Live data from Hacker News

Facebook is blocking Canadians’ posts on the assassination of a BC Sikh leader

pressprogress.ca

31–40 of 282 posts

Re: Facebook is blocking Canadians’ posts on the assassination of a BC Sikh leader

#31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> India has 25x the population of Canada, Facebook has no reason to side with Canada To be super clear, if India actually assassinated a Canadian in Canada, this becomes relevant in America and Europe. (At best it means New Delhi has a rogue security element.) This is not an editorial decision by Facebook. It’s the mindless implementation of complex policies.

Edited to remove misinformation. Sorry, I was misled by news articles about the individual's status in Canada which were published prior to the announcement earlier today that he became a citizen in 2015.

He's been a Canadian citizen since 2015.

Re: Facebook is blocking Canadians’ posts on the assassination of a BC Sikh leader

#33

India’s government is apparently confidently enough in India’s global influence to be putting pressure on Canada and Facebook. Just thinking out loud, if some parts of India started breaking away from India, that could start a chain reaction. India has incredibly diverse sets of citizens, each with their own set of cultural identities and historical grievances. Maintaining national unity has been a struggle since Ind…

> suppression of separatists If true, this was a stupid move. They’ve martyred a separatist while bringing him and his cause international sympathy and attention. The assassins have carried out an action resembling an attack on a founding member of NATO and close ally of America’s. In North America. This is a line even the Soviets and Chinese respected. Not out of fear, but rational self interest. If true, New Delhi’…

> The assassins have carried out an action resembling an attack on a founding member of NATO and close ally of America’s. In North America.

Even assuming it is sanctioned killing, how would that be an attack on Canada?

Re: Facebook is blocking Canadians’ posts on the assassination of a BC Sikh leader

#34

Politics aside, this feels like a good policy question? How do laws apply in the context of a global platform like Facebook. Something may be in violation of a law in one country, but be totally acceptable in another. Should sovereign citizens on one country be subjected to laws of another? If Twitter files showed us anything, posts get taken down at the request of the government (including US and Canada).

India (among other countries) have passed so called "hostage-taking laws" that require large social media companies to have in-country employees that can be strong-armed from ways small to large (threats of being convicted of treason and executed). This is a specific policy to allow them to enforce their censorship laws in other countries.

Do they have options to enforce that other than blocking access to the service in question?

Re: Facebook is blocking Canadians’ posts on the assassination of a BC Sikh leader

#36
post #9

Play stupid games (Canadian government bill C-18 [1]), win stupid prizes. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_News_Act

This isn't C-18, this is way worse.

The context is that there's a Canadian Sikh who has been calling for parts of India to secede from India. In response, India had him assassinated.

India has laws on the books that allow them to remove content globally for things that violate Indian law. They enforce this on social media companies by requiring them to have employees on the country's soil in order to take them hostage.

C-18 just says you can't post links on Facebook without news companies getting a cut of ad revenue. India wants all discussion of their assassination of a Canadian citizen to be censored, and they're currently getting that censorship.

Re: Facebook is blocking Canadians’ posts on the assassination of a BC Sikh leader

#37

India’s government is apparently confidently enough in India’s global influence to be putting pressure on Canada and Facebook. Just thinking out loud, if some parts of India started breaking away from India, that could start a chain reaction. India has incredibly diverse sets of citizens, each with their own set of cultural identities and historical grievances. Maintaining national unity has been a struggle since Ind…

> suppression of separatists If true, this was a stupid move. They’ve martyred a separatist while bringing him and his cause international sympathy and attention. The assassins have carried out an action resembling an attack on a founding member of NATO and close ally of America’s. In North America. This is a line even the Soviets and Chinese respected. Not out of fear, but rational self interest. If true, New Delhi’…

> In North America. This is a line even the Soviets and Chinese respected

When it comes to assassination, maybe. But China conducts extra-judicial operations in Canada, and even deport citizens (send back to China), with little respect for Canada's sovereignty.

* Search for china+secret+police+canada and make your own mind. Obviously the CCP denies it and the Canadian government is mute. So you only have the mainstream media's word to go on.

Re: Facebook is blocking Canadians’ posts on the assassination of a BC Sikh leader

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> BC Sikhs goes against our Community Standards on dangerous individuals and organizations. This is hilarious to anyone who knows any Sikhs. They’re some of the most peace loving people on planet earth.

What a ridiculous generalization. Sikhs are capable of being dangerous just as any other group of people are.

What a ridiculous comment. Are you trying to say all groups are equally dangerous? You know that’s ridiculous right?

If you want to say Sikhs are at least as dangerous as the average, I’m open to see a statistical argument to support that position. I don’t think it’s true, but I could be convinced.

Re: Facebook is blocking Canadians’ posts on the assassination of a BC Sikh leader

#39
Since this will soon become heated and full of misinformation, here are some details-

1. PM Trudeau called emergency session over "credible" allegations but no actual evidence. The leader of opposition has also called out lack of evidence.

2. Canada expelled a key Indian diplomat but not nothing more - basically diplomatese - https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/18/americas/canada-hardeep-s...

3. India issued statement calling allegations as baseless and irresponsible - https://bit.ly/3EHtuwe

4. India too immediately booted out key Canadian diplomat. Diplomat was so angry he almost slammed car door on a journalist (https://x.com/ANI/status/1703997495318352108?s=20)

5. PM Trudeau seems to realize he has worsened relations with no credible evidence - https://www.reuters.com/world/canada-pm-not-trying-provoke-i...

As for background, India considers two countries as those which harbors terrorists active against India - Pakistan and Canada. Canada has harbored "Khalistani" terrorists (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India_Flight_182) for long. Recently these "khalistani" (mind you, not Sikhs) have started threatening Indian diplomats (https://x.com/AdityaRajKaul/status/1676496624519122950?s=20) and attacked Indian properties and temples in Canada/UK. India recently started taking harder stance on push back on both Canada and UK for safety of it's nationals.

Re: Facebook is blocking Canadians’ posts on the assassination of a BC Sikh leader

#40
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> suppression of separatists If true, this was a stupid move. They’ve martyred a separatist while bringing him and his cause international sympathy and attention. The assassins have carried out an action resembling an attack on a founding member of NATO and close ally of America’s. In North America. This is a line even the Soviets and Chinese respected. Not out of fear, but rational self interest. If true, New Delhi’…

> The assassins have carried out an action resembling an attack on a founding member of NATO and close ally of America’s. In North America. Even assuming it is sanctioned killing, how would that be an attack on Canada?

Killing a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil seems like an obvious attack on Canada, I don't think there's any question on this.
Post reply on HN