NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and his party are being targeted by social media misinformation attacks that appear to be coming from outside Canada, the party’s national director told the inquiry into foreign interference Thursday.
Lucy Watson said there has been an spike in recent weeks in the number of online misinformation posts, such as fake news stories purporting to be from the Toronto Star claiming Singh has been held on charges of corruption.
“There are a number of posts along those lines that have been coming across our desks on a fairly regular basis,” Watson told reporters after her testimony.
Watson said the party believes the posts are coming from foreign actors. She would not say which country the party suspects is behind the posts.
“We don’t have any insight, which is one of the challenges,” she said.
Watson said she fears the online attacks could lead to real-life violence.
“The discourse that we’re seeing online, which is growing in intensity, in volume, in rhetoric, is feeding into some of what we’re seeing in real life,” she said.
Watson said she also worries about the impact of misinformation on the next election if nothing is done.
“I have very serious concerns about what the next election looks like if we are not taking seriously the discourse that we’re seeing online and the way that it is translating in real life, in person,” she said.
“As a party, we will be taking steps to ensure that we are preparing our candidates, that we’re training our campaigns, so that they are equipped, to the extent possible, to navigate some of those challenges.”
Testifying before the inquiry, Watson said there is a risk of foreign interference through disinformation and called it one of the areas where her party is vulnerable.
“We’ve seen bots, we’ve seen fake accounts, all of the things that are delineated in various documents that have been put before this commission,” Watson said. “We have experienced all of those on our party accounts and on our leader’s account.”
Watson said the party reports the posts to the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) task force, which was set up to monitor online disinformation, and to Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. She added it takes on average five to 10 days for the social media giant to respond and to act.
When it comes to misinformation posts on X, formerly known as Twitter, “it could only be responsive if we could contact them,” she said. “We don’t have a contact name.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says sometimes you have to stand up to a bully. A video posted on social media shows Singh confronting protesters on Parliament Hill grounds this week after someone accused him of being a ‘corrupted bastard.’
Watson said there was a period four to six weeks ago when the NDP was submitting a complaint to Meta “almost every other day.”
While Watson said she believes the misinformation posts are coming from foreign actors, under cross-examination she did not rule out the possibility that they could be coming from within Canada.
Watson said NDP staff monitor for misinformation but the party doesn’t have the resources to track everything happening on social media. Consequently, she said, it doesn’t know how long a misinformation post may have been online and how much damage it may have done.
Watson said the NDP would like to see tougher regulations for social media companies and an independent social media watchdog. The party also would like more support on cybersecurity, she said.
Watson’s comments come as the inquiry into foreign interference turned its attention Thursday to how political parties guard against foreign interference and whether they have the resources necessary to identify it.
Over the course of the day, the NDP, the Green Party and the Bloc Québécois fielded questions about the steps they take to avoid foreign interference, such as verifying identities of prospective members and donors and checking the background of candidates. They also outlined additional resources that could help them fend off foreign influence.
On Friday, the inquiry is scheduled to hear from representative of the Liberal and Conservative parties.