Federal government asks Twitter, Meta to remove posts linking to Toronto Sun column

The director of communications for the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada asked Twitter and Meta, the owner of Facebook, to remove social media posts linking to a Toronto Sun column, reported the Canadian Press. 

The Sept. 26, 2021 column, written by Lorne Gunter, referred to a leaked IRB draft document, which, Gunter claimed, described “a massive expansion of the reasons immigrants can be allowed to enter and stay in Canada.”

IRB staff believed that the column included “serious errors of fact risking (and) undermining public confidence in the independence of the board as well as the integrity of the refugee determination system,” according to the Canadian Press. 

The IRB asked the Toronto Sun to correct or retract the column, which the newspaper refused to do, the Toronto Sun reported. The IRB’s director of communications then contacted Twitter and Meta on Sept. 27, 2021, the day after the story was published, and asked that the companies remove posts linking to the article. 

Twitter and Meta refused, reported the Canadian Press.