The head of Elections Canada has outlined steps that the agency is taking to address concerns about the online spread of misinformation in the upcoming federal election.
During a press conference on Monday, Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault was asked how concerned he is about “deepfakes” — digitally altered videos of a person’s face or body — interfering in the electoral process.
“It is a serious concern,” responded Perrault. “There was a report recently by the Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity highlighting the extent of that threat. Synthetic materials have been used in elections around the world in the last year to provide misleading content. So it is a serious concern.”
According to the Government of Canada, there were 60 reported AI-generated synthetic disinformation campaigns and 34 known and likely cases of AI-enabled social botnets during 151 global elections between 2023 and 2024.
Perrault added that “people tend to overestimate their ability” to detect deepfakes. “People seem to be more confident than they actually are capable of detecting it.”
To address these concerns, Perrault says Elections Canada has partnered with the Centre for Cybersecurity and other security partners who will be “on the lookout” for any such digital election meddling. He added that there are a “range of information products about the electoral process to help Canadians see clearly about what’s true,” which includes this Government of Canada primer about detecting and reporting misinformation.
On top of that, Perrault says he’s written to “major” social media platforms to ensure that they are cracking down on misinformation, noting that X and TikTok, specifically, have “committed to taking action.”
Of course, there’s concern that these platforms aren’t regularly doing enough to combat misinformation, especially in recent months. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter and rebranded it as X, the platform has been awash with fake news, including from Musk himself. During the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the non-profit group Center for Countering Digital Hate reported that misleading posts from Musk alone garnered billions of views. European leaders have also criticized Musk for attempting to meddle in their elections.
Meta, meanwhile, recently came under fire for its decision to end fact-checking on its platforms in favour of a feature akin to X’s Community Notes feature. Meta argued that this approach is “less prone to bias,” despite the fact that we’ve seen biased users finding ways to sabotage community notes. U.S. President Donald Trump also admitted that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is “probably” responding to his prior threats to come down on him.
“Those who have responded have provided some satisfactory response,” Perrault said. “We’ll see what action takes place during the election — hopefully they won’t have to intervene. But if there are issues, hopefully they will be true to their word.”
The federal election will take place on April 28, although there are a few options to vote earlier if you prefer.
Header image credit: Shutterstock
Via: CBC
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