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Conservative Senator Labels Facebook “Dangerous”

Kady O'Malley at Macleans notes that last week Conservative Senator Marjorie LeBreton was asked about the thousands of Canadians who have expressed their concern with Bill C-10 through a Facebook group.  Her response? 

Honourable senators, I have been asked about Facebook before. I never look at Facebook because I do not understand the technology. I think the concept is dangerous.

14 Comments

  1. I agree completely
    The concept of citizens being able to easily lobby together is extremely dangerous … to politicians who want to represent the interests of people other than their constituents.

  2. Ignorance is Bliss!
    Wow, what a deep and intelligent answer from yet another Conservative member of Parliament. What a waste of seats! I hope an election comes soon and we get a government with some intelligence in to make decisions based on the interest of Canadian citizens.

  3. Louis Simoneau says:

    You ain’t seen nothin’ yet
    Dangerous? You have no idea. We’re just getting started. And your cluelessness is going to be a big help. Keep up the good work!

  4. Rick in Delta says:

    What a novel idea!
    I hear those people like to talk about the weather too,so if they like facebook, hmmm, sounds like a communist plot really, we must put a stop to that sort of thing soon!
    Next thing you know they will even want honest elected governments too!

  5. it IS Dangerous
    Facebook is a advertisers dream, all that information on so many people. Graciously supplied by the users themselves. You would not give this information to strangers on the street or to foreign governments, why would you put it on the internet for all to see? I agree that censorship is dangerous but so are these databases of personal information, especially in such detail. Reading the Facebook Terms of Service was certainly an eye opener, i would suggest that everyone does read it. Especially the part in which they state what they are allowed to do with YOUR information.

    “By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.”

    I also suggest watching this video: [ link ]

  6. what there is to understand
    I never look at Facebook because I do not understand the technology…
    If you ever turned on a computer and surfed few pages on internet you have all you need to understand Facebook technology.

  7. Travis Neel says:

    Series of tubes?
    Facebook. That’s on the Interweb thing series of tubes, isn’t it? I see our Senators are as with it as Senator Stevens was in the US. That’s not a good thing. I sure hope these are the people who are making decisions about the future of technology. God forbid we’d have anybody who knew ‘anything’ making decisions.

  8. Todd Sieling says:

    That’s pretty priceless. I wonder what ‘the concept’ is in her mind, exactly. It would be interesting to hear, in a non-judgmental way, what she thinks it is in her own words. I think it would help those of us who build such things to communicate past the cyclical panics that Global, CTV and CBC regularly traffic as news.

  9. Todd Sieling says:

    And by the way, for ‘handler’, the scare-video you linked to is on a page with advertising, so in a way you’re playing the same game as Facebook does with attention and ads, only they wear it on their sleeve, whereas your ad-push comes disguised as public interest. It’s interesting how the perspective shifts, isn’t it?

  10. Steven G says:

    It can be very dangerous from a privacy stand point but… its only as dangerous as anyone lets it become. đŸ˜›

    The Senator probably has no idea what I mean by that and is just scared of the Internet in general, which is sad.

  11. Dangerous for habitual BSers
    …whom are stuck in the old-school mindset of TV news and word-of-mouth speeds of info dissemination. They dislike how the internet makes them check their facts.

  12. CJH. Not sure what sites you’ve been frequenting, I see a lot of sites where people don’t check their facts đŸ˜‰ The main difference is that if someone blatantly doesn’t check facts on the internet, they run the risk of needing an asbestos suit to ward off the flames.

  13. She’s probably afraid of her microwave oven too.

  14. Facebook
    I would like to clarify my opinion. I do not agree with the conservative senator at all. I believe that there is nothing dangerous from Facebook that could harm our political process or whatever the senator was afraid of. There is however, danger to users of Facebook. Some people understand the conditions when they sign up and agree to them, although many people do not. As long as people read the Terms of Service and understand what they are signing up for i have no problem. Personally, i would not sign up for Facebook for various reasons that i will not bore you with. The internet is a great tool for organizing campaigns and stimulating political change. Ignorance and fear of the unknown is what i would say the conservative senator is suffering from, ignorance of what Facebook is and fear of it due to her lack of knowledge. The concept of a place where people can share information is dangerous to senators who hate coming out of their safety bubble of aids and business.

    Todd, I am sorry but i do not understand the point you are making about advertising. I see nothing wrong with advertising, it is when corporations start making a file about me, things i like, things i hate, music, movies, my friends and where and when i meet them. This is what scares me, things that I know and understand.