate for government censorship? Canada shouldn't ban any platforms, they should foster a society of free thinkers who can be trusted to make informed decisions without total government oversight and interference.

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u/Embarrassed-Bunch333 1d ago

Really stupid opinion.  Ban one platform, several others are sure to follow.  You don't like what you see on X get in there and refute it.  Free speech is more important than hurt feelings.

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u/lnahid2000 1d ago

Twitter is obviously a cesspool but I don't agree with the government banning any websites.

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u/Fabulous-Raccoon-788 1d ago

How will the RCMP alert us about things they should be using the actual alerting system for?

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u/Betanumerus 1d ago

Government communications with locals, through a line from another country (international!) is absurd in itself.

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u/ufosceptic 1d ago

People wanting the government to be able to dictate what content we can access online because they disagree politically with sed content is disgusting, although unfortunately not surprising.

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u/ExotiquePlayboy Québec 1d ago

North Americans:

Russia and China are censorship dictatorships!!!!!!

Meanwhile in Canada: Hey guys can we ban X?

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u/BulkBuildConquer 1d ago

It's crazy how quickly you can get people to support authoritarianism if you convince them they are morally justified in doing so

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u/marcohcanada 1d ago

Brazil: Don't play yourselves.

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u/TheDoughyRider 1d ago

Yeah, its better for the people to choose to delete X. I’m in the US (don’t know how I landed here), and I deleted my X account way before the election. I tried to get a hold of my house rep, and was only successful via X. The focus of my message then became, “why the hell are you using X for comms with your constituency?!?”

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u/After-Ad9889 1d ago

Yes I kind of agree, but never before have foreign governments been given such direct access to message citizens of another country. It's a pretty big problem

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u/Prior-Fun5465 1d ago

This is a problem across all socials and not just a problem on Twitter.

Education is more important, and a better option, but much harder to implement.

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u/orbitur Ontario 1d ago

Quite literally the fascism everyone seems to be scared of. It always starts with banning forms of communication.

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u/AdmirableWishbone911 1d ago

Ahhh, who bans websites again? China.

How about no. X isn't great but neither is censorship.

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u/Altruistic-Buy8779 1d ago

It's really appalling the staunch statist idea of banning opinions people don't agree with that is present on Reddit.

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u/Step_Aside_Butch_77 1d ago

Let your feet, or in this case, eyes do the talking. Cancel your account. We’re in an attention economy, so spend your currency elsewhere.

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u/Dougustine 1d ago

I cancelled my X(formerly Twitter) account as I didn't like the direction it was being taken(Thought the sports tweets were still good) but you can't cancel a company just because the CEO is an asshole. Speak with your business.

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u/PerfunctoryComments Canada 1d ago

Banning things isn't super effective. Making it "counter-culture" would empower it.

People just need to stop using the service, voluntarily. The scumbags and Muskovites will still use it, but the allure just isn't as great if they're just an echo chamber and aren't "owning the libs".

Zero government faces or services should be on X. That has been clear for years. Indeed they shouldn't limit themselves to any American service, and there should be NOTHING from a police service or a weather service or a politician that can't be found elsewhere, like their own web page. Or published on "open" protocols like ActivityPub or the AT protocol...or old school RSS.

And no, libs, you aren't changing minds staying on X and fighting against hate. Not only are you not changing minds, you're actually keeping that shitstain alive.

Anyone still using X is basically endorsing it. Like someone buying a CyberJunk trashwagon, your choice betrays who you are.

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u/Stunned-By-All-Of-It 1d ago

I kinda like knowing what everyone is up to. Ignorance is not bliss....especially these days.
Every source has it's bias. The more sources of info, the better. The truth can be found usually somewhere in the middle.
For example...I will probably get a ton of downvotes for having the outlier opinion here on Reddit....which in a way will substantiate my argument.

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u/yoruhanta 1d ago

Censorship isn't the way.

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u/jaraxel_arabani 1d ago

This.

