What Do You Think?

[Allegracrown]

Now the question is are these mediums major enough to actually change an election? from the time polls close on the east cost to the time they close on the west?

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http://www.canada.com/technology/Canada+election+laws+changing+reflect+Twitter+reality/5991515/story.html

Canada's election laws changing to reflect Twitter reality


By Jeff Davis, Postmedia News January 13, 2012


The Harper government will repeal the ban on communicating election results while polls are still open, bringing the law into harmony with the realities of today's instant communications.

The election night blackout was adopted in 1938, to prevent western voters from knowing the results of the election in the east when they cast their ballots.

Minister of State for Democratic Reform Tim Uppal announced via Twitter Friday that the antiquated law will been repealed in time for the next election.

"Through our commitment to repeal the ban, we are taking action to bringing the electoral process in line with 21st-century realities," Uppal told reporters at an Ottawa news conference. "This ban which, was enacted in 1938, is out of date and it's unenforceable," he said.

Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act prohibits the transmission of election results to a riding where voting is ongoing. Anyone wilfully breaking this prohibition is liable on a summary conviction to fines up to $25,000.

This law was broken on a widespread basis since the general elections of 2000, when the immediacy of the Internet made keeping poll results under wraps unrealistic.

"Not only does the ban infringe upon freedom of expression, it has the potential to subject Canadians to heavy penalties for the use of technologies that are everyday forms of 21st-century communication," Uppal said. "(Canadians) should not be penalized for transmitting through Facebook or Twitter the results of the election."

At the news conference, Uppal thanked Vancouver software architect Paul Bryan for his "tireless advocacy" aimed at repealing the law.

Bryan challenged the law during the general election of 2000 by posting election results online in real time.

"I saw this as a gross affront to freedom of expression," Bryan told Postmedia News. "I posted the results of the election in real time, essentially as a means of launching a principled challenge of a law I thought was unconstitutional."

Shortly after the election, RCMP and Elections Canada officials raided Bryan's home, seizing hard drives and charging him for violating Section 329 of the Canada Elections Act.

Ruling on Bryan's case in 2003, the Supreme Court of British Columbia declared the election night blackout unconstitutional. As a result, the blackout was not in effect during the 2004 general election.

In 2007, Bryan's case reached the Supreme Court, which fined him $1,000 and reinstituted the election night blackout.

Bryan said he feels vindicated by the announcement.

"I saw the Internet as an emerging tool to enable democracy, (to) maybe even take democracy to a new level, and that's in fact what it has done," Bryan said. "I feel we're finally entering the 21st century."

Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, said the repeal is "long overdue." He said the law is clearly in conflict with basic rights to free expression.

"Real time discussion and analysis takes place on Twitter," he said. "The notion that we would prohibit that with real penalties runs completely counter to our traditional protections for freedom of expression."

Geist said the communications reality in Canada has shifted enormously even since 2005, given the widespread rise of instant broadcast capabilities through Facebook and Twitter. Regulating the use of social media is nearly impossible, he said.

"The practical enforceability of this is exceptionally difficult," he said. "We would literally have to move to a China-like system of blocking access to the Internet."

Jonathan Rose, a professor of political studies at Queen's University, said the government is simply recognizing reality with this decision.

"Having a ban on transmitting election results before polls close is a bit anachronistic in age of social media and Twitter," he said. "In the last election, the Twitterverse was full of posts either directly or indirectly discussing the results."

Bryan agreed that the rise of social media was the final nail in an antiquated law's coffin.

"Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus; these are all technologies that have lowered the bar incredibly over the last decade to allow anyone, even with a small amount of technical know-how, to engage in that public discourse," he said.