The reason I pause is that it goes hand in hand with the type of influencer content that individuals are consuming on these platforms that would trigger or lead them to certain expressions.
One concern we've observed over the years when conducting surveys with Canadians is that more of us are turning to social media for information about conflicts like the war in Ukraine or the war in Palestine.
What if there are no credible news organizations that provide that content? The reactions that you see quite often on social media platforms are driven by the influencer content that provides the news.
When we asked TikTok users in Canada, half of them said they use the platform for news about the war between Russia and Ukraine. This is concerning, because when you go to this platform and you search for trusted news sources, the most popular ones will be CTV, Global News and CBC, according to the digital trust rating. Their number of followers is 160,000 or 150,000. They cannot compete with influencer content.
Freedom of speech is important, but it's just as important to make sure that when our citizens—Canadians—are participating in those platforms, they have access to credible information when they react to it online.