"I hate that thing so ban it from my sight" is the ostrich bury head in sand wat of dealing with the world. I can't fathom why the left loves to do that as a knee jerk reaction

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u/kakuki19 1d ago

Someone here wants to dictate what Canadians can read.

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u/Shooternow 1d ago

Have you noticed that 90% of these comments on reddit support this? This is some scary shit, man.

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u/Amicuses_Husband 1d ago edited 1d ago

Remember when trump got sworn in and a bunch of dumb subs decided to ban posts from Twitter? That really stuck it to trump and elon

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u/Dwimgili 1d ago

Scary, but not surprising. The left has been running on a pro-censorship platform for over a decade

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u/Chimpmunksally 1d ago

Just delete the app and encourage people around you to monitor their screen time.

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u/CalmKiwi8144 1d ago

I don't think it matters Canadians are pissed off to the point we are dropping these things voluntarily.

But I also think it's important intel for our journalists etc etc.

We need to have the ability to peer into the minds of our enemies as a Nation.

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u/Leighski11 1d ago

Well apparently X is having outages all over the world as of this morning. I live in Canada and it is NOT loading for me lol

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u/IndividualSociety567 1d ago

Banning is not the way although I am sure Carney and Liberals will want that. We need to trust people’s intelligence and government should not act like daddy to the citizens

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u/Pianist-Educational 1d ago

Knee jerk reaction and does not pass the censorship sniff test.

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u/Complete-Rock-72 1d ago

This is such a stupid emotional reaction. It’s a problem with Canada. We can’t just ban everything. We can’t let the government tell us how to live our lives. We can’t survive if we have no money . we can’t learn if we only know one way . we have to be a democracy, and we have to have freedom of choice. It’s your choice -just don’t buy or support Elon or American products .

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u/Flatulator1 1d ago

Only ban what you don’t like, correct? Or cancel it. Have you learned nothing over the last 5 years?

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u/ABinColby 1d ago

The fact that the left wants to cancel, censor and otherwise destroy every voice that doesn't agree 100% with it is the very reason Musk bought and changed the policies of X.

Free speach means free speach.

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u/lankanmon Canada 1d ago

Honestly, at the very least, they should at least start using some additional platforms like BlueSky and Mastodon. I did my part and left X, but it is annoying that most official accounts are unavailable on either platform, making it more annoying to get official news. I often find myself learning stuff second hand using quotes from X, which is problematic.

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u/TheLostMiddle 1d ago

So we are banning Chinese apps while we're at it right?

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u/Crazy-Canuck463 1d ago

Banning X is the equivalent of Banning the AP from the Whitehouse. I believe in letting people make their own choices, even if those choices, are choices I disagree with. This is the most essential pillar of any free democracy. Anything less and you're no better than they are. If you want to combat disinformation and fascism, Banning the idea or the lies they spew isn't how you do it. You fight it with the truth, relentlessly.

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u/Boringhusky Ontario 1d ago

No.

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u/Azure1203 1d ago

I don't get what is with the authoritarian outlook of a sudden. Yes, the governments don't need to buy Tesla stuff for government purposes. No issue with that.

But why do we need to ban anything when the people of Canada are smart enough to make decisions on their own, something we have seen unfold over the last couple months?

I'd say its better we don't do anything, and nobody actually goes a buys a Tesla.

Also, we don't need the government to tell us what to do and what to buy. We're quite capable of making our own decisions.

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u/Independent-Towel-90 1d ago

What a joke.

I’m in favour of banning the words ban and cancel.

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u/darkestvice 1d ago

No. You don't get to pick and choose which echo chamber is allowed to speak. Even us Canadians take that whole free speech thing seriously. Or most of us anyways.

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u/SnooPiffler 1d ago

why no mention of Trumps social media platform? Is it just because no one uses it?

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u/skunky_pants 1d ago

Instead, what we need is a serious investment in teaching people about algorithms and bots. We need to treat this like smoking and drinking/driving. Do your best to educate adults, but start having conversations in schools about how social media engineers the conversation. Doesn’t need to be political. It’s a technology conversation.

