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With media targeting truckers' donors, say goodbye to anonymous free speech

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In Canada, first the doxing, then the struggle session.

This week, one of the most popular small-donor fundraising sites 
for the Canadian truckers protesting the COVID vaccine mandates, 
GiveSendGo, was hacked. The names of donors were shared with the 
public. We know about this mostly because erstwhile news 
organizations, such as Reuters, have showered attention on the 
breach as if they were providing a public service.

Indeed, many of the same outlets that refused to report 
specifics about the Hunter Biden email scoop in 2020 (though the 
story was obtained in a completely ethical journalistic manner) 
or share specifics from the Democratic National Committee email 
hacks in 2016 (illegally obtained, but with high news value) 
have no compunction highlighting a site that takes aim at 
ordinary people who have done nothing but engage in political 
dissent.

In Canada, the doxing has already begun. Tammy Giuliani, a small-
business owner who employs 40 people, was forced to shut down 
her gelato shop because of threats made against her employees 
after her $250 donation to the truckers’ cause was disclosed, 
according to the Ottawa Citizen.

The Citizen’s Blair Crawford doesn’t marvel at the fact that a 
person who lives in a (nominally) liberal democracy can be 
intimidated for engaging in political protest, but instead 
strongly insinuates that Giuliani had it coming: “Giuliani made 
her Feb. 5 donation on the second weekend of the demonstration, 
when Ottawa police were describing it as ‘volatile and 
dangerous’ and lawyers were seeking a court injunction to 
silence the constant blaring of air horns in the downtown core.”

So what? The police were wrong. The protests have not been 
“dangerous” to this point.

A deep dive into the scaremongering tactics of Canadian 
authorities might be worthwhile for someone who isn’t merely a 
stenographer at the struggle session: “Never in our wildest 
dreams did we anticipate what has transpired over the past 
couple of weeks,” she said. “None of us anticipated what it 
turned into and we certainly don’t condone it.”

No one can blame Giuliani for engaging in a bit of self-
flagellation to save her business. Giuliani, who claims she 
gives money to animal shelters, a soccer team and a choir (“We 
rarely say no”), was compelled to take out loans to stay open 
during the pandemic.

It’s “a debt that will probably take seven years to pay off,” 
she told the Citizen. It’s not difficult to imagine why a 
business owner battered by counterproductive state-compelled 
economic shutdowns would oppose vaccine mandates. Nor is it 
difficult to imagine how disclosing her donations — and the 
subsequent media attention — is intended to chill speech

At least one reporter for the Washington Post, already on the 
case, is allegedly contacting Americans who have contributed as 
little as $40 to the anti-mandate cause in Canada. How could the 
Post possibly know the names of donors if it wasn’t working off 
the list obtained through the hack? And how could it possibly 
care? That is, unless the goal is to Brendan Eich dissent.

Now, of course, this isn’t Canada. The government doesn’t have 
the authority to unilaterally seize the assets of political 
protesters as if it were a third-world autocracy. Yet this is 
what the hysterics surrounding the specter of “dark money” is 
all about.

The fact that we aren’t obliged to publicly attach our names to 
all political donations is endlessly frustrating to those intent 
on smearing and intimidating their political opponents.

Anonymous speech is as much a part of “democracy” as marching in 
the streets or writing a newspaper column. And in a healthy 
liberal media environment, reporters would be demanding answers 
from those abusing power, not working with them to inhibit 
political speech.

https://nypost.com/2022/02/20/media-targeting-donors-to-canadas-
protest-leads-to-questions-over-free-speech/

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With media targeting truckers' donors, say goodbye to anonymous free speech "Trudeau bitches" <invalid@privacy.none> - 2022-02-24 06:29 +0100
  Re: With media targeting truckers' donors, say goodbye to anonymous free speech echobeach <eternalseptember01@echo21.anonaddy.me> - 2022-02-24 13:44 -0500

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