It's like Black Mirror' Canadians exposed to fake political posts before election

Canadians exposed to fake political posts before election

- Leyland Cecco

More than a quarter of Canadians have been exposed to fake political content on social media in the run-up to the country's federal election, researchers have found. They warned that platforms must increase protections amid a "dramatic acceleration" of online disinformation that has become "more sophisticated and more politically polarising".

In a report released yesterday, the Media Ecosystem Observatory said a growing number of Facebook adverts impersonating legitimate news sources were promoting fraudulent investment schemes, often involving cryptocurrency.

Canada's election, on 28 April, is the first national vote in which Canadian news is not permitted to be shared on products owned by Meta, including Facebook and Instagram.

The ban, which began in August 2023, is a result of a standoff between the tech giant and Ottawa over legislation that forced companies such as Meta and Google's owner, Alphabet, to compensate journalism outlets for sharing their content.

Meta described the legislation as "unworkable" and argued that the only way to comply with the law was to "end news availability for people in Canada". Researchers found that more than half of Canadians still said they got political news from Facebook, despite the platform's ban on news articles from reputable outlets.

Aengus Bridgman, executive director of the media observatory, said: "People using Facebook aren't often thinking 'Am I reading the news?' But they leave feeling more informed politically, either from comments from friends or family, about the election.

"They might see a post from a candidate or follow cultural news aggregating types of accounts.