Social Media And Old Laws Collide

By Ken Arp

When we talk about Social Media rules we are normally referring to the proper rules of how to behave, but sometimes Social Media rules can actually get into legal implications. That’s the case for the upcoming election in Canada May 2nd, 2011. Elections Canada has actually come out and said that they’ll be enforcing a section of the 73 year old Canadian Elections Act that forbids anyone from leaking results of the election before the polls close. The penalty for this crime is up to 5 years in jail and a $25,000 fine.

On election night in Canada the polls close at the same time in each time zone meaning results come in from the east coast to the west coast hour by hour for each time zone. This means the results for Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes are known hours before the polls are closed in British Columbia. What this means is that people in the eastern half of Canada can be tweeting the results and anyone interested in the west can find out what has happened before they vote themselves.

Social Media has had a huge political year playing a vital part in the uprisings in the middle east, what effect could Social Media have on the Canadian election? Is it possible that people will hold off on voting out west until they know what the results in the east are? If someone is 100% against the PC’s for example they may wait to see if the Liberals or NDP have the best chance to beat them and vote that way. In my opinion all Canadian voters should be casting their vote based on the same information, nobody should have additional information about partial results to influence them. That said, Social Media is not going anywhere and to try and police or censor it is not only wrong but I think will be impossible. There has already been as outcry from the twitterati that plans to protest Elections Canada and defiantly tweet results using hashtags #Tweettheresults and #elxn41.