Québec solidaire considers leaving Twitter

Québec solidaire (QS) is not ruling out quitting Twitter one day.

The parliamentary leader of the party, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, says he is worried about the trend the social network is taking since its takeover by businessman Elon Musk.

Nadeau-Dubois says he is also concerned about the attitude of federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

“I find it worrying for democracy in Quebec and Canada to see a party leader seek the intervention of a foreign billionaire to discredit a local media,” he said at a press briefing on Tuesday.

On Sunday, Poilievre welcomed Musk’s decision to tag CBC’s Twitter account as “government-funded media.” It was a request from the Conservative leader.

“Twitter’s policy defines government-funded media as media where the government ‘may intervene to varying degrees in editorial content,’ which is clearly not the case for CBC/Radio-Canada,” stated the public broadcaster on its Twitter account.

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Quebec Premier François Legault remained cautious on the subject.

“I don’t think you can compare Russian or Chinese media with Canadian media like Radio-Canada,” he said.

Legault has not yet met the federal Conservative leader but assures he will do so eventually.

For his part, the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, thinks that Poilievre’s remarks are unfair to the CBC. In the same breath, however, he says questions arise about the media treatment of the CBC and Radio-Canada.

“On subjects such as immigration, secularism, places of prayer, multiculturalism, federalism, is it normal for a public broadcaster to take a point of view and give it a lot of space and give little space to other points of view?” questioned St-Pierre Plamondon.

Liberal Leader Marc Tanguay has condemned the federal Conservative leader’s campaign against the CBC.

“It’s completely unacceptable… It’s important, the media, it’s our democracy,” he said.

The PQ and the PLQ do not plan to leave Twitter.

—This report by La Presse Canadienne was published in French and translated by CityNews.