OTTAWA (NEWS1130) – The Harper government has been monitoring political messages online, and even correcting what it considers misinformation. One local expert says the government is taking things too far.
Under the pilot program the Harper government paid a media company $75,000 to monitor and respond to online postings about the east coast seal hunt.
UBC Computer Science professor and President of the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, Richard Rosenberg, says it seems unnecessary for the government to be going this far. “The government has a lot of power, that it feels the need to monitor public bulletin boards, or places where people express views and then to respond to that, seems to me going beyond a reasonable action the government should be taking.”
Rosenberg says knowing that the government is monitoring certain topics online could result in people being more careful with their identities when they’re posting about political issues on the internet.
He says it’s the first time he’s heard of this happening in Canada.
Home Improvement Profiles
News1130 Apps
Tell us what you think!
News1130 Business Profile
I refuse to live in fear of this government.
Defiance!
i would give my opinion but as we know now for sure big brother has his ears and eyes everywhere.. Oh Canada where have you gone ?
Hey Harper; monitor this *grabs groin* fascist PoS.
Repost from Chris Hedges (Pulitzer Prize winner and former war correspondent for the New York Times) on Canada’s right-wing neocon Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
Harper is a poster child for corporate malfeasance and corporate power, just sort of dismantling everything that’s good about Canada. So he’s the kind of species that rises to political power and is utterly subservient to corporate interests at the expense of the citizenry.
Yeah, he’s a pretty venal figure.
http://www.straight.com/article-732826/vancouver/chris-hedges-harper-venal-us-politics-totally-rigged
.