CBC’s president begged Twitter to censor tweets on multiple occasions and even threatened government intervention, documents reveal.
As reported by Rebel News, documents from an access-to-information request reveal the CBC President Catherine Tait sent multiple letters to Twitter in 2021, expressing frustration that the social media company wasn’t censoring more Canadians for “hate.”
“Unacceptable abuse on social media platforms has been a growing problem for members of the media, as well as for politicians, and even medical professionals,” Tait said to Twitter
Canada Managing Director Paul Burns.
“As you are no doubt aware,” she continued, “Canada’s Minister of Heritage will be tabling new legislation to address online hate in the coming months.”
A month later, Tait again brought up government intervention — saying that Twitter’s failure to act was leading to legislation that will affect the platform.
“We have been sharing our mounting concerns with the Canadian government, which is proposing legislation to address online hate,” Tait said.
Tait has recently come out swinging against Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre after he called to defund the CBC and said it’s influenced by the Trudeau Liberals.
Also in the uncovered documents, Tait appears concerned especially about the “global issue” of hate towards female journalists, especially those of colour.
The documents further suggest that Tait’s definition of “hate” might be synonymous with “offensive.”
“As President and CEO of Canada’s public broadcaster,” she opened her June 23 letter with, “I am writing to request a meeting with you to determine how we will ensure that Twitter effectively acts in removing offensive material from its platform.”
As other documents revealed last month, CBC has acknowledged asking social media companies to censor users on numerous occasions — so many times, in fact, that cataloging all instances would be too time-consuming.
