Shut down online hate: Jagmeet Singh talks about next steps

After successfully putting pressure on the Liberal government to shut down the Proud Boys in Canada, Jagmeet Singh and the NDP continue to fight to shut down online hate

OTTAWA – On Wednesday, joined by people who signed the NDP petition to ban the Proud Boys in Canada, a right-wing extremist group that promotes white supremacist views, the Leader of the NDP Jagmeet Singh said that the fight against hate isn’t over. While celebrating the fact that because of the pressure the Proud Boys were designated a terrorist organization in Canada, Singh unveiled the NDP’s next steps for Justin Trudeau’s Liberals to finally take action against online hate.
“Because of our work, because of every share and signature, because of the pressure we built, the government designated the Proud Boys and a few other alt-right groups as terrorist organizations,” said Singh. “Together, we literally saved lives. We showed that when we work together, we can achieve great things. But we cannot stop there. Hate and far-right groups continue to spread like wildfire online. We must fight online hate to keep our communities safe.”
Experts have indicated that social media is the principal tool of white supremacist groups to organize and spread their ideology. It is where they recruit, organize and spread their hatred — putting people’s lives in danger. After the Christchurch attacks in New Zealand in 2017, Justin Trudeau pledged to fight online hate, but instead of making social media accountable, he decided to trust social media companies with voluntary measures — failing to stop online hate.
“During the 2019 election, Justin Trudeau repeated this broken promise to fight online hate, yet again, we have seen no action. We are past the time for hollow words. We need action now,” said Singh. “Hate groups cannot be allowed to use social media platforms to promote, recruit and spread hate. This puts our communities in danger. So, I am asking for your help again by signing our petition to tell Justin Trudeau that he can no longer sit on the sidelines, he must act immediately.”
The NPD is calling for measures to tackle online hate such as regulations to make social media platforms accountable to remove hateful and violent extremist content on their platform. It also calls to penalize social media companies that refuse to remove hateful content from their platform like in other countries.