by Timothy Edward, Local Journalism Initiative report
In her final report as part of the foreign interference inquiry, Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue presented Canadians with a stark warning about the threat to our democracy posed by disinformation and misinformation on social media. While she concluded that attempts by foreign governments to curry favour with parliamentarians and interfere directly in Canadian federal elections has largely been ineffective — she saw no direct evidence of “traitors in Parliament” — her findings pointed to a much larger and more insidious problem.
Her report reads:
“Disinformation is difficult to detect and, above all, to counter since the technological means available evolve at breakneck speed. It’s noxious, it’s powerful, it poses a major risk to Canadian democracy. If we don’t find ways of addressing it, misinformation and disinformation have the ability to distort our discourse, change our views and shape our society.
“In my view, it is no exaggeration to say that, at this juncture, information manipulation — whether foreign or not — poses the single biggest risk to our democracy. It’s an existential threat.”
Hogue continued on the same topic in her televised statement presenting her report on Tuesday:
“The impact of traditional methods (of foreign and election interference) should not be under-estimated, but the greatest threat, the one that I believe threatens the very existence of our democracy, is disinformation.
“This threat is all the more nefarious because the means available to counter it are limited and very difficult to implement on social media. Distinguishing what is true from what is false is becoming increasingly difficult and the consequences are, in my view, extremely high.
“Nevertheless, we must not give up but rather attack it forcefully, all together. This cannot be the sole purview of government.”
Prior to last year’s U.S. presidential election, Elon Musk and X were found to be the epicentre of election-related misinformation, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate. This week, it was reported that Russian-backed sponsored posts about Canadian politicians, mimicking CBC news stories, have been proliferating on X.
