Facebook removed a story with false allegations about Justin Trudeau during the 2019 election

Facebook removed a “false and inflammatory” story about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the 2019 federal election at the behest of a top civil servant.

Privy Council Office staffer Allen Sutherland told lawyers at the public inquiry into foreign interference last week that the fake story about Trudeau could go viral, which “risked threatening the integrity of the election,” The Globe and Mail reports.

The article in question appeared in the Buffalo Chronicle, which publishes fake stories. It alleged Trudeau had an affair while teaching at a private high school in 2000.

“The content might have gained significant attention were it amplified, and therefore risked threatening the integrity of the election,” a summary of Sutherland’s in-camera interview read.”At the direction of Ian Shugart, the Clerk of the Privy Council at the time, Mr. Sutherland asked Facebook to remove the article.” The social media giant, which brought the article to Sutherland’s attention, complied with the request.

The action was in stark contrast to “false allegations” about former Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole going around on WeChat during the 2021 election. Some of these stories centred around the idea that he “almost wants to break diplomatic relations” with China.

Sutherland said the department didn’t make a request to WeChat to remove the content because it wasn’t categorized as being similar to the situation with the Buffalo Chronicle. Part of this had to do with the content on WeChat being in Mandarin, only reaching the Chinese diaspora, the summary stated.

During testimony, Sutherland said the Buffalo Chronicle was “highly inflammatory and was seen that it might go viral and become a national event.”

“I was simply observing that in the case of WeChat, the ability to go viral on a national scale is different.”

Source: The Globe and Mail