A Kelowna businessperson says she has been left high and dry after Facebook closed her personal account which she has linked to her business account.
Raechel Allan-Nicholls runs a vehicle detailing business called Big Deal Detailing primarily through her Facebook account, which she says she no longer has admin access to.
“I have no access to my business account, I’ve written letters, I’ve gone through every possible avenue, I can think of trying to get my account back up and running.”
Allan-Nicholls says she’s like a lot of small business owners who rely on Facebook to promote their sales activity.
Despite not hearing anything from Facebook, she believes her activity as an admin for Freedom Convoy 2022 was the reason for her account going dark, although she has no proof.
“I searched for all my (Freedom Convoy 2022) contacts and they’re all gone too. I’m kind of at a loss for words. And, I didn’t do anything wrong in the sense of, you know, they don’t have any justification for shutting my account down.”
Castanet reached out to Facebook for clarification on their protocols for suspending or shutting down accounts but have not had a reply.
According to Facebook’s community standards people can be banned for:
Nudity or other sexually suggestive content.
Hate speech, credible threats or direct attacks on an individual or group.
Content that contains self-harm or excessive violence.
Fake or impostor profiles.
Spam.
Because her personal account is no longer active it’s impossible to tell what Allan-Nicholls posted, commented on or otherwise did to end up in Facebook’s bad books.
In what is perhaps a cautionary tale of relying on a single faceless tech giant to facilitate both political discourse and the livelihoods of entrepreneurs, Allan-Nicholls feels powerless.
She says her Instagram account no longer works. Her saving grace may be that she made someone else the admin of her business account, “if I hadn’t, my account would be completely gone. I mean, it’s gone on Instagram, I no longer have a Big Deal Detailing and that’s how I do all my business.”
Facebook’s community standards page says, “we recognize how important it is for Facebook to be a place where people feel empowered to communicate, and we take seriously our role in keeping abuse off our service.”
Facebook said earlier this week it had taken down several Freedom Convoy groups being operated by overseas scammers trying to drive users off site to generate click revenue. Another convoy page was removed for promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory.
You can learn more about Facebook’s Community Standards by clicking here.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
