Comment by zuzululu
1 day ago
intersting take, I'm not Canadian but wasn't there some pretty draconian bills that were passed where you could be reported for voicing or sharing your opinions on some things ?
That already seems like a hard barrier for any sort of Canadian social network especially when you require your users to dox themselves and open themselves to all sorts of scrutiny.
The problem with all of this is that it creates a sterilized politically correct environment that won't have the same pull as a public square that upholds freedom of speech like American ones.
> intersting take, I'm not Canadian but wasn't there some pretty draconian bills that were passed where you could be reported for voicing or sharing your opinions on some things ?
Not a thing. You can't post hate speech or threats of violence.
> That already seems like a hard barrier for any sort of Canadian social network especially when you require your users to dox themselves and open themselves to all sorts of scrutiny.
Also not a thing. I was pretty clear all they get is a is_a_human".
> The problem with all of this is that it creates a sterilized politically correct environment that won't have the same pull as a public square that upholds freedom of speech like American ones.
Also not a thing. American platforms practice widespread self-censorship and have no protection under the law except from the state.
> they collect no PII
this is false.. Gander's own privacy policy says it collects account info including name/email/DOB IP, device ID and physical location. While Canada post may seemingly offer isolation, Bill c-22 famously makes such segregation moot, as there is no formal legal process to obtaining your posts and content viewed. Just having an IP address from your Canadian ISP would be enough and total.
> you can't post hate speech or threats of violence
is a pretty misleading summary of Canadian speech law, it prohibits public statements likely to expose protected groups to hatred or contempt, and covers public incitement and wilful promotion of hatred.
but critically the speakers intent is actually irrelevant under this law. it could be someone trolling or just saying something casual without much harm intended. no clear border Canadians can know in advance, something you thought was harmless can be complained (recently they were encouraging reporting "harmful content" on X) and judged later based on its supposed effect. thats exactly where the chilling effect comes from.
Even more disturbing is that Gander itself has literally published an article pushing Canadian hate speech laws should be expanded and enforced on social platforms.
> Also not a thing. American platforms practice widespread self-censorship and have no protection under the law except from the state.
1st aendment generally protects a user from government censorship, not from a private website deciding what it wants to host thats very different from American platforms having no protection.
I understand that you might view these laws and moderation policies are good but dismissing the concerns while mispresenting basic facts about the service and while promoting a social network seemingly started by a CTO from pornhub pushing for more censorship and broad application of Canadian hate speech, to say the least very disturbing and not a wise PR move.
There is no American social media with more than 10,000 users that is not heavily censored.