Why so much hate? | The Press

Alain Rayes has had enough and he’s not the only one. On Tuesday, in a post on his Facebook page, the Tory MP said his remarks the day before – he wished children and school staff a good start – had sparked so many aggressive and hateful comments that he has none. slept all night. The politician has decided that he will now ban anyone who makes toxic comments from his social networks.

Aggression is not only virtual, it can be transported in the physical world: last Friday, the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Chrystia Freeland, was verbally assaulted by two individuals in Alberta. A video of the incident later circulated on Twitter.

On Wednesday, we learned that the electoral premises of Enrico Ciccone had been vandalized. The Liberal MP had previously received threats over the phone. His colleague Marwah Rizqy, eight months pregnant, for her part revealed that she had been the victim of death threats. It is not insignificant that we offer bulletproof vests to the leaders of political parties. It looks like the election campaign has added fuel to the fire.

The trauma Mr. Rayes has experienced, women know intimately. Whether they are public figures or not, they are more likely than men to receive hateful, sexist and toxic messages.

In their documentary I salute you bitch which will be shown next week, Léa Clermont-Dion and Guylaine Maroist give the floor to five women from five different countries who tell us about their digital ordeal: misogynistic remarks, harassment, incitement to rape, death threats… An elected American had to move. People were invited to rape the President of the Chamber of Deputies in Italy. Five women’s lives deeply disrupted by online harassment without authorities intervening.

We invoke freedom of expression, we turn our heads and we look elsewhere.

However, hate speech and misogynistic comments have nothing to do with freedom of expression. These are words that must be prohibited on digital platforms just as dangerous driving is prohibited and punished on road infrastructures.

Some countries like France and Germany have laws to regulate what is said on these platforms. In Germany, since 2018, a fine is imposed when one of them does not withdraw the problematic remarks within the prescribed period. The results are mixed, but these countries still send a clear message to the Facebooks, Twitters and Instagrams of this world: you are not neutral, you have a responsibility in this rise in aggression and rage online.

Currently, no Canadian law makes social networks responsible for the content posted by their users. The federal government has been promising us new legislation for more than two years. It would be time to show us the color.

Then, one can wonder where this more and more uncontrolled aggressiveness comes from. The Canadian firm Pollara has just launched a new measure that tries to explain the reasons for this collective bad mood. Its “rage index” (yes, like the consumer price index or the happiness index), therefore measures the level of ambient rage… Out of 2013 Canadians questioned during the last week of July, 48% said angry at Ottawa’s policies, 83% named inflation, 79% angry at gas prices and 55% at the housing market. These reasons in no way justify the ambient level of aggressiveness, but they do tell us that there is something wrong with Canadian society, a rumbling anger that is expressed on digital platforms… and in the real life. We can no longer ignore it.