The former mayor of Surrey, B.C., is calling for a federal investigation into what he describes as “foreign interference” in British Columbia’s upcoming municipal elections, providing a scattering of screen grabs to support those claims. Doug McCallum and his Safe Surrey Coalition say a “network” of Facebook pages is attempting to influence municipal voters before the October elections in Surrey, Vancouver and Delta. “This is foreign interference in a Canadian election,” said McCallum, who plans to run for mayor of Surrey again this fall. “Not influence. Not marketing. Interference.” The coalition accused at least six Facebook pages of posing as local B.C. news sites while their operators are actually overseas. “This is not a Canadian operation,” the coalition said. “The people running it are in India. The money paying for it is in rupees.” The group alleges that advertising records from Meta, the owner of Facebook, identify the payer and beneficiary of the pages as a computer research organization linked to the Indian government. McCallum wasn’t available to speak to journalists about his claims on Tuesday, instead sending sitting councillor, Doug Elford in his place. CTV News pointed out the pages in question featured mostly brief summaries of local issues or unsourced news, amounting to AI-generated slop, asking how reputable the pages are to social media users. “That’s a good question,” said Elford. “It influences people no matter what. People aren’t as smart as you and can’t identify the slop, and they just are influenced by what they see.” ‘It is being used now’ When Meta blocked Canadian news content on Facebook and Instagram in August 2023, it opened the floodgates to a wave of community pages that frequently repurpose or aggregate reporting from legitimate news organizations, without linking to or crediting the original sources. The coalition alleges the pages are part of a sustained, well-resourced campaign to influence the upcoming elections, citing daily posts, custom graphics, branded videos and co-ordinated messaging across the sites. “You do not spend years building a false Surrey audience by accident,” McCallum said. “It was built to be used. It is being used now.” Experts agree that there are many social media accounts trying to grow followings, both domestically and internationally, but point out that the motivations can vary. “Foreign interference can happen for political reasons, but can also happen for economic ones as well,” said Heidi Tworek, UBC Professor and director for the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions. She added that AI-generated content like that featured on the Facebook pages in general can be a mix of misinformation and accurate information, meaning “it’s an extra burden for (social media users) to have to try and wade through and figure out, what is legitimate journalism, what is not.” ‘A growing concern’ In response to questions about the allegations, Elections BC said it reviewed the pages flagged by the coalition and found no violations of the province’s election advertising rules. Those rules apply to paid communications, including boosted Facebook posts, during the official campaign period from Sept. 19 to Oct. 17 and the pre-campaign period from July 20 to Sept. 18. “While some of the identified Facebook pages have paid for boosted posts in the past, these appear to have been paid for outside the pre-campaign period and therefore do not meet the definition of election advertising,” said Elections BC spokesperson Danielle Johnson. She said the agency, which independently administers and regulates elections in the province, also found no foreign interference threats during the 2024 provincial election that required a response from authorities, including CSIS and the RCMP. “While we have not seen evidence of widespread foreign interference in B.C. elections, Elections BC recognizes this is a growing concern at all levels of elections in Canada,” she added. The RCMP says it only became aware of the Safe Surrey Coalition’s allegations through media reports, adding that such allegations of criminal activity should be reported to law enforcement directly, “and not through media statements or news releases.” “The RCMP does not comment on operational matters, including whether a complaint has been received or whether an investigation may or may not be contemplated,” the agency said in an emailed statement.
