Censoring of #tweettheresults on Twitter?

Kind of surpirsed there is no thread on this yet.

Until a few minutes ago, this site was home to a conversation about the role of social media in Canadian elections. It was set up to aggregate the tweets (messages posted to Twitter) that include the hashtag #tweettheresults. That's how people across Canada and around the world have been tagging their reflections on Section 329 of Canada's Elections Act, which severely restricts the transmission of voting results until all polling stations have closed. We hoped that this site would provoke a conversation about Section 329, and raise the profile of the issue across Canada. We think it's done that, both on the social web and in the mainstream media.

But that conversation became illegal at 7 pm EST this evening. Rather than face a potential fine or protracted legal battle, we have taken this site offline for 3 hours. When free speech returns to Canada at 10 pm EST, the site will be back online and you will be able to read all the tweets that have accumulated in the interim.

If you tweet about this situation, please use the hashtag #tweettheresults so it will appear here.

To follow the conversation while this Canadian site is offline, you can still view all the latest tweets by searching for #tweettheresults on Twitter.

We never imagined a day when Canadians would have to use a foreign website to participate in a conversation about our own country. We never imagined that we, Canadian citizens, would potentially face legal penalties for our role in supporting an online conversation. We hope that all Canadians who have exercised their voice at the polls today will reclaim those voices online by asking the next government to bring our Elections Act into the 21st century.

tweettheresults.ca...

search.twitter.com...

It doesn't seem right. If youu look at the article it has an example of one of the censored tweets.

Here's a cbc article on it:
www.cbc.ca...

If youu look at the article it has an example of one of the censored tweets.

reply to post by dug88


Yeah, I'm confused. They're saying it's just a hoax (I believe so too), and yet there do appear to be NO real results bi posted by twitter that ive found.

Section 329 of the Elections Act prohibits the transmission of election results to areas where the polls are still open. Accordingly, results couldn't be published until polls closed in B.C. and Yukon at 10 p.m. ET. The #tweettheresults hashtag hit Twitter's list of international trending topics Monday evening.

Shortly after the polls closed in Newfoundland and Labrador, a satirical tweet with election results seemingly redacted caused some confusion.

"Conservatives ███ █████ in ███ ridings," the tweet said. "Liberals ███ █████. NDP █████ ██ ███ ███ seats!"

When the voting is done in Quebec and Ontario, if people from the west coast know who is in, before they've voted, they may give up voting.

If people in the west were to not go in and vote, knowing that, the opposition parties might not get a proper chance at who might get into the opposition.

Or possibly, if it's known who won, 3 or 4 hours before the west has finished voting, it could influence some people in the way they vote.

I checked at 7:00 on the TV, conservatives had 38%, meaning they've won, at least a minority..
Right now conservatives have 44%, NDP second - but not sure what percentage. NDP has taken Quebec
It's looking like conservatives might have a majority.....

For some reason our paper ballot voting up here gives us the results within hours, and the computerized voting in the US always seems to always take way longer to know the results.


Updated results
Harper has a majority, NDP in opposition.

Originally posted by snowspirit
NDP has taken Quebec

Wow, indeed. I was wondering about that.

It's looking like conservatives might have a majority.....

Wow again. I'm still not betting on it, tho.

For some reason our paper ballot voting up here gives us the results within hours, and the computerized voting in the US always seems to always take way longer to know the results.

Might have something to do with matters of scale. 330 million vs 30 million.

reply to post by incrediblelousminds


I wrote Elections Canada but who knows if they'll reply even though I asked them to. What gets me is that if you Google: Canada Election Results 2011

You get TONS of results telling of what the counts are so far! The National Post, The CBC and my Fav: CTV is posting that

Canadians have handed Prime Minister Stephen Harper his first-ever majority government, in a historic result that also saw the mighty Liberals decimated and the separatist movement in Quebec all but obliterated ...

And what is upholding this 70 year-old law going to get? MSM will have to pay a meager 25 grand becuse they posted results anyway!

I on the other hand do not have 25 grand to pay a fine, so I suggest you "Google" for yourselves. But I've got to say that this double standard just PEEVES me off!

-End of Rant-

NDP in opposition. Layton is going to drive Harper nutz
That part is good.
With Harper getting a majority, he'll need someone in his face all the time.
He gets a little bit dictatorial (is that a word?)

reply to post by snowspirit


I'm still not buying the majority claims just yet. We'll see in a minute, though

I tend to think it might be for the better, in the long run, though. IF the Cons get a majority, they will be held accountable in the NEXT election, and maybe you can have a change of leadership finally.

Not that I have any faith in the NDP or Liberals (Bleggh) in being any less puppets.

reply to post by Invariance


I tried at 6:30, my time (SK) and I couldn't get anything. Not even on google, everything just said election results soon.

After 7:00 BC time, everything opened up. Before that, even my satelite TV was blocked of all the eastern TV stations from Canada.

Once the whole country has voted, which was an hour ago now, anyone can tweet or talk, from what I understood.

Originally posted by Invariance

And what is upholding this 70 year-old law going to get? MSM will have to pay a meager 25 grand becuse they posted results anyway!

I on the other hand do not have 25 grand to pay a fine, so I suggest you "Google" for yourselves. But I've got to say that this double standard just PEEVES me off!

That's kind of a fascinating twist, really. Big corporate stations can afford to violate the ban, marginalizing the common tweeter/blogger.

I suspect the law will be repealed before the next election, or at least altered.

specifically a section that mandates that nobody prematurely announce or send messages about the election results until all the polls are closed.

mashable.com...

Only until the polls close, 7:00 BC time.

The polls close at 7 in BC? Odd, polls closed at 9:30pm in Ontario...

reply to post by Invariance


That's weird, they closed at 7:00 here in SK also. 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. I thought it was the same across the country.

I wonder why so late out there? I wonder if it's because the population is bigger in ON? Plus it's in the east, so that side of the country is earlier..?