Canada, U.S., U.K. endorse framework to fight foreign information manipulation

Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom say they’re “deeply concerned” about foreign information manipulation and have jointly endorsed a framework to counter the threat.

“The time is now for a collective approach to the foreign information manipulation threat that builds a coalition of like-minded countries committed to strengthening resilience and response to information manipulation,” the three countries said in a joint media release on Friday.

The framework they’re endorsing was released in mid-January by the U.S. State Department. It outlines multiple principles for fighting foreign information manipulation, such as supporting independent media and encouraging countries to go beyond “monitor-and-report” approaches.

Since last August, a string of reports have highlighted concerns from various Canadian organizations about disinformation campaigns targeting the country.

During that month, Global Affairs Canada (GAC) said a disinformation operation on the Chinese social media platform WeChat spread false information about Conservative MP Michael Chong’s identity and political stances.

Later in October, GAC said the Chinese government was likely behind a “spamouflage” disinformation campaign targeting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and other MPs.

A “spamouflage” campaign uses hijacked social media accounts to post propaganda messages across social media platforms. 

GAC said the posts claimed a critic of the Chinese Communist Party in Canada accused various MPs of criminal and ethical violations. GAC said the posts likely involved “deepfake” manipulated videos.

But the heightened attention on foreign information manipulation isn’t restricted to Canada.

Major world powers are increasingly worried about the spread of misinformation through social media platforms that are harder to contain — especially in a year where countries making up over 60 per cent of global economic output, including the U.S., Britain and India, are due to hold elections.

“Securing the integrity of the global information ecosystem is central to popular confidence in governance institutions and processes, trust in elected leaders, and the preservation of democracy,” the joint release said.

Expert says framework is ‘innovative’

Marcus Kolga, founder of DisinfoWatch, said the announcement is “very good news.

“I think it’ll help very quickly build a societal resilience against foreign information manipulation, especially the kind that comes from Russia and comes from China,” he said.

The framework itself is also “innovative” because it focuses on cooperating with civil society and academia, Kolga said.

“Civil society often gets overlooked, but it’s civil society that’s really in the trenches fighting foreign information, manipulation and the influence operations.” he added.

Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, said the “number one benefit” of incorporating civil society is transparency.

“In a democracy, we fight to ensure that there is free expression of the citizens of a given country. As a result, when the government just tells us that something is foreign interference, there is an understandable suspicion that people can have,” Brooking said.

The more research takes place in the open, he said, “the better it is for speech rights and the better it is for the confidence of citizens that governments are focused just on the foreign information threat.”

Kolga said he expects governments of countries like China, Russia and Iran to use artificial intelligence tools to “plant all sorts of stories” about candidates or parties critical of their regimes during elections in powerful countries this year.

Canadians should be aware that they’re being actively targeted by influence operations and should be “keeping an eye” on the sources of their information, Kolga said.