I hadn't formed an opinion on it because I had never read it. Well now I have, you can too.
Quote:
10-Combatting Disinformation in Canada
Sponsor: Liberal Party of Canada (British Columbia)
WHEREASthe United Nations Secretary-General recognizes disinformation as an
“existential risk to humanity.”
WHEREASonline information sources are the source of most disinformation aimed at
and/or available to Canadians.
WHEREASthose who produce misinformationseek to undermine trust in people and
institutions, including mainstream media and governments.
WHEREASone recent poll found 44% Canadians believe much of the information
from news organizations is false and 71% believe official government accounts of
events are untrustworthy.
WHEREASthe demand for information 24/7 has increased the need for programming
contemporaneously with the loss of advertising revenue to on-line platforms.
WHEREASto reduce costs, mainstream media no longer employs as many reporters
with extensive knowledge of particular subject areas, and fills content with opinion
programming rather than news, and
WHEREASthe result has devalued mainstream media as a source of news and
information.
BE IT RESOLVED THATthe Liberal Party of Canada:
●Request the Government provide additional public funds to support
advertisement-free news and information reporting by Canadian media through
an arm’s-length non-partisan mechanism.
●Request the Government explore options to hold on-line information services
accountable for the veracity of material published on their platforms and to limit
publication only to material whose sources can be traced.
|
https://2023.liberal.ca/wp-content/u...FICIAL_ENG.pdf
OK, so keeping in mind it is a policy resolution, and nothing more, we can look at the kinda maybe's in the bullet points. The first sounds reasonable enough. Proper information to the electorate is a necessity to a functioning democracy. One you can't leave entirely to private corporations, for pretty obvious reasons.
The second is obviously the contentious one. "explore options" is just that, research. Seems a good idea for a government to do that, no? The second part is clearly going to be where it all falls apart. Which means it's going to go nowhere anyway, so why am I angry again?
Do I think we need to find a way to control misinformation? Absolutely, it's clearly damaging our democracy. Have you seen what people on Facebook believe? It's ####ing wild, man. To bring it back locally, we have these people who get ridiculous information, believe it to be true, and now harass our first responders dealing with the fires.
I'd be all for a non partisan organization to accredit journalists, and if you aren't accredited, you don't get access to politicians and events. If you break the rules, you lose your accreditation. This would instantly nuke True North, Rebel, and Western Standard, and improve our information quality drastically.