Attack on Trump sparked wave of misinformation: U of A professor

Tim Caulfield - Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy Tim Caulfield discusses the spread of misinformation

University of Alberta professor Tim Caulfield joins Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins to discuss the social media response following the recent shooting at a rally for former President Donald Trump.

Michael Higgins: US President Joe Biden in a national address calling for calm and civility in the wake of the weekend assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, an attack that left a bystander dead and two others critically injured. It also spawned a flood of conjecture and conspiracy theories.

Social media was awash with speculation and outrageous claims within minutes of the attack. What does the immediacy of that response speak to?

Tim Caulfield: It's incredible. It really was absolutely immediate and it was instantaneously polarized. So first of all, of course social media is playing a huge role here.

There's been some analysis that suggests as much as 45 per cent of the content was created by bots, which really gives you a sense of the degree to which our social media machine helps to create the public discourse.

I've heard that it was staged, I've heard that it was a hit by Ukraine, I've heard of course that Biden ordered it, I've heard that it was revenge because Trump broke up pedophile cabals.

I've really heard absolutely everything and I think it speaks to our polarized environment right now.

Yes, whenever something uncertain and scary happens we know that creates fertile ground for conspiracy theories but here we see it happening absolutely instantaneously. And it also is immediately having an impact on political discourse.

Michael Higgins: And it really does speak to the polarized environment but surprised though that there would be elements from the left as well as elements from the right?

Tim Caulfield: That's right and I think it's really important to use this as an opportunity to reflect on the reality that misinformation, conspiracy theories, can come from across the political spectrum.

We have to guard against it from across the political spectrum.

And you're right, it's been called a BlueAnon, you know, playing on the word QAnon.

A lot of the idea that it's staged is coming from the far left and the bots are picking up on that and amplifying it in the hopes of further polarizing our societies.

So yes, it's a good reminder that this can happen across the political spectrum.

Michael Higgins: And fertile territory as well for grifters? Those looking to exploit people financially?

Tim Caulfield: That's right and I think that everyone needs to remember that there is going to be a lot of misinformation out there on this topic. That's just the reality of our time.

Whenever a big event happens, whenever there is something scary, something that really speaks to our values, the grifters are going to come in, the misinformation is going to happen.

So just recognize that upfront and that's one step we can all take to fight misinformation.

The other thing you want to do is you just want to pause, you want to take a beat, you want to have some patience to let the truth percolate to the surface.

Michael Higgins: It actually looked like you pulled back from social media for a time in the wake of the attack.

Tim Caulfield: It's interesting that you notice that, I did.

I decided I was going to take, you know, a pause.

Obviously this is a topic, misinformation and conspiracy theories, that I research but despite that I thought it was important to take a pause just to get a sense of what has happened.

And also you don't want to inadvertently contribute to the hyperbole to the polarization.

So again, I think it's important to take a beat when these big events happen to get a sense of what the facts on the ground actually are.

Michael Higgins: So what degree of weight then hangs over social media platforms in the wake of something like this?

Tim Caulfield: I think it's huge. There's absolutely no doubt that the discourse that we're all having, even if you're not on social media, are shaped by what's happening on social media now and we need to recognize that.

Of course I wish that there was better content on some of these platforms.

We research these platforms all the time and it's just getting worse and worse.

It's getting more and more angry. And in part that's because extreme positions, whether on the left or on the right, are rewarded by clicks, by eyeballs, by traffic, by retweets.

And so we need to somehow as a society figure out how we can push back against that noise.

Michael Higgins: OK pushing back the noise. How do you see this then playing into political discourse on the Canadian side of the border where, as we all know, we have our own increasingly polarized environment?

Tim Caulfield: We really do and I hope that we do turn down the temperature on the rhetoric and I hope that our discussions are more informed by evidence and good science and less from hate and rage.

And yes, it does happen across the political spectrum.

The research tells us, and there's a large body of research on this, in this political moment, in this current climate, it has largely come from the right but not entirely.

So let's use this as an opportunity to reflect on how we're communicating about these important topics because we want our democracies to be informed by evidence, by science, and by careful, rational argumentation.

Michael Higgins: And is that us as individuals or should we be looking for something from political leadership here at home?

Tim Caulfield: Call me naive, but I would like to see it from our political leadership especially.

Am I optimistic? No, I'm not but we can all we can all be part of this solution by making sure that when we do share stuff on social media it's accurate, it doesn't encourage hate and rage and polarization.

That can be tough. I have to remind myself to do that.

A lot of these topics they do speak to our values they speak to our concerns about our society. It can be tough to do that, but you know, take a beat and embrace accuracy.