EDMONTON -- As Canadians prepare to head to the polls for the second time since 2019, experts say there is new onus on voters to be cautious around divisive online campaigns that aim to sway opinion or cast doubt on the electoral process.
Canadians are no strangers to these types of disinformation campaigns – the kinds that claimed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wanted to implement Sharia law in Canada or purported that non-citizens were receiving voter cards in the mail during the last campaign.
But a lot has changed since 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a new era of disinformation, one that experts say has fuelled the growth of online communities devoted to using conspiracy theories and deceptive information to bolster political and social movements.
“In this last year and a half there's really been a birth of a conspiracy movement,” Ciarán O'Connor, a research and investigation expert at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, focused on technology an extremism, told CTVNews.ca by phone in August.
“This also takes from the QAnon conspiracy started in the U.S., which in itself is kind of a methodology for how to create, seed and grow your own conspiracy theory and the tools to ‘do your own research’ – which in reality actually means just find any form of material that supports your argument, no matter how rooted in reality or not that it is.”
Ahead of the campaign, Canada's Communications Security Establishment updated its report on cyber threats to Canada's democratic process to warn that the pandemic had created “new narratives for threat actors to exploit or undermine the perceived legitimacy of an election or weaken trust in democratic institutions” using social media.
And while many of these groups existed before the pandemic, experts say the uncertainty, skepticism and distrust stemming from COVID-19 has added new fuel to the fire.
Gone are the days where bot farms and foreign interference were considered the biggest threats to the electorate. In the post-COVID world, even social media users with small followings can add to the discourse.
“COVID-19 has shown a lot of people that whether you are right or wrong, you can have your opinions validated online,” O’Connor explained.
“Social media platforms also did as they were designed to do, which is to keep your attention online in these echo chambers where partisan information appeals to your emotions, but also tries to activate or radicalize you politically.”
But this so-called “infodemic” has not only created uncertainty surrounding issues directly related to the pandemic, like the safety of vaccines, for example. It’s bled into the politics.
O’Connor points to the example of Thierry Baudet, leader of the Dutch populist Forum for Democracy (FvD) party, whose rallies routinely defied COVID-19 lockdown rules in the Netherlands during the country’s election campaign in March.
“Baudet really campaigned on COVID as a civil liberties movement, fighting for your freedom, conspiracies and things like that,” O’Connor said. “And we probably all have kind of an example of a similar politician who might have done that in the local context, but his party benefited extremely well... going from two seats to eight seats after a general election."
O’Connor warns that politicians may lean on some kinds of mis- or disinformation to harness the pent-up frustration or anger that many have felt over the last year and a half – something we’ve already seen in Canada.
In November 2020, a video of Trudeau using the phrase “great reset” – taken from his speech to the United Nations in September 2020 – was circulated online as so-called proof of “the great reset,” a conspiracy theory which claims that world leaders had a role in creating or manipulating the COVID-19 pandemic as a way to “reset” world economies and impose their own form of economic control.
The video was later referenced by Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, who launched an online petition to “stop the great reset” that garnered nearly 80,000 signatures in less than a week.
While Poilievre has not alleged that the pandemic was planned, he has repeatedly used the hashtag #stopthegreatreset to criticize Trudeau’s economic handling of the pandemic.
The federal Conservatives have also paid for a Facebook Ad that use the same quote from Trudeau. And while they don’t mention the great reset conspiracy itself, experts say it’s an example of how politicians may use hot-button issues to stir up debate online.
“The political communication tactics that parties and their supporters use are always on the fringe – they’re always pushing the boundaries because that’s what gets attention… it’s also how you build virality online,” Elizabeth Dubois, associate professor in the school of communication at the University of Ottawa, told CTVNews.ca by phone this week.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see more political messages that are skirting the line between what is very clearly factual based information and disinformation or conspiracy theory.
That said, I do think political parties have a reputation to protect and a brand to manage, and I wouldn’t expect the major political parties in Canada to want to be deeply embedded in conspiracy theories because it is the kind of thing that can alienate voters.”
DOES DISINFORMATION REALLY IMPACT THE VOTE?
While there has been evidence to show that COVID-19 disinformation can have a deadly impact when it comes to public health, some say it may not have much of an impact when it comes to casting ballots.
“There are some people who are more politically engaged than others who feel more strongly or more closely tied to a political party… but we know from a huge amount of research and in political science that those persuasion efforts are really, really difficult,” Daniel Rubenson, politics and public administration professor at Ryerson University, told CTVNews.ca by phone earlier this month.
“People’s psychology hasn't changed that much. Technology has changed, but it's still just really hard to change people's opinions in elections.”
What experts are concerned about are attempts to suppress voter turnout using disinformation.
“What we need to do is to make sure that very clear information about how to vote, when to vote and the safest way to vote is very accessible to everyone. You can’t just hope that people don’t glom on to pieces of disinformation, you really have to make sure that there is exceptionally clear accurate information available,” said Dubois.
“In other cases, it may be better to ignore that type of [disinformation] rather that fuel the flames. But when it comes to knowing how to vote and when to vote and how to do that safely, it is essential to our democratic system.”
O'Connor notes that social networks like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube have a responsibility to ensure voters are well informed.
During the 2019 campaign, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter each set up features to link users back to the Elections Canada website for information about where and when to vote. Speaking to CTVNews.ca before the election call, both Facebook and Google said they continue to monitor and reduce the spread of misinformation, including connecting users to credible information from Canadian authorities.
“At Facebook, we know we have an important responsibility when it comes to helping ensure safe, secure, and free elections across our platforms,” a Facebook spokesperson said by email.
“We’ve made significant investments to reduce the spread of misinformation, this includes connecting people to credible information from Canadian authorities in addition to removing misinformation that could prevent people from voting or that could lead to imminent violence or physical harm, such as misinformation about COVID-19.”
A Google spokesperson noted that YouTube rigorously enforces its misinformation policies and COVID-19 medical misinformation policies.
“Should an election be called our teams will work around the clock to ensure our policies and systems are protecting the integrity of our platform and surfacing authoritative election-related information,” read an emailed statement.
Elections Canada notes that it will regularly share information about polling procedures and stations on its official social media channels and “correct the record when necessary.”
“Refer to Elections Canada's repository of multimedia communications and information campaign materials so you can check if something that says it's from Elections Canada really is from us,” reads Elections Canada’s website.
