Aengus Bridgman, director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory and a professor at Mcgill University, at PHI center, on March 13 in Montreal.Boris R. Thebia/The Globe and Mail
The first federal election campaign to take place in the artificial intelligence age has featured fake images of party leaders masquerading as news stories, Chinese efforts to shape views about two politicians and online misinformation about voting.
However, despite the prevalence of false information on social media, experts say the integrity of Monday’s vote appears to be intact.
“It could have been much worse,” said Aengus Bridgman, director of the Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO), a research group at McGill University that analyzes digital threats to democracy.
At the outset of the campaign, experts had warned Canada was at high risk of attack by hostile foreign entities – including possibly from within the United States – attempting to meddle with the election by covertly spreading disinformation online.
While observers continue to be on alert for digital threats, so far it appears foreign interference in the election campaign has been “relatively minor,” Prof. Bridgman said.
Here are the main misinformation trends and incidents that have characterized the campaign.
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AI-generated fake news
A surge of AI-generated ads disguised as news stories from legitimate Canadian media outlets spread widely on social media, becoming more sophisticated and politically polarizing as the campaign progressed, said Jennie Phillips, an MEO project director.
The clickbait content, which contains links to cryptocurrency scams, includes fraudulent investment platforms purportedly endorsed by Liberal Leader Mark Carney featuring images and videos generated by AI tools.
About one-quarter of Canadians reported seeing such fake news stories recently, according to a survey by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network (CDMRN), a federally funded coalition co-ordinated by MEO that reports on information manipulation during the campaign. However, a majority said they immediately knew the content was false.
Screenshot of AI-generated content collected by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network masquerading as legitimate news sources which circulated on Facebook, Instagram and X.Canadian Digital Media Research Network
CDMRN analysts say they have identified more than 80 Facebook pages promoting these fraudulent ads, only about half of which Meta has taken down since the beginning of the election. They warn such content can fuel public distrust in elections and news media outlets.
Meta says it removes ads, pages and accounts that violate its policies, including those using deceptive or misleading practices such as impersonating public figures to scam people.
“This is an ongoing industry-wide challenge – scammers use every platform available to them and constantly adapt to evade enforcement. Our work in this area is never done,” Julia Perreira, a Meta spokeswoman, said in a statement.
However, the CDMRN said in a report last week that “the persistent reappearance of deceptive ads indicates a systemic and unacceptable failure in both detection and enforcement mechanisms” by social-media platforms.
Prof. Bridgman said Meta’s inadequate response to the problem contrasts with its ban on legitimate Canadian media content on Facebook.
“It’s completely absurd that Meta has blocked news but continues to profit off of fake news websites that imitate the news that they block,” he said. “There absolutely must be a reckoning of this in the post-election period.”
Screenshot of the Alberta, USA Statehood Movement Facebook group, showing Alberta Premier Danielle Smith with U.S. President Donald Trump.Facebook
Chinese social-media campaigns
A federal election-threats watchdog, known as the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) task force, uncovered two apparent Beijing-led social-media campaigns aimed at shifting opinion among Chinese Canadians.
The first information operation focused on Mr. Carney and spread both positive and negative narratives, the task force said on April 7.
The effort took place last month on the Chinese-language social-media platform WeChat and through YouliYoumian, its most popular news account. The task force said intelligence reporting links the account to the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.
For its part, the CDMRN said the content was typical of the news account and said in an April 11 report that there was “no cause for alarm or sign that China has materially interfered in the Canadian election using this channel.”
The second case, announced earlier this week, was aimed at Joe Tay, a Toronto Conservative candidate who is a sharp critic of Beijing’s crackdown on civil rights in Hong Kong.
The operation included disparaging commentary and a mock “wanted” poster of Mr. Tay.
The task force said the campaign was taking place on social-media platforms, including WeChat, Facebook, RedNote, TikTok and Douyin, a short-video app owned by the same company as TikTok.
The task force determined that the efforts had so far not affected the country’s ability to have a free and fair election, including in Mr. Tay’s riding, Laurie-Anne Kempton, an assistant secretary to the cabinet, said on Monday.
Claims undermining electoral integrity
Voters enter a polling location during early voting in Montreal, Quebec, Candada, on April 19, 2025. Advance votoing for the federal elections opened on April 18, 2025, with higher than expected voter turnout leading up to the long Easter weekend. Prime Minister and Liberal party leader Mark Carney is the frontrunner in this month's Canadian election, with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre and his Tory Party trailing the Carney-led Liberals in most opinion polls ahead of the April 28 vote. (Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV / AFP) (Photo by ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP via Getty Images)ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images
Observers have noticed an increase in false claims casting doubt on the integrity of the election, which have become commonplace around the world.
The claims include warnings that people should bring a pen to mark their ballots to avoid tampering by elections workers.
Elections Canada says there are no opportunities to alter ballots and, by law, workers must provide voters with pencils, which do not dry up or leak.
“However, in a federal election, nothing prevents you from using your own pen or other writing tool to mark your ballot,” the agency says on its website.