Like and Share If You Agree: Fake News and Digital Radicalization in Canada

In August of 2023, content from news outlets vanished from Meta platforms in Canada, marking the beginning of the Online News Act’s impact upon social media giants. This event occurred in a time where misinformation and disinformation has become increasingly pervasive, and removed news from a public who had become reliant on Facebook as a viable news platform. What has remained unclear, is if an increase in misinformation and conspiracy theories in Canada can be connected to Meta’s decision to remove content, or if the transformation of the Canadian digital ecosystem was an inevitability. My research seeks to explore the “fake news” on Facebook today and how Canadians are impacted and informed by it, especially as the country enters an electoral year, through an investigation of content posted on the platform, particularly those tied to anti-government sentiment. The intrinsic connection between the politics in the United States and Canada will be explored through a discussion of American conspiracy theories, and the role they play in the Canadian digital ecosystem. The data and statistics used to explore the psychology of misinformation, media literacy and changes in trends has been collected through a literature review of pre-existing sources, and the assessment of Canadian social media was achieved through a qualitative overview of selected case studies. This thesis contends that while Meta has left Canadians more susceptible to misinformation by removing news outlets from Facebook in Canada, the digital connection to the United States has greatly contributed to the rise of Ideologically Motivated Violent Extremism, and poses a threat to Canadian democracy.