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Canada target of Russian disinformation, with tweets linked to foreign powers

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2 years ago

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OTTAWA — An analysis of over six million tweets and retweets — and where they originate from — has found that Canada is being targeted by Russia to influence public opinion here.

The study by the University of Calgary’s School of Public Policy found that huge numbers of tweets and retweets about the war in Ukraine can be traced back to Russia and China, with even more tweets expressing pro-Russian sentiment traced to the United States.

Assistant professor Jean-Christophe Boucher said in an interview that the Russian “state apparatus” is associated with many accounts tweeting in Canada, and is influencing posts that are retweeted, liked or repeated by different accounts again and again.

The tweets commonly express pro-Russian talking points, including that Ukraine is a fascist state or that NATO wants to expand, posing a threat to Russia.

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The team of experts at the University of Calgary analyzed 6.2 million tweets from around the world and applied algorithms to trace their origins.

It profiled accounts tweeting and retweeting remarks including key terms associated with the war in Ukraine. A location filter was applied narrowing it down to tweets associated with Canadian Twitter profiles.

The team then established connections between accounts and mapped out online conversations about the war.

Algorithms identified clusters and main influencers in Canada and abroad who were promoting pro-Russian narratives.

It found in “the Canadian Twitter ecosystem” discussing the war, around 25 per cent of the accounts were spreading pro-Russian talking points.

Boucher warned that some accounts were “Trojan horses,” with some Canadians unaware the pro-Putin narratives trace their origins back to Russia, China or right-wing influencers in the U.S.

The analysis of the content of the tweets found similar pro-Russian views expressed among right-wing figures and their supporters in the U.S. and Canada, he said.

He said supporters of the “Freedom Convoy” and anti-vaccine movement, some of whom may not realize they have been digesting messaging originating from Russia, were also tweeting messages in support of the invasion of Ukraine.

A lot of the tweets in pro-Russian social media conversations also express mistrust of institutions and “a specific mistrust of Canada’s Liberal government, and especially of Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau,” the report found.

Boucher said “foreign interference in the Canadian information space” is now so pervasive it is sowing distrust in Canada’s democratic institutions, including the federal government and mainstream media.

“Social media has more and more been able to shape people’s view. It weakens our democratic resiliency,” he said. “It creates dissent and erodes trust in institutions.”

He said though foreign bots were being used to spread misinformation on social media, their role was often exaggerated.

Influencers with millions of followers — including in the U.S. — had a broader reach on Twitter than bots and “are retweeting and amplifying Russian narratives.”

The academic found U.S. influencers were tweeting pro-Russian remarks. Some of those posts were, in turn, being retweeted by accounts associated with the Russian state.

Boucher said since completing the study, his team had gathered an additional four million tweets about the Ukraine war, bringing the total to 10 million tweets, and the number was growing.

Boucher said “the path of influence” of many pro-Russian tweets can be traced back to accounts “associated with Russia, including the Russian state apparatus.”

He said “Russian accounts retweet and amplify” pro-Russian tweets in the US and elsewhere.

“We have the state apparatus in Russia and China promoting propaganda.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 8, 2022.

 

Marie Woolf, The Canadian Press

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MEDIA ADVISORY: OWN.CANCER campaign 'Delivering Hope' through activation events during OWN.CANCER Week – Financial Post

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53 mins ago

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April 16, 2024

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Calgary landmarks to be lit up yellow in recognition of OWN.CANCER campaign

CALGARY, Alberta, April 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —

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WHAT:        

As the City of Calgary recognizes April 18-24, 2024 as OWN.CANCER week, the Alberta Cancer Foundation, Alberta Health Services and University of Calgary will be hosting a series of fun activations and initiatives across the city to support OWN.CANCER’s fundraising goal of $250 million for the Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre, set to open in fall 2024.

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Media are invited to attend ‘Delivering Hope’ on April 19, 2024 at 12:30 p.m. at Bay Court in CF Chinook Centre. This activation will feature a room-sized Amazon-like box that community members can interact with to learn more about the Arthur Child. This activation will run until April 21, 2024 at 9 p.m.

Additionally, in honour of OWN.CANCER week, the Reconciliation Bridge and Calgary Tower will be lit up yellow to generate awareness for the campaign. Also, $5 from every ticket purchased through the OWN.CANCER website for the April 18 Calgary Flames home game will support the campaign.        

WHEN:        

Delivering Hope
Friday, April 19, 2024
12:30-9:00 p.m.
OWN.CANCER will have a life-sized Amazon box focused on ‘Delivering Hope’ to bring awareness to the Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre.

