Government bureaucracies have to justify their existence, and that means creating problems even if none exist.
As we’ve learned in recent days, the Liberals are planning to create a new government bureaucracy to regulate social media.
Here’s what The Post Millennial said about it:
“The Trudeau Liberals are moving forward with their plan to weed out “hate and harassment” from the internet, and will be presenting their plan to cabinet next week. If approved, the legislation would allow the government to give big tech giants such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, fines for not removing content deemed “illegal,” an anonymous source told the Globe and Mail.
The size of the operation would “likely involve the creation of a new government regulator,” creating a bureaucracy around what is on Canadian internet, the Globe continued.”
A government bureaucracy to regulate internet content sounds like something you would expect in China, not in a country that is supposedly devoted to free expression like Canada.
The government already has existing criminal code legislation that makes hate and calling for violence illegal. Instead of using that existing authority, the Trudeau Liberals plan to expand government power and put political appointees in charge of what you can see and share online.
And make no mistake, this power will certainly be abused.
Government bureaucracies always seek to ‘justify’ their existence, and that means they must be seen as addressing a ‘problem.’
If a problem doesn’t exist, they will seek to create one.
Making matters more concerning is that there is a strong temptation to use that government power to benefit the politicians who created the bureaucracy, meaning the government will want to continually constrain the ‘acceptable bounds’ of communication and criticism of the government itself.
We should always be wary when the government says they want to ‘protect’ us from opinions, and then seeks to gain more centralized power.
We should be pushing for a freer, more decentralized internet, not an internet where the government seeks ever-expanding authority.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – YouTube
