Canadian Election Coverage and Meta’s Response to the Online News Act ⇥ thelogic.co

Martin Patriquin, the Logic:

More than 25 different Facebook accounts, some with Canadian-themed names, have promoted multiple fake news articles involving political actors, including a three-minute video of a deepfake CBC report fronted by anchor Rosemary Barton, in which a deepfake Musk, appearing on a deepfake Joe Rogan podcast, accuses a deepfake Carney of lying about a non-existent passive income scheme.

The posts are widespread on the Meta-owned platform, with 25 per cent of Canadians saying they’ve seen content on Facebook mimicking legitimate news in the last month, according to the Canadian Digital Media Research Network (CDMRN), which is part of a digital literacy coalition monitoring the federal election campaign.

Leyland Cecco, the Guardian:

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

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

Rob Brown, reporter for CBC News in Calgary, interviewed Aengus Bridgman of the Media Ecosystem Observatory — previously linked — about Meta’s restriction of news links for Canadian users. This is one effect of the Online News Act, which required Google and Meta to pay news publishers for links on their platforms. Meta, in deciding not to, has effectively permitted only links which do not qualify as “news” to spread among Canadians on its platforms.

Meta may be a belligerent and frustrating company, but the Online News Act remains a blight. In a stopped-clock credit to the Conservatives, they pledge to reverse it, something which all parties ought to consider. We can do better with policies that do not, in practice, discourage the sharing of links to news stories.