NDP calls for an investigation into bot posts about Poilievre rally

NDP MP Charlie Angus has asked the Commissioner of Canada Elections to probe a number of posts on social media, worried they may constitute foreign interference.

Angus claims there were hundreds of posts on social media following the rally from all corners of the world. Each of them shared the same message, claiming they were “still buzzing” from the energy in the room.

“Just got back from Pierre Poilievre’s rally in Kirkland Lake and I’m still buzzing from the energy!” wrote a user with the name Alexis, whose account is purportedly from Waikato District, New Zealand.

“Are we going to allow offshore bots and mysterious third party operatives to try and influence Canadian points of view and in the lead up to an election,” Angus said in an interview with CTV News. “Or are we going to have integrity in the system?”

A spokesperson for the Commissioner of Canada Elections confirms the organization has received the complaint from Angus. Citing confidentiality provisions of the Canada Elections Act, Myriam Croussette said the commissioner can’t disclose any details in relation to the issue outlined in the letter.

“That said, as we do with any complaint sent to the Commissioner, all allegations are taken seriously and evaluated on a case-by-case basis,” said Croussette in an email.

A number of Liberal MPs from ridings in Northern Ontario have written to “X” owner Elon Musk, asking him to crack down on “bot activity” on the platform.

Viviane Lapointe, MP for Sudbury, Mark Serre, MP for Nickel Belt, and Marcus Powlowski, MP for Thunder Bay-Rainy River, point out the posts were a “blatant online manipulation” whose purpose was to “interfere in Canada’s public discourse and democratic processes.”

“As you can imagine though, many questions remain about the actors involved in this coordinated campaign that intended to distort perceptions, mislead the public, and inflate support for one political party – in this case, the Conservative Party of Canada,” wrote the MPs.

Asked if his party uses bot farms to create hundreds of social media post, the Conservative leader responded with a blunt, “no,” calling the story false allegations from the Liberals, “to distract from the hunger and homelessness and the economic misery they’ve caused for 9 years,” Poilievre told reporters at a food bank in Toronto.

Director of Communications for the Conservative Party of Canada, Sarah Fischer, called the NDP’s accusations “baseless conspiracy theories.”

“A little investigation would lead you to discover that the same type of bot accounts promote the Prime Minister,” said Fisher in an email to CTV News.

The response drew a challenge from Angus.

“I challenge Pierre Poilievre, if you’re saying that this is all just some crazy conspiracy theory, then agree to work with Elections Canada. Open your books. Show us that you had nothing to do with it,” said Angus.

Accusations of using bot farm or botnets come as a public inquiry into foreign interference in Canada’s democracy continues.

Commissioner Marie-Josee Hogue’s first report, released in May, called attempts by other countries to meddle in the last two federal elections a “stain” on Canada’s electoral system. However, those attempts did not affect which political party formed government.

In response to the commission’s first report, Minister of Public Safety, Democratic Institutions and Intergovernmental Affairs Dominic LeBlanc said in a statement, “democracies around the world are grappling with the threat of foreign interference,” adding the government “has robust safeguards in place to protect our democracy.”

“I think we have to be very circumspect, unfortunately, about what we see online,” said federal health minister Mark Holland when asked about the alleged bot posts.

“There are forces that are running these bots and trying to overwhelm the internet to give an appearance of a particular opinion or a consensus around something that simply isn’t true, and at worst, is seeking to undermine or democracy,” said Holland.

Cyber security experts point out botnets have been a pervasive issue for decades, but have gone unnoticed or undetected because they are complex problems that are often hidden.

Andrew Loschmann worked at the Communications Security Establishment and Privy Council Office for more than 12 years. As part of Canada’s cyber spy agency, he has seen the evolution of the threat.

“You can use botnets for many other purposes, including social influence and changing social media perspectives, as we’ve seen over the last decade, really including the U.S. elections,” Loschmann told CTV News.

The term bot farm or botnet refers a collection of thousands or sometimes hundreds of thousands of computers, ranging from a desktop computer to IoT devices. These hardware devices have an internet connection which collects and exchanges data with other devices, like a smart thermostat or fitness-tracking watch.

Loschmann explains a cyber threat actor, like a foreign government, will hack into those devices if they aren’t secured and use them for their own advantage.

“There might be many businesses in Canada, and certainly there are globally that might be unwittingly part of a botnet today,” said Loschmann.

The botnets can be used to help create fake personas online to counter social media platform security systems, which can quickly identify fraudulent accounts. When there are thousands of accounts across the world working in a coordinated way creating new X accounts, they can achieve their objective, says Loschmann.

In the case of the political posts, thousands of similar opinions being shared across hundreds of accounts can create a sense of false momentum for one party over others.

“Your opinion can be influenced, but certainly, your perception of what might be true and false is also increasingly blurry and difficult to decide. I believe it’s a real problem,” said Loschmann.

While governments have made progress in increasing cybersecurity for Canadians, a number of experts believe more can be done to counter the growing threat of bot farms though standards.

“It’s a little bit like fire codes,” said Loschmann. “We figured out how to stop fires from burning down entire cities through better building supplies, better building practices, and through monitoring and public services like the fire department.”

Loschmann believes the government should introduce legislation and regulations that would support organizations to implement best practices and make technological advancements.

If that doesn’t happen as Canada approach the next election, Loschmann worries that disinformation could spread more quickly during the federal campaign.

“People will start to believe something that hasn’t actually occurred, and so you’ll have an opinion in the population that is erroneous, or could cause people to make voting decisions or other important decisions in their life in a completely wrong fashion,” said Loschmann.