Public Safety committee  It's trying to make people mistrust what is legitimate. That includes multiculturalism.

Public Safety committee  I would start with Dr. Cooley about the attempts of foreign states to influence immigrant or diasporic groups in Canada. This has been an ongoing issue, so the WeChat thing is there. Definitely, there is clear evidence and an indication that the Chinese government has been and is

Public Safety committee  In the 2021 election, WeChat was a clear sign of this kind of interference. There are so many other gaps that we do not fully understand. One thing that I really like to highlight is the importance of studying ethnic Canadian media. For example—

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I assume the question is about today, and the misinformation that happened today.

Public Safety committee  Thank you very much. Scientifically, I cannot prove these are bots, because bots are automated accounts. What I have seen is some kind of organic users, which means real users spreading propaganda. Most of the propaganda I have seen so far about the war on Ukraine is related to

Public Safety committee  With regard to the Russian diplomatic mission, it's mostly in English, but there is evidence that it's in French. I've never looked at the Telegram channel WarOnFakes.com. They have a huge Telegram channel, which is now one of the most popular in Russia. Now the targets will al

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. A few years ago, a few [Technical difficulty—Editor] in United States and elsewhere were de-platformed from mainstream social media, like Facebook and Twitter, including former President Trump and many conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones and so on. This a

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I need to explain why banning RT, as I mentioned in my speech, might not be fully effective. The reason is that RT could be viewed in different ways—through TV apps, the Internet and so on. I think if anyone wants to view RT, it's there, and I don't think i

Public Safety committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. It will sound self-serving, but I think academics need more funding to run maybe research projects, fact-checking in an ongoing way, these incentives—

Public Safety committee  Sorry, Mr. Chair, with regard to the Russian mission?

Public Safety committee  Because of freedom of expression and freedom of speech, I think it's important to at least flag these efforts and to talk about what the Russian embassy is doing in the public domain. I've already written a piece that I hope will be published soon on The Conversation website. W

Public Safety committee  I think we definitely need to be concerned because the goal is to confuse people and make their vision of reality blurred in a way that they will not understand what is right and what is wrong or what is real and what is fake. This is very concerning. This is definitely related t

Public Safety committee  In terms of the actual impact of disinformation on the population, it's a really difficult question to answer because I don't think anyone has quantified that or fully understood this kind of influence. However, there are indications of the impact of disinformation on Canadians.

Public Safety committee  Historically, the Russian trolls have been very much invested in supporting the far right in different countries. It's not only in Canada, but also in the U.S. and in many places in Europe. The reason is definitely to create tension. There is a term called “agitainment”, which

Public Safety committee  Usually they promote far right groups. Sometimes they don't show a lot of animosity towards Conservative figures and politicians, but that kind of animosity is usually shown against Liberals and NDP figures. That's their strategy. Again, it's about what aligns with their own worl