New media, old nasty politics

The best place to fight an inane Big Government likely is in the inane world of cyberspace where, despite the fondest wishes of federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, one still can roam free.

Then again, cyberspace seems to have been infected with the nastiness of “old politics” that seeks out such unregulated space as a canvas for its dirty work — as this week’s tale of “@ vikileaks30” demonstrates.

The anonymous Twitter account was quickly hailed as the greatest victory in decades for the little guy’s participation in direct democracy, and then as quickly scorned as old-time political sleaze taking over the new media.

For those of you who don’t tweet, what we are talking about is the simultaneously vicious and funny barrage of personal tweets aimed at Toews.

I’m a newcomer to Twitter — @mmandryk — but I’ve already discovered that this 140-character world is crack-cocaine for smart- asses like myself.

The anonymous tweets savage Toews for everything from his spending as an MP to his political pronouncements on public morality to supposed details from his rather messy divorce, outlining every imaginable personal detail.

Of course, were this American politics we might already know every lurid detail of Toews’s dalliances. But this is polite Canada, where such things are forbidden unless it’s done in the House of Commons or other legislative assemblies where politicians are immune from Canada’s strict laws of libel and slander.

Nevertheless, Conservatives in the Commons are so angry that they are now investigating who is behind this particular Twitter account, and righty so.

As we all know by the gun registry debate, there’s nothing more abhorrent to Conservatives than a statesanctioned invasion of one’s privacy, unless of course it’s the governing Conservatives who are spearheading such a breach.

What was purported to have inspired the @ vikileaks30 Twitter account was the Conservative government’s Protecting Children from Internet Predator’s Act, or to be more specific, its rambunc- tious intrusion on privacy.

The law would require Internet providers and cellphone companies to store for 90 days everyone’s private correspondence and conversation, so that the government and police could more easily carry out warrants.

For those of us too dense to quite comprehend the need for such a law, Toews described it in no uncertain terms: “You either stand with us or you stand with the child pornographers.”

Now, as reassuring as it was to see a Canadian politician finally and courageously take on the formidable pro-child-pornography lobby that’s ravaging our great land, those worrywart liberals made the point that the law seemed to be an over-reaching invasion of privacy and ripe for abuse by the state and police.

However, rather than whine to the media, someone decided to take matters in his or her own hands, set up the @vikileaks30 account, and spewed out the embarrassing details of the minister’s life — supposedly to see how much Toews enjoyed having his privacy invaded. The minister ultimately decided to reconsider the harsher and more intrusive elements of the bill.

Of course, supporters of new media hail this as a great victory, one that demonstrates how much more democratic it is. This was somewhat a victory for the Twittersphere, but let’s not be too hasty in heralding the arrival of a brave and better new world.

First, what might have been as big a factor in the Tories’ decision to switch gears was the old media. Even the government’s biggest allies in SUN media and private radio, which normally don’t criticize Stephen Harper’s administration, found the courage to muster their principles to oppose such state control. For this they deserve credit.

The Conservatives have absolutely no allies, and there’s no one to deliver their message.

Finally, a National Post investigation has now traced the Vikileaks IP address to the House of Commons. Designated Conservative attack dog John Baird came right out Friday and accused the Opposition of being behind these dirty tricks. The NDP denied it, but it does seem as if political interests are using Twitter for the same old political games.

More direct democracy would be nice, but it’s hard to discount the idea that this is just old politics being done in a new medium.