The article title is missing "from influential accounts in Canada". From the article text (emphasis mine): According to the report, just 100 users were responsible for almost 70 per cent of online conspiracy posts from influential accounts they examined in Canada.
I read the article and skimmed the report itself, and nowhere do they define how an influential/influencer account is defined, how many there are, or how the distribution of posts differs for conspiracy content vs. other topics, like sports or cooking.
They examined 8 topics of "conspiracy" content, including "Gender indoctrination: Schools are indoctrinating kids with radical gender ideology" [1,2], "Media-elite collusion: Major Canadian media outlets conspire with political elites to manipulate public opinion" [3, 3a], and "Digital ID: Digital IDs are used by the government to secretly control Canadians". From the report:
The posts argue that government-backed digital identity systems, central bank digital currencies, and the shift away from cash are part of a broader plan to control the population. They argue that digitization will enable governments to monitor financial transactions [4,5], restrict purchases, travel, and access to healthcare, freeze accounts [6], and punish people for exceeding their carbon limits or for dissent [7,8].
I concede digital ID (even alone, without digital currency) can be very useful. But I trust the collective imagination of HN to realize how perilous it can also be (i.e. I have only so much time to waste on this post). And if imagination won't do, there's always China. Are Western governments, or the Canadian government, SO trustworthy and incorruptible and devoted to liberty, that any worries about digital ID misuse could only be baseless conspiracy theory?
[1] A list of resources and service providers have been compiled to assist [Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario] members in supporting Gender Independent Children and Trans Youth/Adults in their schools and communities. - https://www.etfo.ca/socialjusticeunion/2slgbtq/etfo-suggeste...
[3] A story from CTV, a major Canadian media house, about a former school trustee fined $750,000 in damages to LGBTQ2S+ teachers for discriminatory and hate speech (not threats, violence, or libel) that doesn't quote a single source even vaguely critical of the fine or raising free speech concerns: https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/former-bc-school-tr...
[3a] Joseph alleges that the CBC selectively edited their interviews, including those of other families, in ways that suppressed their true views and favored Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, who is fighting deportation to India after running a stop sign and crashing into the team bus, killing 16 people, including Joseph’s son. - https://x.com/BezirganMocha/status/2030448927619821779
[4] Under GLB, companies can sell their customers’ financial data to anyone they choose, including credit card information such as the date, amount, and recipient of charges, and the personal details consumers provide when they fill out applications. [Technically this is about the USA. Practically, lol] - https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/why-dont-we-hav...
[6] https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/banking/fro... - Dear reader. Consider for a moment that this report, from an allegedly respectable organization that is the result of a government-university partnership [6a], aimed at fighting misinformation, and is approvingly cited by the National Observer, which the Canadian government trusts so much that it pays the newspaper so that all the government can have access to its reporting [6b], will pretend something as common and every-day as a bank account freeze, is a baseless conspiracy theory, and only happens in the fevered imaginations of paranoiacs.
Isn't this just standard pareto distribution at work? I'm sure if you checked youtube views, or spotify streams, you'd come to similar conclusions.
If the problem is that bad, why don't you just come out and say who those 100 accounts are?
It’s a start.
The article title is missing "from influential accounts in Canada". From the article text (emphasis mine): According to the report, just 100 users were responsible for almost 70 per cent of online conspiracy posts from influential accounts they examined in Canada.
I read the article and skimmed the report itself, and nowhere do they define how an influential/influencer account is defined, how many there are, or how the distribution of posts differs for conspiracy content vs. other topics, like sports or cooking.
They examined 8 topics of "conspiracy" content, including "Gender indoctrination: Schools are indoctrinating kids with radical gender ideology" [1,2], "Media-elite collusion: Major Canadian media outlets conspire with political elites to manipulate public opinion" [3, 3a], and "Digital ID: Digital IDs are used by the government to secretly control Canadians". From the report:
The posts argue that government-backed digital identity systems, central bank digital currencies, and the shift away from cash are part of a broader plan to control the population. They argue that digitization will enable governments to monitor financial transactions [4,5], restrict purchases, travel, and access to healthcare, freeze accounts [6], and punish people for exceeding their carbon limits or for dissent [7,8].
I concede digital ID (even alone, without digital currency) can be very useful. But I trust the collective imagination of HN to realize how perilous it can also be (i.e. I have only so much time to waste on this post). And if imagination won't do, there's always China. Are Western governments, or the Canadian government, SO trustworthy and incorruptible and devoted to liberty, that any worries about digital ID misuse could only be baseless conspiracy theory?
[1] A list of resources and service providers have been compiled to assist [Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario] members in supporting Gender Independent Children and Trans Youth/Adults in their schools and communities. - https://www.etfo.ca/socialjusticeunion/2slgbtq/etfo-suggeste...
[2] Canadian town fined for refusing to celebrate Pride Month, fly rainbow flag - https://www.foxnews.com/politics/canadian-town-fined-refusin...
[3] A story from CTV, a major Canadian media house, about a former school trustee fined $750,000 in damages to LGBTQ2S+ teachers for discriminatory and hate speech (not threats, violence, or libel) that doesn't quote a single source even vaguely critical of the fine or raising free speech concerns: https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/former-bc-school-tr...
[3a] Joseph alleges that the CBC selectively edited their interviews, including those of other families, in ways that suppressed their true views and favored Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, who is fighting deportation to India after running a stop sign and crashing into the team bus, killing 16 people, including Joseph’s son. - https://x.com/BezirganMocha/status/2030448927619821779
[4] Under GLB, companies can sell their customers’ financial data to anyone they choose, including credit card information such as the date, amount, and recipient of charges, and the personal details consumers provide when they fill out applications. [Technically this is about the USA. Practically, lol] - https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/why-dont-we-hav...
[5] https://www.aclu.org/news/privacy-technology/say-no-cashless...
[6] https://www.businessinsider.com/personal-finance/banking/fro... - Dear reader. Consider for a moment that this report, from an allegedly respectable organization that is the result of a government-university partnership [6a], aimed at fighting misinformation, and is approvingly cited by the National Observer, which the Canadian government trusts so much that it pays the newspaper so that all the government can have access to its reporting [6b], will pretend something as common and every-day as a bank account freeze, is a baseless conspiracy theory, and only happens in the fevered imaginations of paranoiacs.
[6a] https://www.mcgill.ca/maxbellschool/research/centre-media-te...
[6b] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada%27s_National_Observer#I...
[7] More than 200 bank accounts holding almost $8 million were frozen in effort to end convoy occupation - https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/emergency-bank-measures-fin...
[8] https://financialpost.com/fp-finance/banking/trudeau-gives-b...
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