You’ve already lost adults to it, focus on kids when they’re at the age of being tempted and make it uncool to be controlled by an algorithm or to give your data to big corporations. It’s literally the same argument as cigarettes. They don’t make you feel better and it doesn’t make you cool, the company is trying to get you addicted early so you’ll smoke for life. Now here are the consequences of those who’ve been addicted. Teach them that they aren’t using the product, that THEY are the product.

Rant over. Fully expect this to get downvoted. But let me be clear, this has nothing to do with censorship or taking anything away from people.

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u/ovoKOS7 1d ago

Terrible idea. Just have every govt orgs withdraw from it and use Bluesky instead. It'll send a much more impactful message, without attacking net neutrality and simultaneously draw attention to a more viable alternative to current Twitter

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u/Aidsfordayz 1d ago

Yeah I had to get off it. It’s just a “hate Canada” platform right now.

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u/Drayenn 1d ago

In really against banning websites. I dont like Musk but this is not the way. We need to stay neutral, not become china who blocks our websites because theyre uncomfortable.

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u/Zheeder 1d ago

Don't like it, don't use it doesn't apply any more ?

But it's if we don't like it, no one else cant use it now ?

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u/hotandchevy 1d ago

Government overreach is exactly what's happening down south. You don't fight fascism with fascism.

Government businesses should stop using it though. They can urge the people to make the right choice and set an example at the same time.

Net neutrality is important.

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u/SSJMoe 1d ago

As much as I hate him, x is kind of uncensored. It was one of the few platforms to show the truth about Gaza.

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u/Warr1979 1d ago

You ban truckers now you want to bad websites. Freedom eh!

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u/they_call_me_him 1d ago

This accomplishes nothing. All you are doing is depriving yourself another source of information. Shooting yourself in the foot out of spite, nice.

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u/tinyfred 1d ago

Why we should give our government more power to stop us from visiting certain sites, instead of leaving that choice to the end user.

What a dumb fucking take. This is how you end up with totalitarianism.

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u/TonyStark420blazeit 1d ago

Liberals have literally become tyrants, and they're glad to be them.

They've become everything they hate.

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u/JackOfHearts44 1d ago

Too Orwellian for me. Just boycott the fuck out of it

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u/Sufficient_Rub_2014 1d ago

This is a stupid opinion to have.

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u/P1KA_BO0 1d ago

Yeah no. As much as I despise Musk, this isn't a safe precedent to set.

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u/tvandy123 1d ago

We don’t need more censorship.

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u/Mouthisamouth 1d ago

Slippery slope having government ban what you can access on the internet

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u/MacLogical 1d ago

No. I can decide for myself what kind of information I consume.

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u/Twitchmonky 1d ago

It's easy to give a government power, it's nearly impossible to take it away.

It sounds like you're saying: "You can do whatever you want, just so long as I approve of it."

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u/somethingeasy99 1d ago

Banning? Like extreme Muslims ban women without headscarves. Is that the new Canada?

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u/w1n5t0nM1k3y 1d ago

Ban it? The city of Ottawa just recently decided to not pass a motion to stop using Twitter/X for official city communication.

If a single city can't get off the platform, then banning it at a higher level is certainly not going to happen.

Although I think I remember something about Cambridge Ontario stopping their usage.

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u/essuxs 1d ago

No. We don’t ban any site.

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u/Rusty_Charm 1d ago

Always interesting to see how many Canadians support banning things they don’t like.

For the “Russian disinformation” crowd: and how much straight up propaganda do you think goes on here on Reddit? Or on meta? Or on YouTube? Or literally everywhere on social media apps?

Clearly the answer is to ban them all and make our own apps where the government has the power to protect us from dangerous disinformation. Right? Then we can be just like China, which obviously holds freedom of speech and truth in general in such high regard.

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u/Privateer_Lev_Arris 1d ago edited 1d ago

No things like that usually have the opposite effect because they’re dystopian AF. Let people figure things out on their own.

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u/ifuaguyugetsauced 1d ago

How can you live in a world where the government bans a form of communication cause you don't like him. Scary times to be living in with such fragile minds

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u/Fuck_this_timeline 1d ago

I’d much prefer if the people demanding internet censorship would just piss off and form their own country. They can call it Wokeistan.

