Friday 3 September 2010

Avaaz Sabotaged

Well, isn't it classy?
Yesterday Avaaz experienced an attack on our “Stop ‘Fox News North’” petition consisting of fraudulent sign-ups of targeted individuals.

And dig this (bold mine):
It's deeply disturbing that in all Avaaz's years of campaigns against US President George Bush, Burmese, Zimbabwean and Sudanese dictators, irresponsible multinational corporations and corrupt politicians, no one has ever yet stooped to this kind of tactic to undermine our members' right to express their views.

Go here to see what sort of dictators and war criminals they have taken on in the past. And Fox News North supporters are the first to stoop to sabotage. Isn't that special?

Sounds like Avaaz is some pissed:
We do not yet have all the facts, but it appears to speak to the poisonous political climate and deeply deceptive tactics that have been bred by the radical right in Canada and its progenitor in the US. It is precisely this kind of bare-knuckled, brazenly deceptive and often hateful political climate that Sun TV's "Fox News North" appears keen to promote.

Canadians understand this, which is why, in just over 36 hours, well over 50,000 Canadians have signed our petition against Stephen Harper's attack on the independence of the CRTC as it resists the Sun TV request for access to Canadian’s cable fees.

Go sign the petition if you haven't yet. When I looked a few minutes ago, the number was closing in on 58,000.

And, of course, KKKory Teneycke's hissy fit will just help the numbers. I'm not linking to it; you can find it if you must.

Here's some background on Avaaz.
Avaaz.org was co-founded by Res Publica, a global civic advocacy group and non-profit organization, and MoveOn, an American non-profit progressive public policy advocacy group and political action committee. The organization is also supported by Service Employees International Union, a founding partner, and GetUp.org.au. Avaaz's individual co-founders include Executive Director Ricken Patel, Virginia congressman Tom Perriello, Australian progressive entrepreneur David Madden, Jeremy Heimans, Andrea Woodhouse, Tom Pravda, and MoveOn Executive Director Eli Pariser.

12 comments:

JJ said...

I'm not quite sure what they mean by 'fraudulent sign-ups of targeted individuals'. Is that like when someone writes in "Heywood Jablome" or "Adolph Hitler"? I have to admit I am guilty of doing that to right-wing petitions myself *blush*

fern hill said...

I think what they mean, JJ, is that real names of people were used by others. I expect more to come out though.

I usually sign petitions with my nom-de-blog, but I do it only once.

fern hill said...

More info on how it was done. From the CRUSH wall:
'From TWITTER - Stephen Maher: Just learned that someone, likely @KoryTeneycke's secretary, added me to anti-SunTV petition.I don't vote, much less sign petitions. (Stephen Maher is a Canadian reporter. Kady is trying to find the actual person who compromised the Avvaz petition).'

Beijing York said...

I think it was Teneycke who cited such individuals as Homer Simpson, a character from The Office, and someone connected to Star Wars, on Twitter. Framed it in his oh so clever way, that Margaret Atwood was not the only celebrity signing the petition.

Alison said...

Loved this from Pogge :

"Kady O'Malley followed up and then tweeted just a few minutes ago :.

alright, just chatted with @KoryTeneycke , who was sent those names by an unnamed source who had added them him/herself

So someone intentionally messed with the poll and then contacted Teneycke to report that someone was messing with the poll. Some anonymous person told Teneycke something that he can't otherwise verify and he reported it in a national newspaper without qualification.

Hard news and straight talk. I think it's going well so far, don't you? "

Skinny Dipper said...

I was kind enough to leave the Avaaz address in the comment section under KKKory's CRAPentary in the Toronto Sun.

Anonymous said...

Hey Guys;

In a Democracy, do we not have the right to say, write/post what we want. (AS long as It's not hate)
If you don't want to watch or listen to, then don't. But don't stop them that's anti-democratic.

fern hill said...

Hey, Anonymous, you clearly do not understand the issue. The PMO is pressuring the CRTC to give FNN a type of license it does not qualify for. This license would include FNN on standard cable, meaning no choice for cable subscribers and all subscribers would have to underwrite it.

So, two issues, neither of them free speech. One, political interference and forcing people to pay for something they don't want.

I have no problem with FNN setting up and trying to find an audience. It cannot game the system with the help of the PMO.

Got it?

Christ, I'm getting sick of the wingnuts SHRIEEEEKING 'but but but ---- FREE SPEECH!'.

FREE SPEECH IS NOT THE ISSUE.

(Does typing in loony rightard caps help, do you think?)

Orwell's Bastard said...

Censorship? They keep using that word. I do not think it means what they think it means.

Alison said...

The Canadian ultra right-wing seems to really like to mess with polls and Wikipedia entries when they doesn't like what they see. However, the dingbats also don't seem to realize that their sabotage efforts can and will be traced.

FFIB said...

After 8 years of Bush and 4 years of Harper, I feel like I'm suffering through a bad movie, sequel, Animal House II, with all these elite frat boy tricks. I blame it on the introduction of MBAs in the late eighties as an excuse from actually working and then allowing polisci students to also major in marketing,

deBeauxOs said...

Kady O'Malley follows the psycho squirrel's trail, and attempts to pull out from the brambles what the *real* connection to KKKory T hisself might be.

Post a Comment