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Once upon a time, the Silicon Valley tech giants promoted free speech. Come one, come all, and embrace the First Amendment.

Alas, since attaining critical mass, these tech firms have devolved into censorious thugs. Thus, should you post a contrarian opinion regarding the government-approved narrative on Covid-19 or voter fraud in the last U.S. election or if you — gasp! — “misgender” a transgender, well, you will very likely face immediate suspension or even expulsion from the likes of Facebook and Instagram.

Non-approved opinions are deemed to be a so-called “violation of community guidelines.”

But get this: if a conman hacks into your Facebook or Instagram account, this apparently is NOT a breach of “community guidelines.”

Huh?

Indeed, it appears that hundreds, if not thousands of Canadian professionals (and likely others) have had their Facebook and Instagram accounts hacked. The hackers are impersonating the actual account holders and they are carrying nefarious activity that ranges from fraud to blackmail.

But get this: Meta Canada, which runs the Canadian subsidiaries of Facebook and Instagram, doesn’t give a rodent’s rectum. Apparently, Meta cares only about thought crimes, not real crimes.

And how Orwellian is that?

We recently interviewed two Toronto-area professionals who had their Facebook and Instagram accounts hacked. They were victimized by the hackers carrying out fraud and then they were re-victimized by Meta Canada in terms of the company not doing anything tangible to stop the criminal activity.

We reached out several times to Meta Canada spokeswoman Marlee Socket She/Her, but Socket She/Her declined to comment. She did, however, recently state this profound observation on Twitter: “My boyfriend gave his friend a bottle of room spray as a gift and the friend put it on his wrists like cologne. Confused men can be so wholesome (sometimes).”

Spectacular.

Bottom line: as far as Meta Canada is concerned, if you’re hacked, that’s your problem given that when it comes to data breaches, this dog doesn’t hunt.

Apparently, there are no “community guidelines” when it comes to bad guys carrying out real crimes as opposed to ordinary citizens carrying out so-called “wrong-speak.” It’s a disgrace. And while Meta can ignore pleas from its users and queries from journalists, it cannot ignore a lawsuit. Maybe that’s what’s needed to actually convince this belligerent tech giant to conduct itself appropriately.