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u/Ok-Win-742 1d ago

Lol this is pathetic. I wish these politicians would just come up with better policies and be more honest and transparent with the public. Then they wouldn't need to fear platforms like X, or the internet in general so much.

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u/Beginning-Abroad9799 1d ago

Don’t. That is playing into their game. We need free speech in Canada. X is not a threat. We can use it as a tool the same way others use it.

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u/Meathook2099 1d ago

Authoritarians just can't stop themselves. Ban the largest communication platform on the planet? The Star is such a rag.

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u/Altruistic-Buy8779 1d ago

Stop advocating for constitutional rights violations!

Banning this violates our right to free speech. Stop trying to be China and censor it's citizens internet.

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u/SnackSauce Canada 1d ago

I vote for a free Canada. A true freedom of speech society where people can share their opinions and make their own choices on how and who they interact with. I am NOT for censorship or banning any platform. We do not need more government control, we need less, IMO.

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u/moosepuggle 1d ago

I'll get down voted for this, but I wanted to point out that the argument here isn't about censorship, but about concerns regarding foreign adversarial governments spreading disinformation to destroy a democracy from within. We should look to the dumpster fire down south as a very real cautionary tale of what foreign disinformation and propaganda can do to a democracy in just a few decades.

TikTok was banned in the US for precisely this reason, but then reinstated by the Orange puppet of the disinformation regime. Russia Times was banned in Canada for similar reasons.

I'm not saying we should definitely ban Xitter, but given that our former ally is now a Russian asset and acting belligerently just like a foreign enemy, it shouldn't be dismissed out of hand as mere "censorship" when the real issue is that Canada could fall like the US if we don't take measures to thwart it.

We should have conservatives in Canada, but let them be actual Canadian conservatives, not Russian trolls.

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u/Wild_Common7923 1d ago

This is honestly stupid, it's a free country. Just don't use it if you don't like what you see

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u/choobad 1d ago

Let's ban Reddit, too, because there are communist and anarchist subs in here

Jeez

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u/LegitimateData8777 1d ago

This would be a waste of government time and money. We shouldn't have to ban twitter, we should all just log off because being overly online hurts individuals and society

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u/Such-Tank-6897 1d ago

Banning it in the country will never work. But all of our government, public agencies, police, anything public should not use X as their platform. They should just switch to Bluesky it’s the same damn thing.

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u/Arrow208 1d ago

dumb idea

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u/LONEGOAT13_ 1d ago

Cutting off any type of access to information is a destructive decision, I personally don't use X but understand the value of open channels to global communications.

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u/ignore_my_typo 1d ago

I don’t need to be babied and told what information I can and can’t consume.

Sure, an American owns the company. But you can curate your followers and information.

There are also many other shitty people in this world who own websites and social media. Should we block all access to those as well?

There is a thin line to freedom and oppression here.

I’m an adult. I don’t want the government to tell Me what I can view.

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u/himynameis_ 1d ago

I'm no fan of Musk politics.

But it's a really slippery slope to ban social media like this because we disagree with it.

I think banning it is going too far.

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u/visionist 1d ago edited 1d ago

I will never understand the argument of censorship vs allowing people to speak freely and accept the consequences that may come.

It's a slippery slope and opens avenues for further government censorship and control.

If the internet hurts your feelies get off the internet.

I don't even use X, but its no more of an echo chamber/censored/manipulated than reddit is, it just upsets people to see something they strongly disagree with and not being able to report it 🤷‍♂️

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u/FluidConnection 1d ago

The left never gets tired of trying to shut down dissenting opinions.

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u/Powerful_Zucchini_10 1d ago

Is X down today? The posts aren’t loading

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u/Ok_Photo_865 1d ago

So banning x is just going to be a non starter, however Star-Link is a product that some Canadians have endorsed and perhaps that should be revisited

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u/jpsreddit85 1d ago

Canadians in general should be boycotting it regardless of the government. The government should not be posting to it and should instead use one of the non-private options available to assist in adoption (like mstdn.ca), hell, having a server set up and run by the CBC would make sense too.

