Our website is being used for anti-vax speech. We monitor it to make sure misinformation is not shared. But where should the line between free speech and protecting the public be drawn?
COVID-19 has led to a divide between Canadians who are willing to get vaccinated, and those that are not. Those that are “anti-vax” have been using the internet to convince others not to get the vaccine. They use Twitter, Reddit, and my website.
Canadians that are prone to misinformation online have been in arms lately. I have read countless baseless rumours about COVID-19 vaccines.
I’m not going to list all the rumours, but the most recent untrue rumour states that vaccines cause infertility. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reported that this is not true.
A dramatic tweet, that’s unverified and from a non-expert, can reach millions of people in a matter of hours.
The United States has said that the Russian government has been spreading COVID-19 disinformation in an attempt to destabilize western countries.
While I have no idea if that’s true, a number of Canadians have been spreading disinformation and fear on my website, anonymously. I can see from their IP address that they are located in Canada, not in Russia.
Anti-Vax Speech And Misinformation
The rapid use of social media has given a voice to all. But it has also taken power away from official government reporting, and experts speaking on the radio, as was common in the past.
With the internet, everyone now has a voice, which can be great for preventing harassment in the workplace and fighting racism. But for issues that require medical or legal advice from experts (lawyers and doctors), the internet has made those voices lost among the sea of the modern-day angry.
Many people that are fighting public opinion, like anti-vaxers, don’t want to publish their true feelings under their real names. A number of people against vaccines are nurses, doctors, and lawyers.
If they were to publish their feelings, they could lose their jobs, or be shunned at their workplace. This has led them to use websites like Reddit or my lawyer review website to share their thoughts.
Companies like Facebook have fought back against fake accounts. But there are many other options. Part of the Reddit culture is that no one publishes any information about themselves. There is no “cancel culture” the same way as there is on Twitter.
Cancel Culture Could Kill Free Speech
When I started my legal review website, I never thought it would be used as a tool for those that wanted to share anti-vaccine concerns. The website was meant to be a tool for people to leave reviews for the 120,000 lawyers in Canada, something like Google Reviews, but taken to the next level.
We received over 400 reviews from Canadians in the last month. But instead of the reviews focusing on the lawyers’ performance, many people are pleading for help, using only their initials.
There have been COVID vaccine reviews and messages for Ottawa-based lawyer, Michael Swinwood, on my website.
Michael Swinwood, Carol Crosson, Jonathan Fernandes, and Ian Donaldson are lawyers that many Canadians are reaching out to regarding vaccines.
I don’t agree with much of what the anti-vaxers say. I don’t believe that they are pro-choice instead of anti-vaccine.
They have a choice. The police won’t come and arrest them and put the vaccine in their arm. They are likely afraid of vaccines because they have read too much disinformation on the internet.
Free Speech Means Not Always Hearing What You Want
However, free speech only happens when people are free to speak, or these days, to type on the internet.
People must be given the opportunity to share their views, even when they are wrong. Or in the alternative, when all the evidence seems to point against what they are suggesting.
That is why our website always approves anti-vax comments because they have the right to be heard. The internet allows for competing narratives, and that’s something that is healthy in a democratic society.
We always make sure to monitor the anti-vax speech to make sure they are not spreading misinformation. I found it interesting Family Guy just put out this video. It’s a commercial on how to find the right information about vaccines.
Author: Alistair Vigier is the CEO of Clearway Law, a website in Canada and China where people can leave reviews for lawyers.
Yup, there’s a lot of that going around right now. People in Canada haven’t had hard times for a while. There hasn’t been a war that impacted Canada since the 1940s. Things are too good and woke culture has taken over. This woke culture affects both the left and right-wing. Everyone thinks they can do whatever they want.