Bell Pushes Employees To Back Web Censorship Plan, Memo Shows
A leading Canadian expert on internet law is accusing media giant Bell of “astroturfing” government hearings on the future of the internet by urging its employees to back a web censorship plan.
Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, publicized an internal Bell communique on Tuesday provided to him by a source.
The document urges staff to contact the CRTC in support of an application by political pressure group FairPlay Canada. The proposal would create a mandatory website-blocking system in Canada in an effort to reduce online piracy. Bell is a founding member of FairPlay Canada.
Geist posted the memo to his Twitter account. In a later tweet, he said Bell’s move “meets the classic definition of astroturfing,” the practice of making a corporate or political campaign look like a grassroots movement.