False witness Huge rise in fake political content media on social as election nears

More than a quarter of Canadians have been exposed to fake political content on social media that is "more sophisticated and more politically polarising", researchers have found, warning that platforms must increase protections amid a "dramatic acceleration" of online disinformation in the final weeks of the federal election campaign.

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In a new report released last Friday, Canada's Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO) found a growing number of Facebook ads impersonating legitimate news sources were instead promoting fraudulent investment schemes, often involving cryptocurrency.

Canada's federal election 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 the Online News Act that forced intermediaries such as Meta and Google's parent company Alphabet to compensate journalism outlets for sharing their content. Meta described the legislation, Bill C-18, as "unworkable" and argued that the only way to comply with the law is to "end news availability for people in Canada". But media researchers found more than half of Canadians still say they get political news from Facebook, despite the platform's ban on news articles from reputable outlets.