On Sunday, Dany Turcotte therefore explained his truth, the reasons for his departure from Everybody talks about it : He had had enough of all the nonsense he received on social media.
Posted on March 3, 2021 at 6:20 a.m.
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Turcotte, a good man, has had enough of wickedness which sometimes spills over into hatred. He wondered, at Guy A’s: should we give kids social media lessons?
Good question, Dany …
I’m pushing Rewind here. I just want to say that this ambient nastiness is nothing new. When I started blogging at Quebecor at the end of 2005, it was still possible to chat, in the comments section …
It only lasted a few months. As blogs became popular, they attracted more people… So, more quarrelsome commentators, quibblers, monomaniacs, paranoiacs, fly-fuckers, comma cheaters and other sickly haters that make discussion impossible…
Like Facebook, like Twitter in 2021.
So what do we do ?
“How to regulate speech on social media? Flat answer: we will not succeed, ”believes Patrick Lagacé.
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I see people who want a kind of web police, which would distribute fines to insolent, insulters and other surly unable to discuss without bad words.
Except that it already exists!
In 2019, the City of Sherbrooke adopted a by-law that penalizes insults against elected municipal officials, with fines of $ 150 to $ 1,000 up for grabs …
Small problem: what constitutes an insult?
Do you think the phrase “You are a suicide bomber in need of publicity” an insult?
For municipal councilor Pierre Tremblay, yes, that was it: an insult. He therefore lodged a complaint against the political employee of a city councilor who had called him a suicide bomber in need of advertising on Facebook …
And the complaint was upheld. Claude Dostie therefore received a fine of $ 160.
He challenged her, he ended up winning in court1, but the case monopolized hours of legal talent of a crown attorney, a defense lawyer and a judge… All for the word “kamikaze”.
Tell me it’s not a little bit absurd …
Can you imagine, across Quebec? Can you imagine the gallons of saliva that will be wasted in the courts if we start to punish the offensive word that rages on social media? We will end up with a ministry dedicated to the control of social networks, with an annual budget equivalent to that of potholes.
Dany Turcotte named one problem, that of incivility on social media. It is a problem which is not without consequences. So, collectively, we are looking for a solution – what to do, how to curb this evil which obviously does not affect only famous people…?
I will dare to give a good, very boring answer: there is no solution.
Finally, yes, there is. But it does not lie in the judicialization of detestable words and ordinary insults. Nor in education. Nor even in the hope that the platforms play the prefects of discipline, since Facebook and Twitter live on the minutes that are given to them, no matter whether these minutes are spent commenting on a photo of a cat or treating a neighbor as a Nazi. …
My solution lies in divestment. Divest from social media.
Take Twitter: I’ve had black fun on Twitter for years. Twitter allowed me to discover articles, ideas, people that I would not have discovered other than through this platform which allows us to install a tap on a collective intelligence …
Lately, I haven’t had any fun. I was still discovering pearls, but in the middle of a field of shit made up of outright hatred, unhealthy little criticism, monomaniac contradictors, endless debates about nonsense and legitimate criticism that gets on your nerves because they hit you in the face after 67 stupid stupid comments …
Even though I have a thick shell, at 68e annoying comment of the day, I was tempted to respond and get into an endless debate on Twitter. I was, despite everything, invested in this platform.
So I got out of Twitter: I created an anonymous account, which only serves me for documentation. I stopped feeding my official account, which I will visit less and less because it brings me less and less.
It’s been a few days and …
And I think it’s good for my mental peace.
So how do you regulate speech on social media? Flat answer: we will not succeed. We have created platforms where anyone can say anything to anyone, no matter what. It’s both great and heartbreaking, sometimes in the same second.
I suggest divestment, if you can.
For me, in the case of social networks, the question is elsewhere …
Why do we invest so much in these platforms, basically?
1. “Use of the word” kamikaze “: Beaudin’s chief of staff not guilty”, The gallery, February 18, 2021
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