A network of “bot-like” social media accounts that targeted Liberal Leader Mark Carney in the lead-up to the federal election claimed a firm where he used to work will benefit from the party’s “net zero agenda.”
The suspected bot network appeared to suggest without evidence that the global investment firm Brookfield would benefit from Carney's rise to power, according to an analysis from Climate Action Against Disinformation.
Based in Washington, D.C., and made up of a coalition of more than 50 climate and anti-disinformation organizations, the group tracked hundreds of accounts across YouTube and X.com in the lead-up to the election. CAAD policy co-chair Michael Khoo said the activity targeting Carney has all the hallmarks of bot networks that have spread climate disinformation elsewhere in the world.
“We’ve been doing this now for almost five years,” he told BIV. “You see the same networks piling on.”
“Net-zero” refers to the point when humanity decarbonizes enough to stop increasing the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. More than 140 countries have pledged to reach that target, mostly by 2050, as a way to keep global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial levels — the point where scientists say irreversible damage will be done to the Earth’s climate system.
The term has also become a target in recent years in the spread of online climate disinformation.
Group unable to find who set up suspected bot network
Net-zero targets are one of several “tent-pole” subjects often used by online social media accounts to undermine climate action as a job-killing movement that will lead to elite profiteering, said Khoo.
Originally from Canada, Khoo carried out the analysis with a team of researchers spanning the U.S. and Europe. In an interview, he said the analysis is preliminary and only represents a snapshot of the data they could find across networks that are increasingly hard to penetrate.
“We’ve been unable to pierce the veil of the platform to attribute any bot activity,” he said.
Khoo said groups of social media bots can spread that disinformation, and during an election, the opaque networks can create an unfair playing field like was seen on X.com during the last .
In Canada, disinformation networks on the platform represent a “threat to Canada’s democracy and risk influencing the upcoming federal election.”
Accounts likely to deepen partisan divide, says expert
Chris Tenove, assistant director at the University of British Columbia’s Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions, said it appeared CAAD has found “co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour by a network of bot-like accounts.”
“I examined some of the accounts flagged by CAAD and they tend to be suspicious — hyperpartisan, low follower numbers, little authentic communication, copying and pasting text from other places,” said Tenove.
He said that while the suspected bots are unlikely to change voters’ positions, they will likely spread messages among people who already agree with the political perspective they promote.
“This is yet another example of how polluted X has become as an information space,” added Tenove.
This is not the first time CAAD has tracked climate denialism across X.com in Canada.
Last year, the group tracked a spike in disinformation during the 2023 wildfires season, Canada's most destructive on record.
The found networks were spreading unsubstantiated claims of arson, later followed by more conspiratorial theories. Some insinuated left-wing extremists and the Canadian government were responsible for starting the fires.
The false and misleading posts were found to gain considerable engagement. The report warned disinformation networks are growing throughout Canada that aim to mobilize farmers against climate policy.
Whether wildfires, an unexpected snow storm in Texas or international climate conference, bot activity targeting climate change tends to be opportunistic, Khoo said.
“We see people paid by fossil fuel companies spreading the disinformation,” he said.
Up to 600 social media accounts targeted Carney
The CAAD analysis found up to 600 accounts posting the same “suspicious content” appearing to amplify an anti-Carney message on X.com.
At least 60 of those accounts were “heavily suspected” of being bots — they had no profile photo, no bio and their history showed no original content.
Many of the accounts were found to post have posted to YouTube a number of videos from the right-wing channels that often spread conspiracy theories, such as Rebel ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵapp, Northern Perspective and Moose on the Loose.
One of the videos shared by the suspected bot network alleged “Carney’s debate commissioner” attempted to censor Rebel ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵapp. Several accounts were found to share videos with the same “whistleblower” interview.
“RCMP Whistleblowers Name 9 TRAITORS in Mark Carney’s Liberal Government,” read the title on the Moose on the Loose video.
Nearly 400 videos were posted to YouTube with no captions and the same title.
“Whistleblower: DO NOT ELECT MARK CARNEY! Investment Banker's WARNING If Liberals Win The Election,” it read.
The April 8 video, as well as a clipped version, together went on to receive more than 300,000 views.
Unlike many bot campaigns, the analysis found many of the accounts were created before 2024 but had posted no or very little content until the posts about Carney.
The CAAD analysis suggests that could indicate that the accounts were lying dormant until reactivated for a specific purpose before the election.
