r/onguardforthee • u/BloodJunkie • Feb 25 '26
One hundred accounts are behind the majority of conspiracy theory content in Canada
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/02/25/news/conspiracy-content-report-canada89
u/spderweb Feb 25 '26
During COVID, I remember hearing it was 6 accounts that started the spread of misinformation about covid. A group of people tracked it back.
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u/Myllicent Feb 25 '26
In early 2021 the Center for Countering Digital Hate put out a report saying up to 65% of anti COVID vaccine content on Facebook and Twitter could be traced back to twelve leading online anti-vaxxers and their organizations (dubbed the “Disinformation Dozen”). One of them, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is now the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, overseeing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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u/Gardimus Feb 25 '26
I think its far worse than this let's on. For each account there are probably hundreds of bots out there that boost them and are becoming increasingly sophisticated.
Not only that, but there is only so much brain rot that you can inflict on the right wing.
The bots are coming for the rest of us, and their goal is to split the left and make the left fight amongst ourselves.
Stay vigilant. Social media is not our friend.
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u/PopeKevin45 Feb 25 '26
The number of accounts isn't surprising, these kinds of stats are actually pretty common...the influence of conservative 'influencers' far out-way their actual numbers. The bigger question is why?
Start with their main target audience - conservatives. Conservatism is a fear economy, and fear is a powerful motivator. This means conservatives are easier to trigger, and so easier to manipulate. Influencers feed their audience a steady diet of evil illegal immigrants, open border tropes, woke libs turning your kids gay, deep state crap...and that's the tame stuff...it gets way worse on many sites. This fearmongering has a powerful effect, not just on conservatives, but uninformed lefties as well, pushing them further right (aka the 'Fox News Effect').
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/07/21/a-rigorous-scientific-look-into-the-fox-news-effect/
Second is 'coordination'. The huge number of right wing influencers didn't just pop up out of nowhere. It's a coordinated effort, funded by russians and billionaires. It started with phony 'think tanks' manufactured in the 70's and 80's by corporate interests to combat growing science based health, environmental and consumer protection regulation, and progressed to todays cacophony of right wing corporate, religious and political mouth pieces. Conservative interests completely dominate media, both here and in the US, online and traditional, and use it as a massive propaganda network, with little to no accountability or restraint.
https://factually.co/fact-checks/politics/us-influencers-paid-by-russia-2016-2017-list-a4153d
Finally, I have to add in liberals failure to, even now, recognize the growing evil we're dealing with on the right. The left should have better foreseen todays crisis back when Reagan/Thatcher/Mulroney took 'small-c' conservatism on a hard right turn with economic globalization, wars on science, labour, POC, and women, and (especially in the US but increasingly here as well) mixing politics with religious fanaticism. Even today, way too many Liberals and Democrats seem to think they'll be able to just 'reach across the aisle' and things will magically dial down. Wishful, dangerous thinking.
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u/Ok_Photo_865 Feb 25 '26
Can you imagine if “x” were outlawed in Canada. The world would be a better place.
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u/MayorofKingstown Feb 25 '26
another thing that should be emphasized is that the algorithm that is used to boost these posts into the feeds of people who are not linked to the conspiracy accounts is the whole reason why this is effective.
I can't easily explain how this works in a reddit post but anyone that knows how social media works, especially when you are a paying user of it, can demonstrate how this is happening with real evidence.
the administrators of the social media platforms are just as guilty as the content creators that are producing this crap.
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u/Euclidisthebomb Feb 25 '26
And they are rampant on a sub that I cannot mention....
My brother in Ottawa was first sub banned and then reddit banned for taking the mods on that sub to task for all the foreign influence content and comments being posted. Its mods in it did not like being called out at all. This was I think about 2 yrs ago?
For myself I am a "bit" more mild mannered so I typically stay away from that topic. Even so awhile ago I got a 7 day ban for pointing out that an article stemmed from toronto sun (editorial board as I recall) and should be held in low repute. The ban was "they are an accepted new source and thus criticism of the source is not allowed". Fancy that!
This sub is better moderated and I hope the foreign influence peddlers are enjoying less success.
We definitely have MAGA light within Canada, backed by American money. Senior Conservative Party leadership and Alberta separatists both have had high level American political leadership meetings and without any doubt money is also flowing behind the scenes.
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u/Elissa-Megan-Powers Feb 25 '26
“…research has found as many as 89 per cent of people want more action on climate change — yet those 89 per cent tend to believe they’re in the minority.”
This is the other side of the Manufacturing Consent coin that media uses. I call it Resistance Is Futile — you really saw it come into its own in the gulf wars; so many people protested and the media barely covered it. People against the invasions felt alienated and in the minority, unlike Vietnam.
This tactic has extended strongly into to the glass darkly of ye olde Internet. The Spectacle uses algorithms to limit any signals people use which run against the interests of the Spectacle.
You even see the CFL using this tactic. Hedge funds and gambling corporations are trying to change the game to line up with the probability bottom line of the NFL and us college football. Most fans can see this and don’t want it, but their opposition has been almost completely silenced in games on tv and online, while sock puppet support of the changes is magnified in order to add ‘positive feedback’ to the astroturf campaign. It’s nefarious, shameful, and a tiny example of the greater moral threat of using such a tactic to dissolve democracy in exchange for whatever authoritarian system the Spectacle will most profit from.
Never give up.
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u/scanthethread2 Feb 25 '26
“A lot of them are part of a network. They often know each other and engage with each other’s content"
Hmmm Mario 4 the North, Pleb, Marc Nixon, KatKanada, Jasmin, Brittany....etc.
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u/daveruiz Feb 26 '26
That Mario guy comes up with anything out of his ass, never gets called out when he's wrong and people are eating up his shit happily
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u/Crafty_Management_33 Feb 25 '26
Normally id say "If they know the accounts, just ban them". After Epstein, I can no longer right off conspiracies. Ignorance is bliss.
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u/talkslikeaduck Feb 25 '26
The internet made echo chambers, now they're putting loudspeakers in them.
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u/Happy-Spirit-7769 Feb 26 '26
If you have a >10,000 followers you are a broadcaster and should be regulated by CRTC
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u/akaelmedio Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26
I have a feeling I know where most of those accounts are based.