Russia and U.S. amplifying Alberta separatist narratives to stoke division, distrust: report

A year ago, weeks after the Carney Liberals won the last federal election, the website albertaseparatist.com sprang up, accompanied by similarly named TikTok and YouTube accounts.

Article headlines included “The case for sovereignty over statehood” and “Ottawa’s piggy bank wakes up” — but these sites don’t appear to have come from anywhere in Alberta.

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Both Russian and pro-Trump U.S. actors are amplifying and spreading misinformation about Alberta separatism in the hope of fraying Canadian unity and sowing distrust in key institutions and authorities, warns a new report released Wednesday.

Governments and the public should also brace for more disinformation and foreign interference attempts in coming months if a separation referendum goes ahead, says the report by a collection of groups, including DisinfoWatch, the Canadian Digital Media Research Network and CASiLabs.

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“Now, U.S. officials and influencers have joined the threat landscape, not through covert strategies, but through overt political bullying, deliberate provocation, and a powerful social media influencer ecosystem that has trained its attention on one of the most consequential fault lines facing Canada’s future: the Alberta separation movement,” says the report, titled National Unity Under Threat.

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In addition to Russian and U.S. efforts, there’s the recently uncovered artificial intelligence “slopaganda” videos, which a CBC/Radio-Canada investigation traced back to Dutch content creators.

much more

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/russia-and-u-s-amplifying-alberta-separatist-narratives-to-stoke-division-distrust-report-9.7189604

It's good to see at least one mainstream news outlet, the CBC, focusing on the disinformation being spread by foreign actors re Alberta's fringe groups' call for separation, I hope more outlets follow suit and report these facts as opposed to the hyping of the issue that has gone on far too long, imo.