Marie Wolfe, Canadian Press Published Wednesday, June 8, 2022, 3:22 PM EDT Last Updated on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, 6:12 PM EDT
OTTOA – An analysis of more than six million tweets and retweets – and where they come from – found that Canada was targeted by Russia to influence public opinion here.
A study by the University of Calgary School of Public Policy found that a huge number of tweets and retweets about the war in Ukraine could be traced to Russia and China, with even more tweets expressing pro-Russian sentiment being traced to the United States.
Assistant Jean-Christophe Boucher said in an interview that the Russian “state apparatus” is linked to many accounts tweeting in Canada and influences posts that are retweeted, liked or repeated from different accounts over and over again.
Tweets often express pro-Russian rhetoric, including that Ukraine is a fascist state or that NATO wants to expand, posing a threat to Russia.
A team of experts from the University of Calgary analyzed 6.2 million tweets from around the world and applied algorithms to trace their origins.
It profiles accounts, tweets and retweets notes, including key terms related to the war in Ukraine. A location filter is included, which narrows it down to tweets related to Canadian Twitter accounts.
The team then established links between accounts and plotted online conversations about the war.
The algorithms identified clusters and key influencers in Canada and abroad that promoted pro-Russian narratives.
It has been found that in the “Canadian Twitter ecosystem” discussing the war, about 25% of accounts distribute pro-Russian speaking points.
Boucher warned that some accounts were “Trojan horses”, with some Canadians unaware that pro-Putin stories originated in Russia, China or right-wing influencers in the United States.
An analysis of the content of the tweets revealed similar pro-Russian views among right-wing figures and their supporters in the United States and Canada, he said.
He said supporters of the Convoy of Freedom and the anti-vaccine movement, some of whom may not realize they have learned messages from Russia, are also tweeting messages in support of the invasion of Ukraine.
Many tweets in pro-Russian social media conversations also expressed distrust of institutions and “specific distrust of the Liberal government of Canada and especially of Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau,” the report said.
Boucher said “foreign interference in the Canadian information space” is now so widespread that it sows distrust in Canada’s democratic institutions, including the federal government and the mainstream media.
“Social media is increasingly succeeding in shaping people’s views. That weakens our democratic resilience, “he said. “This creates disagreement and undermines trust in the institutions.”
He said that although foreign bots are used to spread misinformation on social media, their role is often exaggerated.
Influencers with millions of followers – including in the United States – had a wider reach on Twitter than bots and “retweeted and amplified Russian stories.”
The academician found that American influential people tweeted pro-Russian remarks. Some of these publications, in turn, were retweeted by accounts linked to the Russian state.
Boucher said that after completing the study, his team had collected an additional four million tweets for the war in Ukraine, bringing the total to 10 million and growing.
Boucher said the “path of influence” of many pro-Russian tweets could be traced to accounts “linked to Russia, including the Russian state apparatus.”
He said “Russian accounts retweeted and amplified” pro-Russian tweets in the United States and elsewhere.
“We have a state apparatus in Russia and China that encourages propaganda.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 8, 2022.
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