Aaron Erlich, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said it’s important to make people aware of misleading information online. But he said the wording in the CSIS campaign was “not the most straightforward” and appeared to be an attempt not just to educate but to invoke fear.
Erlich said clumsy messaging can backfire, and he would like to know if the messaging was tested at all to see how it would be received.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Canada’s spy agency is leaning on Soviet imagery to help prime the public against disinformation, but experts say Moscow is more likely to use images that make readers think the messaging is coming from North American sources.
Last month, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) started posting on social media about its efforts to counteract deliberately misleading information online.
The agency said that government and non-government actors exploit open democracies like Canada, particularly since the internet allows them to amplify messages that “interfere in healthy debate” and undermine confidence in institutions.
RRM Canada reports from early this year, which were obtained by The Canadian Press through the Access to Information Act, identify sites that are not overtly tied to the Russian state but are closely aligned with Kremlin narratives.
The analysis also notes that these sites try to undermine the decision made by Western countries to send military aid to Ukraine by arguing it comes at the expense of domestic programs.
It is difficult to know what sort of effect such narratives in cyberspace might have on a reader, because much depends on variables such as the person’s world view, said Tim Blackmore, a professor in the faculty of information and media studies at Western University in London, Ont.
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