Canada's Big Brother is Watching

[Celine]

Be careful what you post especialy if its a political story or a message on Facebook. Apparently the Canadian Goverment is training federal employees to write rebuttals.

Canadian Press reports that the government is starting a project to monitor political chatter and forums for what it perceives to be misinformation.

The problem is that you won't know that it is a federal employee!!

The project was started as a result of, what the government considers to be, seal hunt misinformation being promoted by environmetalists.

A Toronto based firm, Social Media Group, has been paid $75,000 to counter some anti-sealing information. The firm, hired by the Department of Foreign Affairs, monitors social forum activities on what is considered misinformation and repeated as fact.

The firm alerts the government of those misrepresentations and then specially trained employees in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Department of Fisheries and Oceans rebut these comments.

While this may not be seen as a major cause for concern for some...for others this is just admitting what we already k new...

After all governments tend to have a political agenda.

[SkepticSoul]

Is this in Canada only?
What if sum1 in Canada writes sumthing political on facebook on the wall of sum1 from let's say Belgium xD

What are they gonna do about it? Are they just gonna remove the posts? Do they have the legal rights to do it? Where has freedom of speech gone? This is literally an attempt to control even the deepest minds and toughts of people.

[Celine]

Legal right? umm i doubt thats an issue at this point...

[thedot]

After all governments tend to have a political agenda.

Incredible! Email David Icke about this discovery - he will write all his books once again :)

[Celine]

lol!!

Thanks..that was funny...

David does not need any muses...or any motivation at this time.

I just found it incredibly... stupidly blatant of the Harper goverment

[bluestflame]

why would they stop at anti sealing "misinformation"

[Celine]

They wont/dont.

[161803398]

There has never been freedom of speech in Canada. We have all been trained in political correctness.

[161803398]

AND don't be careful what you post!!!!! Say what you like. Being fearful of the Government is the road to disaster. I have a friend from Iran. It used to a normal country. I asked him what happened to it. He told me one of the first things is they got people afraid of the government and then reporting on each other. It escalated....finally there were perverts going around reporting unmarried people if they were holding hands with each other. Controlled right down to the most basic things in life....walking around like rats in a cage waiting to be dissected.

[161803398]

I think what people should do is post so much misinformation about the seal hunt that they can't handle it all, have to hire more people and finally the government gets sick of paying for it.

Its a test run for bigger things. They want to see if people will react in fear.

People could really start having fun with them. Make some crazy site about the seal hunt. Keep them busy. One of my facebook friends has some firm in California monitoring him. Does he care. No. I send them loving messages once in a while. You are entitled to say what you want to say.

[TWINCANS]

Biggest problem with companies like these is that they really honestly believe in what they do. Like we want all our kids' (never mind our own!) conversations eavesdropped for later manipulation. Not. Do check out these 2 ladies' blog and sales pitch to clients. I wouldn't want to even visit whatever planet they live on.

http://socialmediagroup.com/

[Flash]

There has never been freedom of speech in Canada. We have all been trained in political correctness.

Well, aren't you right? Political correctness does not lead to diversity of thinking either.

[Flash]

Biggest problem with companies like these is that they really honestly believe in what they do. Like we want all our kids' (never mind our own!) conversations eavesdropped for later manipulation. Not. Do check out these 2 ladies' blog and sales pitch to clients. I wouldn't want to even visit whatever planet they live on.

http://socialmediagroup.com/

TWINCANS, I must not be able to see what you saw in this site. Please pinpoint for dummies. thanks

[Davidallany]

Be careful what you post especialy if its a political story or a message on Facebook. Apparently the Canadian Goverment is training federal employees to write rebuttals.
Let them watch, as a matter of fact speak louder, politely. I wasn't scared of this in the time of Saddam, while in Iraq, and I am not about to retreat now. I say, forward. But, it's just my opinion.

[Carmody]

There has never been freedom of speech in Canada. We have all been trained in political correctness.

David Icke is under the impression that Canada is so controlled media and 'free speech'-wise, that he said something akin to meaning that he'll never appear for an engagement in Canada again.

[161803398]

David Icke is under the impression that Canada is so controlled media and 'free speech'-wise, that he said something akin to meaning that he'll never appear for an engagement in Canada again.

I used to go to Ireland sometimes three times a year and I'd get used to saying what I thought. I'd have to hide for a least a week whenever I came home because I'd always get in trouble from someone for saying something.

So I've gotten over that now. I posted on my facebook that the seal hunters were killing seals in satanic circles but I haven't heard from the seal chat police yet.

[TWINCANS]

Maybe it's because I cut my teeth in advertising many eons ago, and perhaps I read too much between the lines in the sales pitch, but the sense of entitlement grates on me. We are 'targets to be hit' with messages, eavesdropped on and monitored for off-message chatter. The lask of respect bugs me. The only opinion that counts is the one that will make them and their client money. Sorry if it didn't hit you that way. This is the kind of thing I mean (from an article they blogged)


"ie...the need to move past the standard keyword-based approach. PostRank thinks the future is in URL-based content monitoring and they make a pretty good case.
...
One of the challenges with social media is the sheer amount of content. There is no way to be sure you’ve captured everything about your own brand, let alone competitors, industry trends and customer chatter.

