Mainstream Media Pushes Anti-Social Media Petition Hard

Following a devastating study that counters the social media narrative, mainstream media is heavily promoting that questionable petition.

Well, it seems that the biased mainstream media is at it once again. Once again, the bias is showing in a pretty obvious way. The other day, I found out about a “petition” pushing age verification laws here in Canada. I looked into it because, you know, that’s what a real journalist would do. As it turned out, contrary to the initial reporting, this “petition” was far from the grass roots citizen led initiative that the Canadian Press made it out to be. Instead, it was heavily pushed by venture capitalists and unknown AI company executives. The revelations really showcased at least some of the players pushing these age verification laws hard: people who are probably trying to profit off of mass government internet censorship.

Of course, the timing of this is interesting because shortly after this petition cropped up, a Pew Research study came out that completely destroyed the narrative that social media is inherently harmful. If found that younger people report social media making their lives worse at around 2%-3% of the time. The research compounded the findings of past studies that have made similar conclusions. Now, I did a couple of searches through the mainstream media to see how much coverage the study got. Wouldn’t you know it? I literally found only the Pew Research posting. No other mainstream media outlet covered it. Isn’t that convenient? A study that contradicts the social media moral panic mysteriously has every news room just too busy to cover it. You know, a lot of stuff was happening that day and no one was able to cover it for various mysterious reasons.

Now, contrast that to the petition that really resembles an AstroTurf campaign pushing age verification because social media is this plague being pushed onto society and completely compliments the mainstream media narrative. Wouldn’t you know it? Suddenly, the media outlets are falling over each other to cover it. Numerous mainstream media outlets are putting this story on propaganda full blast. Here’s Global News:

A group of parents working in the tech industry are launching a national petition aimed at convincing the federal government to restrict social media use for those under the age of 16.

The grassroots movement, called “Age Standard,” is also calling for legislation to enforce the restrictions using age-estimation technology operated by independent third parties.

Jean-Sebastien Giroux, a founder of the movement and petition, told Global that social media is not healthy for children — and all adults know that now.

“All teachers say it, all doctors say it, all parents know it — social media is not a platform made for kids. It’s not good for their development,” he said.

Yup, totally grass roots and nothing to do with potential profiteers. Just ordinary parents and if Global News says it is, contrary to the evidence we unearthed, then it MUST be true!

In fact, not only did Global News run an online story, but they even had time to shoot video on top of it all.

Of course, it isn’t just Global News pushing this propaganda. CTV is also pushing this petition hard as well, also trying to dress it up as some petition pushed by normal every day parents (and please ignore the investment firm ties while you are at it!) From CTV News:

Giroux, along with six other parents from the tech and venture capital industries, is proposing that a ban be enforced “using age-estimation technology operated by independent third parties, based on a model already in place in several jurisdictions, including Australia.”

The parents point out that Canada should follow in Australia’s footsteps, which passed its social media ban on Dec. 10, 2025, for children under the age of 16.

The law forced social media companies to remove up to 4.7 million accounts.

See? Australia did it, so it MUST be a good idea! I mean, nevermind that the Australian social experiment with age verification has been complete disaster. Just ignore all of that! I mean, who are you going to believe? My honest opinion or your lying eyes??? Much like Global News, CTV also had video produced as well. You know, because unlike that study that contradicted the narratives, mainstream media magically has time for this.

CityNews also piled on, pushing this as a “citizen-led movement”. From City News:

A Quebec-based group is calling on Ottawa to ban social media use for children under 16, launching a petition that’s quickly gaining political attention.

The citizen-led movement, Age Standard, wants the federal government to pass legislation preventing minors from creating social media accounts, along with enforcement measures to ensure platforms comply.

The group is also urging the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to oversee the rules, arguing companies themselves should not be responsible for enforcement.

So, it seems that the mainstream media propaganda machine is already kicking into overdrive to heavily push this petition.

Now, it is extremely obvious what the mainstream media is trying to do here. They are trying to manufacture public consent so they can say that mass government internet censorship and surveillance is what the people want. This while pushing a laundry list of lies to convince people that this is a good idea. As of this writing, the petition has just under 13,000 signatures which is, considering how heavily promoted this nasty thing is, a pretty low number. While I can only hope that number stays nice and low, I don’t think the number will even matter. Whatever number pops up in the end will be sold as a very high number and picture proof that censorship is what the people of Canada wanted.

So, what to make of all of this? Well, it seems that any research that contradicts the mainstream media narrative of how social media is inherently harmful gets precisely zero coverage, but anything that moves the narrative forward will get all of the coverage in the world. You would think that a study that shows that social media is not inherently harmful would get coverage because it is a matter of public interest, but nope. The people don’t need to know that, so let’s just sweep that little doozy under the rug. Don’t you dare call the mainstream media biased, though, that would be really really mean.

Drew Wilson on Mastodon, Bluesky and Facebook.