  • Alberta Cancer Foundation spokespeople can be available upon request

Landmark Light Up
As part of Calgary’s OWN.CANCER week, several local landmarks will be lit up yellow in recognition of the OWN.CANCER campaign, including:        

  • Reconciliation Bridge – Sunday, April 21, 2024
  • Calgary Tower – Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Article content

Calgary Flames – April 18 home game
$5 from every ticket purchased here for the Calgary Flames home game will support the OWN.CANCER campaign.

WHERE:

Delivering Hope
Bay Court – CF Chinook Mall
6455 Macleod Trail, Calgary, AB T2H 0K8

RSVP:

Media are asked to RSVP for the Delivering Hope activation no later than 9 a.m. (MT) on Friday, April 19, 2024. Complimentary photos and videos can also be arranged.

Media Contact & RSVP to:
Rebecca Hurl
Brookline Public Relations, Inc.
rhurl@brooklinepr.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d55196fd-ea20-4632-9a2c-f12c105eb117


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Psychology group says infinite scrolling and other social media features are ‘particularly risky’ to youth mental health – NBC News

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9 hours ago

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April 16, 2024

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A top psychology group is urging technology companies and legislators to take greater steps to protect adolescents’ mental health, arguing that social media platforms are built for adults and are “not inherently suitable for youth.”

Social media features such as endless scrolling and push notifications are “particularly risky” to young people, whose developing brains are less able to disengage from addictive experiences and are more sensitive to distractions, the American Psychological Association wrote in a report released Tuesday.

But age restrictions on social media platforms alone don’t fully address the dangers, especially since many kids easily find workarounds to such limits. Instead, social media companies need to make fundamental design changes, the group said in its report.

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“The platforms seem to be designed to keep kids engaged for as long as possible, to keep them on there. And kids are just not able to resist those impulses as effectively as adults,” APA chief science officer Mitch Prinstein said in a phone interview. He added that more than half of teens report at least one symptom of clinical dependency on social media. 

“The fact that this is interfering with their in-person interactions, their time when they should be doing schoolwork, and — most importantly — their sleep has really important implications,” Prinstein said.

The report did not offer specific changes that social media companies can implement. Prinstein suggested one option could be to change the default experience of social media accounts for children, with functions such as endless scrolling or alerts shut off.

The report comes nearly a year after the APA issued a landmark health advisory on social media use in adolescence, which acknowledged that social media can be beneficial when it connects young people with peers who experience similar types of adversity offline. The advisory urged social media platforms to minimize adolescents’ online exposure to cyberbullying and cyberhate, among other recommendations.

But technology companies have made “few meaningful changes” since the advisory was released last May, the APA report said, and no federal policies have been adopted.

A spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, disputed the assertion that there have not been changes instituted on its platforms recently. In the last year, Meta has begun showing teens a notification when they spend 20 minutes on Facebook and has added parental supervision tools that allow parents to schedule breaks from Facebook for their teens, according to a list of Meta resources for parents and teenagers. Meta also began hiding more results in Instagram’s search tool related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders, and launched nighttime “nudges” that encourage teens to close the app when it’s late.

Prinstein said more is still needed.

“Although some platforms have experimented with modest changes, it is not enough to ensure children are safe,” he said.

TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Tuesday’s report comes amid broader concern over the effects of social media on young people. In March, Florida passed a law prohibiting children younger than 14 from having social media accounts and requiring parental consent for those ages 14 and 15. California lawmakers have introduced a bill to protect minors from social media addiction. Dozens of states have sued Meta for what they say are deceptive features that harm children’s and teens’ mental health. 

And last month, a book was published by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt that argues that smartphones and social media have created a “phone-based childhood,” sending adolescents’ rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm skyrocketing. 

The book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” has been hotly debated. While it has its detractors, it instantly became a bestseller.

Prinstein said that it’s up to technology companies to protect their youngest users, but parents can also help. He recommended all devices in a family’s household go on top of the refrigerator at 9 p.m. each night to help kids — and parents — get the amount of sleep they need. He also said there is no harm in limiting or postponing a child’s use of social media.

“We have no data to suggest that kids suffer negative consequences if they delay social media use, or if their parents set it for half an hour a day, or an hour a day,” he said. 

“If anything, kids tell us, anecdotally, that they like to be able to blame it on their parents and say, ‘Sorry, my parents won’t let me stay on for more than an hour, so I have to get off,’” he added. “It kind of gives them a relief.”

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More than mere media bias: How New York prosecutors see Trump's scheme with the National Enquirer – MSNBC

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11 hours ago

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April 15, 2024

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April 16, 202406:15

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Rachel Maddow looks at some of the stories The National Enquirer published about Donald Trump’s political opponents in the 2016 presidential campaign, and talks with Susanne Craig, investigative reporter for The New York Times, about how New York prosecutors view the scheme between Trump and then-publisher of The National Enquirer, David Pecker. April 16, 2024

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