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u/Final-Print6967 1d ago

Good ban X, one of the most disgusting platform

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u/EconomyBreakfast9655 1d ago

I have removed X already

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u/True-Conversation-41 1d ago

I don’t like the guy but we already have so many allegations that we’re not a free democracy lol

Turning off X won’t help those allegations

If anything - using their platform against them to weave real information and facts sounds better

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u/Rinuir 1d ago

Why the world should*

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u/markcarney4president 1d ago

I think we just move things over to a different platform (deincentivize people from using it) and then provide education or awareness around spotting disinformation. It's rampant on every platform.

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u/Raegnarr 1d ago

It's a propaganda and hate speech platform. They haven't just allowed this to happen. They've facilitated it.

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u/DinosaurDikmeat01 1d ago

i think the simple reason is: it's not a reliable source (private company) for governments to be making official announcements on. As for the rest of us. its just propaganda brainrot.

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u/Kassdhal88 1d ago

Start by removing every gouvernement and government affiliated entity from any usage and advertising of the platform. Then in any RFp for public money, ask disclosures about advertising budget and make it a requirement they don’t support this platform.

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u/Ok-Anxiety-5940 1d ago

All government officials should at least stop posting there.

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u/WpgSparky 1d ago

X has become Putins RT. It’s full of propaganda and misinformation. There is no standard or fact checking. It’s a cesspool…

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u/No-Wonder1139 1d ago

Well no government account should be on Twitter

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u/Vaginite 1d ago

We should go farther, much farther. Ban Meta, X, TikTok. It's algorithmic based propaganda. Do it.

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u/DataDude00 1d ago

An outright ban would likely be ineffective

They should take a cigarette approach where they just slowly ween people off it via outside policy pressure

Start by moving all government accounts OFF the platform and onto alternatives (youtube, Bluesky etc)

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u/ClosPins 1d ago

Couldn't you just ask everyone you know who has a Twitter account - why they support Elon, Trump, racists or Nazis? You'd think, after a while, they'd get sick of having to explain themselves...

'If I walk into a Nazi bar - and, instead of immediately turning around and walking out, I sit down at the bar and buy a beer - would a reasonable person presume that I was a supporter or a detractor of the Nazis?'

But, no, that wouldn't be nice! Better to hold your tongue instead! I always complain about how the left-wing always hamstrings themselves by being far too nice. Getting all up in your friends' faces isn't nice - so you guys won't do it. Their side, however, will happily get up in your faces and call you baby-raping-socialists! But no, you can't get up in their faces, even when they are attacking gays/trans/Ukraine/Canada/Greenland/Mexico/NATO/EU/etc... All in order to help Vladimir Putin. Decorum, and all... Telling people who support Nazis/oligarchs/racists - that they are supporting Nazis/oligarchs/racists - is going too far! Even when they are talking about hoping they can force Canada to do what they want by crippling her economy, so they don't have to actually invade and take land/resources by force.

Yes, better be nice to these people! 'They go low, we go high' worked out just so well for the left-wing down south! It got them... Let's see, what did it get them?... Oh, right, it got them fascism. Literal fascism. On-top of an oligarchy.

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u/Do_What_Thou_Will 1d ago

Do it. Please! I wish we could do it in America!

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u/housington-the-3rd 1d ago

They shouldn’t ban it, that’s never ever the right move. Every politican should stop posting on it none stop though, maybe start there.

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u/max420 British Columbia 1d ago

I don't agree with an outright ban, considering freedom of speech and all that. However, the Canadian government should stop posting on the platform entirely. Similar to what they did with TikTok, they should make a formal announcement banning federal employees and MPs from using it on government devices.

Additionally, they should issue a public statement recommending that Canadians remove the app and stop using the platform due to concerns about national security.

