Canada Distorts Threat of Russian 'Bot Farm' Spreading Disinformation Online
“Canadian security officials are warning about a Russian propaganda campaign that used the social media site X to spread disinformation online,” CBC reported on July 10, 2024. “The accounts often posed as Americans and promoted messages in support of Russian government objectives.
However, Canadian officials not only cited the same data that US officials did when disclosing the propagation of an alleged Russian bot campaign, but failed to provide how this campaign posed a novel threat to Canadian democracy. The “bot farm” consisted of less than one thousand falsified US X users, which is equivalent to 0.0008% of X users in Canada and the US combined.
While foreign actors certainly attempt to assert influence over western democracy, there is not enough empirical evidence to sustain this influence has significant reach, and the media studies scholarship finds that the mainstream media continues to assert the greatest influence on citizen voting behavior.
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