Mis-, Dis- and Mal-Information and the Convoy

The initial organization of the Convoy was through a Facebook group Canada Unity, which led a “United We Roll” convoy in 2019.7 Before the Convoy, the content posted to Canada Unity had themes of anti-vaccination and anti-lockdown.8 Many of the accounts and influencers of the Convoy are reported to have ties to far right groups such as the Canadian Yellow Vests and conspiracy theories.9 Second, th. [...] Another question is the extent that there was content in the “everything else” bucket of hatred, extremism, doxing, harassment and so on.119 Some of the accounts and influencers of the Convoy were reported to have ties to far-right groups.120 Is there a solution to online information manipulation? Law and governance are complicated, and briefly explored in Parts II and III. [...] As the Joint Declaration affirms, disinformation interferes with various aspect of the right to free expression, including the right to know, to seek, receive and impart information and ideas.146 Disinformation can cause harm to individual reputations and privacy, and to national security, which can be the basis for legitimate restriction of the right to free expression.147 It can also advocate ha. [...] Rumours and gossip are part of the rituals of human interaction.149 For those that are innocent receivers and distributors of such information, they are arguably engaged in the search for truth, one of the philosophical values that underpin the right to free expression.150 There are many reasons to question the search for truth as sufficient foundation to protect freedom of expression in these cir. [...] The constitutional challenge of the provision turned on the removal of the term “knowingly” and whether th is meant that intention was no longer a requirement of the offence.175 The Ontario Superior Court concluded that the amendment prohibited the spread of accidental or unknown false information, as in misinformation, and that this was an unjustifiable limit on the right to freedom of expression.