This problem compounds when it comes to reading, understanding, prioritizing and engaging with all the conversations you do come across. It is time consuming, expensive, and frustratingly, only gets more difficult as your monitoring gets better.

The solution PostRank suggests is URL-based content monitoring. By following the URL attached to a specific piece of content, you can go right to the source of the conversation and follow its path across the web. "

[Flash]

Maybe it's because I cut my teeth in advertising many eons ago, and perhaps I read too much between the lines in the sales pitch, but the sense of entitlement grates on me. We are 'targets to be hit' with messages, eavesdropped on and monitored for off-message chatter. The lask of respect bugs me. The only opinion that counts is the one that will make them and their client money. Sorry if it didn't hit you that way. This is the kind of thing I mean (from an article they blogged)


"ie...the need to move past the standard keyword-based approach. PostRank thinks the future is in URL-based content monitoring and they make a pretty good case.
...
One of the challenges with social media is the sheer amount of content. There is no way to be sure you’ve captured everything about your own brand, let alone competitors, industry trends and customer chatter.

This problem compounds when it comes to reading, understanding, prioritizing and engaging with all the conversations you do come across. It is time consuming, expensive, and frustratingly, only gets more difficult as your monitoring gets better.

The solution PostRank suggests is URL-based content monitoring. By following the URL attached to a specific piece of content, you can go right to the source of the conversation and follow its path across the web. "

I got it, thanks. I also realised that I am so used to this kind of advertising that I had not caught the implications, I am brainwashed - ouf, hard to take. Now some horror stories comes to my mind, mostly with the C generation. I was feeling uneasy not knowing precisely why. It was this kind of thinking.

[Flash]

There has never been freedom of speech in Canada. We have all been trained in political correctness.

David Icke is under the impression that Canada is so controlled media and 'free speech'-wise, that he said something akin to meaning that he'll never appear for an engagement in Canada again.

If I remember well, we are the only country where he was sued for hate speech. I don't know how it turned out. What I find impressive in Canada is the "correctness thinking". We are shutting ourselves up with this paradigm. And I find it in Quebec or in English Canada equally, just the flavour is changing, the bottom line is the same (in Quebec we seem to scream more, but it is just the latin blood - compare it with Italian arguing - but one cannot argue against the commonly agreed correctness either) .

[TWINCANS]

I was afraid there for a moment that my original post was more of a personal letting-go rant than something relevant to others. So good that it did resonate at least a bit for you, Flash.

It's hard to re-programme, and I sure was programmed to tow the corporate line - hell, I wrote much of it! My only excuse was that I was a good little 20-something overachiever just trying my best to please. The next couple of decades cost a fortune in personal counselling sessions, workshop fees, travel expenses to sacred sites and loss of income due to putting a priority on meditation. (nothing out of the ordinary on that score here, I'm sure)

On the subject of correctness speech, clearly the repression of the human is an anathema, preferable only to the ptb. But I'm interested to a observe that there is developing a Ghandi'esque non-resistance response in this country. Admittedly it is a minuscule spark of transformative impetus at the moment, but I feel it is worthy of fanning into flame.

I call it the Canadian puffball-style defense. We know what we feel inside on an issue which, let us say, is in opposition to what appears to be the correctness position. We politely just appear to be in agreement while not actually putting our energy behind it. Thus the ptb find they're just trying to push jello into a box and only succeeding in making a mess. (Of course this can only work on a community level at the moment, and does not apply to actions the ptb take on the world stage with the very powerful military/industrial complex. There is a very great need to look at our laws and improve protections for citizens.) Does this idea resonate at all? Or am I just being an optimist grasping at twigs while the whole ship is sinking?

[Carmody]

No, the pushing jello into a box analogy, that's Canadians.

I always remember that when 'long guns' and the actual use of them is calculated in, Canada has about as many guns per capita as the USA.

And they know how to use them, And they do use them.

Americans have way too many pistols.

Long Guns are the real deal, and Canadians have quite a few ...and. most importantly... they are quite fluent with said devices.

Canadians are apathetic, but with their heels dug in. Holding guns. Tough combination.

This is not true in the big cities, but the sentiment is still there. Dug-in unmovable and politically savvy apathy is the name of the game. Kinda Euro, in it's near weariness. Lost the fascination with 'the idea of democracy as a two party ping-pong farce'.

Canada also has the thing that PTB groups everywhere fear: More than two political parties.

[TWINCANS]

Succinctly said. There's an iron interior to that jello exterior of Canadians. And a worldy weary gaze on the news.

We work with home educators (many of whom are 'new Canadians') and put together a list of values that one could identify as Canadian values. Quite fun really but the key was the inner/exterior juxtaposition. Something the government doesn't tackle that's for sure.