fake news

Wednesday June 26, 2019

June 26, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 26, 2019

Get ready for disinformation in election season

Were you among the Ontarians who received a text this weekend asking if you agree the federal carbon tax needs to be scrapped?

September 17, 2015

If so, you’re in good company. We don’t know how many got the text, purporting to be from Sue with a group called Ontario Strong. Could be a few hundred, could be thousands.

If you responded, chances are you were used. Indications are this was an attempt to identify anti-carbon tax voters so they can be lobbied in the coming election.

What’s wrong with that? For one thing that declaration wasn’t made. There was no attributing information on the text other than Ontario Strong. The group is little known and no credible political or lobbying group wants to be identified as being involved. There is no contact information. No information as to what Ontario Strong is about.

Speculation is that it is tied somehow to conservative interests that want to see the Trudeau Liberals defeated. But the usual suspects deny involvement.

August 1, 2013

Welcome to the summer election campaign. It may not be official yet, but it’s real nonetheless. And there is every reason to believe fake news and trickery like this will become more and more common in the weeks and months leading up to the formal campaign.

There are rules regulating this sort of shady political advocacy. After June 30 anyone spending more than $500 is supposed to register with Elections Canada as a third party lobbyist, adhere to stated spending limits and disclose who they are, what they stand for and, eventually, where they get their money.

Well established lobby groups — Shaping Canada’s Future is one on the conservative side while Engage Canada is on the other side — will follow the rules. But many others, some little more than a zealot in his basement and others with more sophisticated infrastructure, probably won’t. And their messages will be out there. On social media. On quickly assembled websites. In texts and emails.

June 12, 2019

CBC journalists and researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab recently reported on how a disinformation campaign, which is believed to have originated in Iran, tried to get Canadian media outlets to amplify fake news. It worked in at least one case.

Reuters reported a fake story which said that six Arab countries had asked FIFA to prevent Qatar from hosting the 2022 World Cup. Global News picked up the story and gave it new legs with a national audience. Global later corrected the story.

The Iranian scammers also tried to drum up attention for a fake story claiming the CIA had backed a failed coup in Turkey.

Canadians, including thousands of Twitter users, were among the targets of this disinformation. While the subjects involved may not be relevant to average citizens, they will become more so as the election campaigns ramps up.

Politically motivated misinformation and fake news are not some distant threat. Like climate change, they’re happening right here and now. Just as we’re seeing first hand what damage climate change can bring, we’re seeing fake news in action. Our only protection is education and awareness. (Hamilton Spectator) 

 

Wednesday June 12, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 12, 2019

Vigilance the best protection from plague of fake news

Canadians will be voting in federal elections in four months. Many have already made up their minds. Regardless, attempts will be made to shift voters’ perceptions. We know this is coming and we need to prepare for it.

Facebook admitted in 2017 that Russian operatives bought political advertising on its social media site intent on disrupting the U.S. elections the previous fall. U.S. citizens (let’s face it: all of us) were subjected to fake news, absurd memes and all manner of slander in a Moscow-driven attempt to affect the vote.

It didn’t end there. Facebook closed down hundreds of fake Facebook accounts, at least one of which had 3.6 million users, set up to help Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Facebook also shut down hundreds of accounts linked to an Israeli political consulting firm, Archimedes Group, whose primary goal is to win campaigns in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

In Canada, we can expect the same. An alleged email made the rounds recently purporting to be from a People’s Party of Canada organizer bizarrely suggesting that non-white Canadians who join Maxime Bernier’s anti-immigrant, Islamophobic party should be displayed prominently but never consulted about policy because “they are all liberals anyway.”

Similarly, the U.S. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was featured in a video in which she was made to look like she was slurring her speech. U.S. President Donald Trump was among those who tweeted the fake video. In this case, Facebook refused to take the video down, claiming it is not its responsibility to censor.

On Monday, Facebook Canada announced that anyone wishing to buy political ads on its platform will need approval. The authorization process involves several steps to confirm the group buying the ad is real and based in Canada. Starting June 30, political ads appearing on Facebook will show who bought the ad and will allow social media users to view information about the ad’s reach.

The Pelosi video, however, is not considered advertising and would have been allowed on the site.

In that case, Facebook is actually correct. Free speech is free speech is free speech. As disgusting as the video is — it was created by slowing down an actual clip of Pelosi speaking and then altering the pitch of her voice to mask the manipulation — it does not qualify as hate speech. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Tuesday August 21, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 21, 2018

Provincial government’s assault on democracy deserves jeers not cheers

You’ve got to hand it to Premier Doug Ford, and even if you don’t, he’ll provide the hand — as in a round of applause — himself.

April 1, 2017

Not content with arbitrarily slashing the size of Toronto council and cancelling regional chair elections already underway in York, Peel, Niagara and Muskoka, Ford recently took another broadside against democracy by limiting the number of questions he and his ministers will take during Queen’s Park news conferences to five and drowning out any additional media queries with loud clapping from dozens of government staffers.

At Ford’s announcement of $25 million to help Toronto combat gun violence on Aug. 9, journalists present noted that 50 provincial employees milled about for an hour or so until it was time to provide the premier and Attorney General Caroline Mulroney with an unhindered exit.

