Richard Lee made the disturbing suggestion in a candidates debate.
Richard Lee – the Federal Liberal candidate in the Burnaby South by-election – has called for the United Nations to have control over the internet through a global regulatory body.
Here’s what Lee said, as first reported by the Huffington Post:
“We are in the new era,” Lee said, about how the internet has permeated people’s lives over the past four decades. Asked if Facebook should have journalistic standards to ensure content hosted on the site is credible and accurate, the former B.C. Liberal MLA said because the company operates worldwide, “I think United Nations should have a body to regulate those activities.”
“Lee later defended his point further and explained the UN as the ideal organization for the task ‘”because there are so many countries there.”‘
It’s an incredibly disturbing thing for a candidate to say.
The UN is often dominated and controlled by ruthless, anti-democratic regimes. Many countries in key UN Committees impose massive internet censorship, jail and even kill citizens for speaking their minds, and are 100% opposed to Freedom of Speech.
Putting the UN in charge of the internet would be an unmitigated disaster, and would destroy the freedom that generations of Canadians have fought and died for.
If the Trudeau Liberals don’t condemn Lee’s comments and distance themselves immediately, then we can only assume that they support the idea of the UN regulating and controlling the internet.
Spencer Fernando
Photo – Twitter
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