Should Canada ban X and Tesla? Why calls are growing

As U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk take aim at Canada, immoderate high-level observers are calling on the national authorities to see sanctioning oregon adjacent banning corporations owned by those adjacent to Trump — much as it did with Russian oligarchs aft the penetration of Ukraine.

“We amended person a study coming up on American interference,” erstwhile overseas affairs curate Lloyd Axworthy said at a caller sheet discussion.

He told the Jan. 27 lawsuit held by the Canadian International Council that he’s progressively disquieted astir meddling successful Canadian home affairs by Musk, a societal media mogul and the world’s richest man.

He added that “other owners of large integer platforms” could undermine Canadian democracy.

“They are going to effort to impact our election,” said Axworthy, who was overseas curate from 1996 to 2000.

Axworthy argued the national authorities indispensable “make definite that they don’t screw the happening up, and marque definite that we aren’t denied our rightful spot to marque our ain choices” successful the adjacent election.

Musk has emerged as a adjacent state of Trump. He raised immoderate $200 cardinal US for Trump’s predetermination run and attended the president’s swearing-in ceremony. At an inauguration rally aboriginal that day, Musk made a motion that galore interpreted as a Nazi salute; helium denied that was the case.

In caller weeks, Musk has promoted far-right groups and parties engaged successful predetermination campaigns successful Germany and the U.K. He addressed supporters of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) successful Halle, Germany on Jan. 25.

He has been accused of utilizing his societal media tract X, formerly known as Twitter, to dispersed disinformation astir European policies on public information and online regulation.

Musk also has tweeted occasionally astir Canadian politics. He praised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation and dismissed him online by echoing Trump’s speech of Canada becoming a U.S. state.

“Girl, you’re not the politician of Canada anymore, truthful (it) doesn’t substance what you say,” Musk posted on Jan. 8.

Musk has faced pushback elsewhere implicit allegations of meddling successful democracy. For five weeks ending past October, Brazil’s ultimate tribunal had net providers artifact X implicit a quality that stemmed from the company’s refusal to prohibition far-right accounts affiliated with a 2023 attack on that country’s Parliament.

X yet complied with those orders and paid millions of dollars successful fines.

The European Commission is investigating whether X is breaching EU content-moderation rules. It has stepped up a probe launched successful 2023 by seeking caller accusation to find whether the site’s algorithms are boosting far-right views portion limiting different perspectives.

Musk is besides CEO of the automotive corp Tesla. Liberal enactment campaigner Chrystia Freeland precocious called on Ottawa to enforce a 100 per cent tariff on Tesla vehicles successful retaliation for Trump’s planned 25 per cent tariffs.

University of Waterloo governmental idiosyncratic Emmett Macfarlane has called on the national authorities to spell overmuch further. In a Jan. 21 blog post, helium argued that Ottawa should see banning X, Tesla and Musk’s outer broadband institution Starlink.

“We should treat Trump and members of his medication similar Elon Musk as akin to Russian oligarchs,” Macfarlane wrote. “We request to enforce meaningful costs on the U.S. for its economical aggression.”

Both Freeland and Macfarlane cited concerns astir tariffs, not governmental interference.

But Axworthy said some things should interest the national government. He said Ottawa should use measures to the U.S. and radical successful Trump’s interior ellipse utilizing the aforesaid logic of containment that Washington applied to the Soviet Union aft the Second World War.

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Axworthy described that policy as one of deploying sanctions and diplomatic measures that nonstop a beardown connection without starring to nonstop conflict.

“Every clip they whitethorn marque a move, there’s a counter-move,” helium said. “Do it nicely, bash it softly — but besides fto them cognize what’s happening.”

NDP MP Charlie Angus said precocious that he’s asked Elections Canada to articulation European efforts to analyse the algorithms utilized by X “to spot if (Musk) is trying to propulsion content for extremist groups.”

“I bash not judge we’re prepared successful immoderate way for dealing, particularly, with the menace that is coming from Elon Musk, who has revealed himself to beryllium dangerously anti-democratic,” helium said.

He criticized those who question to “appease the gangster people from Mar-a-Lago,” referring to Trump’s backstage residence.

The Canadian Press has asked for Musk’s effect to these criticisms done the media relations offices for X and Tesla.

Axworthy said Trump’s “threats” to grow American territory — and make Canada part of the United States — should beryllium met with a agreed beforehand among the countries helium is talking of absorbing.

“I would beryllium much supportive if our overseas curate was visiting Greenland and Denmark and Panama and Colombia and Mexico to speech to them about, ‘How bash we incorporate this a — hole?'” helium said.

Axworthy argued Canada instead “almost threw Mexico nether the bus” when Trump started threatening tariffs. Some premiers suggested that Canada draft a commercialized woody with the U.S. abstracted from Mexico and blamed the country for driving Trump’s concerns astir fentanyl and migration.

“If you’re into a pugnacious negotiation, it’s amended to person 3 people” on your side, Axworthy said.

Former premier curate Joe Clark told past Monday’s sheet that Washington has go a “hostile neighbour” and Canada must negociate the narration without losing show of its ain interests and relations with different countries.

“No 1 knows erstwhile the barrage volition stop,” helium said. “We person a relation of our own, a past of our ain (and) interests of our ain successful the wider world.”