Two months ahead of a referendum on whether Alberta should advance the process to separate from Canada, research shows the debate has become one of the prime targets for foreign influence online. The ongoing study has found the discussion about Alberta separation has gone far beyond Canadian borders -- mainly to Russian and American ‘content farms’ and influencers. “It’s very clear that there is foreign interference,” said Brian McQuinn, who is the co-director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Data, and Conflict at the University of Regina and the CEO of Cipher AI. Using artificial intelligence to scan thousands of websites and social media, the team has focused on the separation debate. Through July and August, researchers found hundreds of websites, headlines, social media content and more generated that “repeated misleading framing.” “Their goal is to have us start to turn on each other, is to no longer see someone who disagrees with you as someone who has a different opinion, who still cares about the country, but is actually an enemy of the country,” McQuinn said. More covert McQuinn says Russian-based attempts to influence the debate have been more covert through misleading headlines, articles and false narratives. Russian-linked participants made up the vast majority of influence attempts, the data shows. American-based influences have been more overt, through influencers or politicians making comments publicly. “Some people pretend to be part of grassroots movements and they try to promote certain issues, but in reality they actually belong either to a nation state or some groups that have some kind of vested interest in creating divisions,” said Ahmed Al-Rawi, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University. “I think Albertans and Canadians in general need to be aware of, as well as concerned about, some of the disinformation targeting Canadians,” Al-Rawi added. Among those sharing concern is the Alberta Premier. In an interview with OMNI TV, Danielle Smith said she had been briefed by both CSIS and the RCMP about the issue. “What we’re seeing right now is that there’s nothing out there that has elevated to a level of criminal involvement in our process, but we are seeing influence campaigns,” the premier said. “There is a group called Cipher that is an electronic monitoring entity that is seeing that there is various shares of information online that appear to be amplified by different bot farms that may have a link to Russia, which is something that does leave us concerned.” Premier Smith said Albertans need to be vigilant in verifying information they see online “to make sure that they’re not sharing things and inadvertently amplifying a message that is being used to try to interfere in our contest.” The referendum is set for October 19. With files from CTV Edmonton
