The comment most often heard yesterday about our work in getting Canadian ISPs to block access to 2 US websites was the concern about a slippery slope.
Once you start blocking for this, then the next thing you know:
- ISPs will be accountable to find the illegal content;
- we’ll be blocking competitors’ sites;
- we’ll be blocking opposing views;
- we’ll have the [music/movie/tv] industry asking for sites to be shut down.
- [insert your concern here]
Let’s be clear about this. After all, the facts are crystal clear in this case. There is a neo-nazi in the US who published the name and address of a Canadian human rights lawyer and told his followers to kill him. Anyone really think that we should be defending that kind of content?
There is no slippery slope to consider in assessing this request. There is no need to debate what constitutes free speech in this case. A call to murder an individual is what we are talking about.
Quite simply, such content doesn’t belong in Canada, or in any democracy for that matter.
Do we need an independent review and adjudication body that is able to make such determinations in the future? Let’s talk.
But first, let’s get this particular garbage off our internet.