For some reporters it may have felt like déjà vu as similar shenanigans had been employed a week prior when Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod announced plans to end the province’s Basic Income Pilot program.

According to Cynthia Mulligan of CityNews, after Ford and Mulroney left following the Aug. 9 news conference, most of the staffers scurried away themselves and showed little interest in answering questions about their reasons for being there. One of them did, however, let slip they were there on the taxpayer’s dime, which raises all sorts of questions, chief among them: how does permitting 50 government employees to stand around for an hour to clap like trained seals on cue fit with the pledge to reduce waste and make life more affordable for Ontarians?

While we’re at it, how does employing a “journalist” to rhyme off a collection of government-approved highlights in a series of taxpayer-funded videos via the Ontario News Now online channel square with the election promise of greater accountability and to be “the government for the people”?

Although both the Ontario News Now and “clap out” tactics began during the election, the fact the government seems intent on keeping them — and using our money to fund them — is deeply disappointing. Even Deputy Premier Christine Elliott seemed vexed by the clap out, and said she’d discuss it with Ford.

Someone should and remind him democracy isn’t a nuisance that rears its head every few years when the election writ drops. Democracy is about being accountable to the citizenry, and part of that entails answering questions from journalists who are there as proxies for the voting public.

Here’s hoping the government hits the “pause button” it’s so fond of on the clap out and other similar strategies. After all, open and transparent government is something we can all cheer for. (Source: Newmarket Era) 

 

Saturday April 1, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday April 1, 2017

Swedish, Norwegian newspapers to ditch April Fools’ stories amid ‘fake news’ concerns

As scheming jokesters across the globe prepare their April Fools’ pranks, Swedish and Norwegian newspapers have announced they won’t be taking part in the fun, over fears that silly stories might be spread as “fake news.”

January 24, 2017

Swedish newspapers Dalarnas Tidningar, Hallpressen, Vasterbottens-Kuriren, Smalandsposten, and Jonkopings-Posten are among the publications which say they’re going to suppress their inner trickster this year.

“Historically, we’ve had super successful April Fools jokes. But because of debates and discussions about the media’s credibility being connected to fake news, we didn’t want to do it this year,” Ingvar Naslund, editor-in-chief at Vasterbottens-Kuriren, told TT news agency.

Smalandsposten’s editor-in-chief, Magnus Karlsson, also said he doesn’t want the newspaper’s good name to be “spread with a potentially viral and erroneous story.”

“We work with real news. Even on April 1st,” he said.

March 1, 2017

Erik Berger, editor-in-chief at Jonkopings-Posten, said his paper will be publishing an article on April Fools’ Day as to why it isn’t participating in the international day of pranks.

Media outlets in neighboring Norway have expressed similar sentiments, including public broadcaster NRK, Aftenposten, VG, and Dagbladet.

NRK also reported that local newspapers would follow suit.

One of those local papers is Bergens Tidende, whose editor Oyulf Hjertenes told NRK that it would be a “mistake on our part” to publish jokes on April 1, considering the current climate in which “false news is spreading.”

Meanwhile, the publishing editor of local paper Drammens Tidende said that “what is written in Drammens Tidende must be true,” AFP reported.

“Fake news” has become a household term since gaining the spotlight in the 2016 US Presidential election, with some claiming it helped propel President Donald Trump to victory. (Source: RT) 

 

Thursday January 12, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 12, 2017

Trump blasts explosive Russia reports as ‘phoney’ at wild press conference

President-elect Donald Trump angrily denied sensational claims about his relationship with Russia at his first news conference in 168 days, a wild Wednesday spectacle at which he also blasted American intelligence agencies, briefly acknowledged Russia as the culprit in hacking the Democratic party and announced a plan for his business assets that ethics experts say is unsatisfactory.

Trump spoke the day after the publication of two explosive stories about him. CNN and other outlets reported Tuesday that top intelligence officials had briefed him on the claims of Russian operatives to have compromising information on him. Later Tuesday, BuzzFeed published a dossier, compiled by a former British intelligence employee hired by Trump opponents, that included a series of detailed but unverified claims about what the material might be.

“It’s all fake news. It’s phoney stuff. It didn’t happen. And it was gotten by opponents of ours,” Trump said at Trump Tower in New York City.

The press conference was unusually chaotic. Reporters shouted to get his attention. Trump pointedly refused to accept a question from a persistent CNN reporter his team later threatened to evict if he interjected again. The event began with vice-president-elect Mike Pence and Trump spokesman Sean Spicer assailing media outlets as irresponsible and wrong; Spicer referred to BuzzFeed as a “left-wing blog.”

In the most colourful moment, the president-elect denied a claim in the dossier about Russia supposedly filming a hotel liaison between him and prostitutes. He said he had always been careful to warn his associates that they might be filmed by hidden cameras in foreign hotel rooms. He added, in denying a particular detail of the supposed encounter, “I’m also very much of a germaphobe, believe me.”

Asked about one of the most serious claims — that Trump’s team had regular contact with Russia during the campaign — he simply ignored the question and answered another. (Source: Toronto Star)