An Open Letter to Mark Carney

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to you today to urge the Government of Canada, along with our Provincial and Municipal leaders, to take immediate and decisive action to protect Canadian citizens and our sovereignty by implementing a total ban of X.com (formerly Twitter) and its integrated AI tool, Grok.

The very idea of a "digital town square" is anachronistic at best in that these do not live at a fixed address as they do in the real world; they exist where people choose to congregate. But, it's also an outright oxymoron; town squares are inherently public spaces are aren't owned by a private company or single individual. So, when one of these squares is taken over by the richest man in the world who also happens to be highly antagonistic towards Canadian interests and broader global security, it ceases to be a "public" utility and instead becomes a direct threat.

Not to re-litigate well-trod history, but in 2022 when Elon Musk finalized his purchase of Twitter (now X.com), one of his first actions was the mass-firing of the entire Trust & Safety team - the very team tasked with preventing the spread of hate-speech and Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). Since then, instances of hate-speech (including uses of the n-word, r-word, antisemitism, xenophobia, anti-lgbtq+, etc.) rose by 50% in the following eight months (with Elon Musk continuing to amplify misogynistic hatred and white supremacist lies). However, recent developments have moved X.com beyond the realm of poor moderation and into what is quite frankly the territory of criminal enterprise.

Users of X.com are freely able to use the integrated AI tool, Grok (as developed by Musk's other enterprise, xAI) to generate non-consensual deepfake pornography (also known as revenge-porn) and CSAM (as documented in The Guardian and Wired and Vox and The Verge and Global News and The Toronto Star and National Observer and numerous other reputable news outlets). Since initial reporting, Elon and X.com have claimed they have removed this feature from being accessible to free users, indicating they had hidden it behind a paywall (which means X would therefore be explicitly earning revenue from the generation and distribution of revenge porn and CSAM). This turns out to have been a lie, and the tool is still freely accessible and being used en-masse to harass women and children.

To re-iterate: Elon Musk's platform, X.com, is now a leading generator and distributor of non-consensual deepfake pornography and CSAM, with much of what has been recently shared on the dark web having been generated directly via Grok.

Our dependence on American-owned tech platforms, particularly those owned by individuals who are openly hostile to Canadian interests and actively inflame domestic tensions like the Trucker Convoy/occupation of Ottawa in 2022 (which was in itself an attempt to have a "Canadian January 6th" moment) is a strategic failure. X has demonstrated time and time again its hostility towards a facts-based reality, down-ranking critical news while promoting mis/dis-information campaigns (such as those around purported South African white genocide, Russia's genocide in Ukraine, and Israel's genocide in Palestine), the promotion of extremist ideologies, and going so far as to call-itself MechaHitler while praising the Nazi leader and the atrocities of the Third Reich. These are not bugs, but rather intended features of a platform and AI tool meant to radicalize our populous. And as far as I am aware, no other AI tool - ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Deepseek, etc. - is able to produce the visual violence entirely unique to Grok.

We are witnessing the emergence of a "rogue state" mentality with regards to our "best friends" south of the border, where sanctions are now threatened against allies (such as Canadian ICC judge Kimberly Prost and the entirety of the EU) who dare to regulate or reign in the harm that Musk and his companies are actively causing. Countries like Indonesia - which arguably does not have the best human rights record - have correctly identified this threat and have already moved to implement a total ban of X.com, while others like the UK are looking to do the same via Ofcom. It is with this perspective that Canada's - and your government's - silence on this is inexcusable.

The best time to have left X/Twitter behind was in 2022, and to remain there is an act of masochism (or vanity, if follower counts vs. genuine reach is all you care about, Evan Solomon). The next best time to change the location of our shared, Canadian, digital town square is now. To quote the growing number of MPs and Senators already fleeing X.com: it is time for the government to "get the f**k off there."

We have the opportunity to treat this as the transformational, nation-building project that it can be, and it is with that in mind that I call on the Government of Canada not to bypass or pull-back from much needed regulation, but integrate regulation into a framework of sovereign infrastructure that builds the nation for the long term. I call on the government to:

• End the practice of using X.com (and other third-party, American-owned tech platforms) as the primary (and in many cases, exclusive) method for sharing critical government and infrastructure updates.
• Implement a total ban on X.com, following the lead of international allies who recognize the platform as a vector for generating and distributing CSAM (which is in direct violation of 163.1 (1) of Canada's Criminal Code) and hatred.
• Invest in sovereign tech, building a Canadian owned and operated social platform (perhaps the Fediverse?) to ensure the national flow of information remains under our control and jurisdiction. Invest in Canadian data centres to ensure Canadian data remains on Canadian soil.

Prime Minister Carney - the richest man in the world, the same one who wishes Canada to be the 51st state of America, is currently enriching himself through the creation and distribution of Child Sexual Abuse Material. When Elon Musk frames the banning of this content as being tantamount to "censorship," the platform has failed basic public standards. This is no longer a debate about free-speech, nor even a question as to where X.com as a platform will draw the line, but rather this is now a question about what limits the Government of Canada has around where it feels appropriate to communicate, and what lines it can and will draw. To continue to use X.com is to subsidize what is essentially Stormfront, with the added horror of non-consensual abuse and CSAM; it's to subsidize the hatred, misogyny, and antagonism towards our country with the good-faith legitimacy our government provides - a legitimacy undeserving of both Elon Musk and X.com. We must do better, and that must begin with drawing a line and implementing a total and irrevocable ban of X.com in order to protect our citizens and our country.

The letter above was sent to the following federal, provincial, and municipal representatives for my respective riding:

Mark Carney – Prime Minister of Canada, Leader of Liberal Party Canada
Evan Solomon – Liberal Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation
Marc Miller – Liberal Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture
Ahmed Hussen – Liberal MP, York South—Weston—Etobicoke, Ontario
Doug Ford – Premier of Ontario, Leader of Progressive Conservative Party Ontario
Mohamed Firin – Progressive Conservative MPP, York South-Weston
Olivia Chow – Toronto City Mayor
Frances Nunziata – Toronto City Councillor, York South-Weston

If you agree with what I've written, I'd strongly encourage you to reach out to your municipal, provincial, and federal representatives. And if you'd like/need, you have my express and explicit permission to copy my letter wholesale.

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