The NDP has asked the election commissioner to find out what is behind an army of social media bots supporting Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre.
The New Democrats said social media platform X was flooded with posts following Poilievre’s tour of Northern Ontario in July.
These posts purport to be from participants at a Poilievre event in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, but they were actually created by accounts in Russia, France and other countries and often contain similar messages.
Charlie Angus, an NDP MP from the area, suspected the Conservatives were behind the operation and that it had backfired. At least one report said they had to “brave the cold to attend the rally in Kirkland Lake.”
“It was done so poorly when these bots claimed they had to endure the cold in Northern Ontario during a major heat wave,” Angus said. “I think that made them look ridiculous.”
The Conservatives denied any involvement in the bot campaign.
“It is no surprise that the NDP is once again spreading baseless conspiracy theories and that the CBC is choosing to amplify them,” said Sarah Fischer, communications director for the Conservative Party of Canada.
“The CPC does not pay for bots and has no idea who is behind these accounts. We seek the support of real Canadians, as demonstrated by the large turnout at our events.”
In his letter to the Elections Commissioner, Angus asked the office to ensure that neither the Conservative Party of Canada nor the local electoral district paid for anything that could be considered third-party advertising under the law.
The letter states that the NDP wants the commissioner to ensure that the person who created the posts is a resident of Canada and complies with the advertising regulations of the Canada Elections Act.
The letter also suggests that foreign actors could be behind the online activity.
“If a foreign third party independently attempts to falsely spread a story about Mr Poilievre’s event, appropriate remedial action will be taken,” Angus’ letter said.
The Office of the Canadian Elections Commissioner confirmed receipt of the letter but did not provide any information on what action the office would take.
“That said, as with any complaint made to the Commissioner, all allegations are taken seriously and examined on a case-by-case basis,” said Myriam Croussette, a spokeswoman for Canada’s Elections Commissioner.
“This will enable us to determine whether the matter falls within our jurisdiction and whether a review or investigation is warranted.”
Fischer said the same types of bot accounts are also promoting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Parker Lund, spokesman for the Liberal Party, said the party does not use or interact with online bots.
“It is extremely worrying that ‘bots’ posed as fake supporters of Pierre Poilievre over the weekend and spread the messages of the Conservative Party,” said Lund.
Liberal MP for Sudbury Viviane Lapointe wrote a letter to X CEO Elon Musk demanding that his company make public all information about the “anti-democratic incident” and its source.
“It is extremely concerning that these ‘bots,’ many of which were geo-tagged to be located in various locations around the world, spread and repeated the exact same Conservative Party messages while falsely claiming to have attended the rally,” Lapointe’s letter said.
“This is a blatant online manipulation aimed at influencing public opinion through disinformation and interfering with Canada’s public discourse and democratic processes.”
Academics who study the use of technology in political campaigns told CBC they hope the elections commissioner will take up the issue.
“Astroturfing” and election advertising
Elizabeth Dubois, chair of political science and communications technology at the University of Ottawa, said the evidence suggests this could be a case of “astroturfing” – online operations designed to create the false appearance of social networking-based activity.
Dubois said it appears someone has created hundreds of accounts that are not connected to real people from Northern Ontario.
Dubois said such campaigns are not only misleading, but also raise questions about whether a foreign actor is paying for something that could be construed as election advertising.
“We have pretty strict rules about how much money can be spent on things like election advertising, how it is reported and who can buy it. Foreign actors, for example, cannot pay to spread messages within our electoral system,” she said.
While Dubois said the July incident did not affect support for any political party, she believes it could undermine trust in the democratic system. She also believes such astroturfing operations could become more effective as the use of generative artificial intelligence becomes more widespread.
Dubois said generative AI could be used to create posts that spread the same political message in 100 different ways, making it difficult to tell if there is a real person behind the account.
Fenwick McKelvey, coordinator of Concordia University’s Applied AI Institute, said the election commissioner should have investigated the use of bots in political campaigns years ago. He said Canada’s political parties should also be subject to Canada’s federal data protection and privacy laws.
Political parties collect and use huge amounts of voter data – names, dates of birth, ethnic origin, opinions and home addresses – without much oversight.
“The parties basically took this on themselves and didn’t really want to push for more accountability in their electoral practices,” McKelvey said.
