BY HEATHER BAKKEN, president of World Press Freedom Canada
The U.S. Department of Justice in September unsealed an indictment that identified two Canadians as being at the centre of an alleged Russian-led disinformation campaign, known as Doppelganger, that is targeting the U.S. Presidential elections in November.
Tenet Media – owned by Canadian influencer Lauren Chen and her husband Ian Donovan – is accused in the indictment of being a front for a pro-Kremlin disinformation network.
The Department of Justice alleges that Chen, who has worked for the parent company of Russia Today (RT), was paid nearly $10-million by RT operatives who wanted her to recruit other influencers to cover certain stories and circulate specific content on social media. The indictment says she billed RT through her company Roaming Millennial Inc., which is registered in the Montreal area.
Disinformation is not a new phenomenon, but its scale and sophistication have grown exponentially with the advent of digital media. It is a means for foreign interests to interfere in domestic politics and undermine the credibility of home-country media and other civic institutions.
The CRTC banned RT and RT France from being distributed by Canadian television service providers in 2022. It concluded the programming was antithetical to the policy objectives of the Broadcasting Act and did not serve the public interest.
The U.S. indictment alleges RT directed Chen to recruit high-profile conservative personalities in 2023 to amplify their campaign to achieve bigger impact. She turned to her friend, fellow Canadian influencer Lauren Southern, who has a YouTube audience of nearly 850K followers and more than half a million followers on Instagram. Southern produced videos for Tenet Media focused on Canada, including one calling this country a ‘communist hellhole.’
The spread of disinformation can have real-world consequences. It can influence elections, sow discord, and incite violence. The allegations against Tenet Media highlight the vulnerability of our own media ecosystem to manipulation by foreign actors.
In Canada, the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic institutions resumed hearings in September. The commission concluded in its first report issued in May that state actors, notably China, had interfered in the Canadian political process in 2021 election and affected results in some ridings.
The U.S. indictment is a clarion call for Canada’s media and regulatory bodies to take actions against foreign interference and to increase public awareness on the disinformation tactics used by our adversaries.
One way to safeguard society is to subscribe to reliable news sources. Sharing a common set of facts is a good start towards rebuilding trust with each other.