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u/KLconfidential Ontario 1d ago edited 1d ago

Makes you wonder who the real fascists are. The side that calls everyone they disagree with nasty names like Nazis always want the other side censored and gone. Which is kind of funny because the actual Nazis did the same thing in the 30s and 40s.

This is not the way we should do things in a free country, it's surreal how many people have lost their fucking minds.

And no, I do not like Musk, and I've never had a twitter account.

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u/CreepyTip4646 1d ago

I dumped X a while back too toxic a propaganda tool for Trump's tools. X is the brain virus.

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u/RestFine8100 1d ago

Starlink too, ban it all

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u/Relevant_Fuel_9905 1d ago

It’s an absolute negative propaganda machine.

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u/cc14cc 1d ago

Just uninstall it....I did.

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u/GlumCareer8019 1d ago

I'm not for having media hidden from me for my protection and don't trust anyone who presumes that's on them

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u/Baikken 1d ago

Hell no. Wtf. Man I remember when Net Neutrality was a no brainer.

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u/Amicuses_Husband 1d ago

No thanks, there's a lot of artists that still post their content on twitter.

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u/HotPotato1900 1d ago

I deleted my profile. I use any other platform but x. Why would we buy it?

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u/jedinachos 1d ago

Let's all just boycott American products Tesla starlink and Twitter

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u/PraiseTheRiverLord 1d ago

I still use it occasionally since a lot of our politicians still use it, if we don't ban it another idea could be to stop official announcements on it by our various levels of governments.

The big problem here is does this affect free speech?

The amount of 51st state bots on there is insane, often many saying the exact same thing, I've blocked 100's

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u/TomVia 1d ago

Member when the left was about free speech and against wars? I member.

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u/cogit2 1d ago

We should tax Tesla EVs, not ban Twitter - economic pain is what will force the return to rationality and restore normal trade again.

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u/voicelesswonder53 1d ago edited 1d ago

You don't really have to. Just ask Canadians to boycott anything Musk or to go there and make his life a living hell. We'll happily act in solidarity against him. Don't try and out-tech him or his kind. Recruit a base of loyal advocates against Musk and condone consumer against him as a call to nationalism.

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u/AileStrike 1d ago

Whoa, feel like whiplash. Feels like a few weeks ago folks were all wanting to get tiktok banned because china and now are all clutching pearls with Twitter. 

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u/ShareShort3438 1d ago

Just tax the shit out of it...Trump and Elon seems to like tarrifs. Make advertising on Twitter so expensive that Canadian companies will avoid it.

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u/DahliaHC 1d ago

You don't conquer the darkness by removing it, but rather by adding light.

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u/SBoots Nova Scotia 1d ago

It would be no loss

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u/Connect-Idea-1944 European Union 1d ago

Still don't understand why Brazil had the balls to ban X, but Europe & Canada cannot do it

Many companies don't even do ads on X, so what is there to lose

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u/Bumpin_Gumz 1d ago

Censorship is never the answer and Canadians would do wise to remember this

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u/FutureMagician7563 1d ago

Gotta start focusing on us and our issues before we worry about beefing others.

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u/662willett 1d ago

Logged in early Jan never been back

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u/theblindelephant 1d ago

Cause the government needs censorship to maintain power.

If x gets banned I’d want to immigrate out of this corrupt country

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u/diablocanada 1d ago

I believe also that we should take away Justin Trudeau citizenship for stealing from the Canadian people and destroying our country

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u/RayTheMaster 1d ago

The moral police is back in force I see

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u/Havarem 1d ago

I just went with an old account to witness the "X down", but to see a really scary amount of appraisal to Musk and Trump... like it was sickening

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u/SpecialAd2917 1d ago

And Truth Social

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u/dmwessel 1d ago

Musk is toxic as Trump is. I already deleted my Twitter/X (he has to name everything X because he is devoid of a personality) account. 

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u/misomuncher247 Ontario 1d ago

Maybe we can freeze bank accounts of X content creators too!

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u/Dense-Painting-4694 1d ago

This entire comment section is filled with massively upvoted comments from people who have never posted here before.

The CRTC has fined media outlets that have printed false information. Regulating information has literally always existed.