Carney targeted by Chinese WeChat ‘operation’ in Canada election: officials

Canadian officials monitoring the federal election for foreign interference said Monday they have detected a Beijing-backed operation on the Chinese social media platform WeChat focused on Liberal Leader Mark Carney.

The “information operation” was launched by Youli-Youmian, WeChat’s most popular news account, which has been linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s central political and legal affairs commission, officials from the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) task force said.

According to the assessment unveiled Monday, the operation was intended to influence Chinese-Canadian communities and “mould perceptions” about Carney through articles that were amplified and spread by other WeChat accounts “in a coordinated and inauthentic way.”

“This information operation had contrasting positive and negative narratives, first amplifying Mr. Carney’s stance with the United States and then targeting his experience and credentials,” Laurie-Anne Kempton, assistant secretary to the cabinet for communications at the Privy Council Office, told reporters in Ottawa.

“I don’t think we can speak to the intent, but I will say that the PRC (People’s Republic of China) should not be trying to shape the opinions of Canadians, particularly during an election period.”

However, Kempton said a panel of senior bureaucrats that monitors elections “has determined that this is not affecting Canada’s ability to have a free and fair election.”

She explained that the WeChat campaign is not preventing Canadians from being able to make up their own minds about their vote.

Examples shared by Canadian officials of the WeChat articles were mainly positive, calling Carney a “tough guy” prime minister and suggesting he was aligning with U.S. President Donald Trump against China.

Officials said Monday they did not want to further amplify the information being shared, but noted the intent to influence Canadian voters through a coordinated foreign state-backed operation is an issue regardless of the viewpoint being promoted.

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“The People’s Republic of China is largely party-agnostic in terms of its approach, and certainly as the information ecosystem is changing, then that can account for positive narratives in one instance and negative in the other,” said Vanessa Lloyd, deputy director of operations at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

1:30 Freeland Liberal leadership campaign targeted by foreign interference: task force

Officials notified the Liberal campaign about the Chinese operation on Sunday, “following increasing levels of engagement on the platform” two days after the election was called on March 23, the task force said.

The task force also noticed large spikes of activity on March 10, the day after Carney won the Liberal leadership race.

The SITE task force said it will discuss the issue of the Youli-Youmian account with WeChat’s Beijing-based developer Tencent on Monday “to raise our concerns.”

The conversation will focus on alerting Tencent to violations of its user policies against the spread of disinformation and influence operations, and it will be up to the company to take any action taken against the offending accounts, officials said.

Articles spread through the operation received between 85,000 and 130,000 interactions and an estimated one million to three million views.

By comparison, posts from Chinese state media outlets like the People’s Daily on WeChat receive about 30,000 interactions on average, Canadian officials said.

“This case is contained to one platform and has not spread further, nor is it affecting Canadians’ abilities to make an informed decision about their vote,” a statement from the task force said.

“However, it is important for voters to be aware of this type of activity, and to be cautious with the information they might be seeing both online and offline.”

The Youli-Youmian account was also behind information campaigns targeting Conservative candidate and outspoken China critic Michael Chong when he was a member of Parliament, as well as Chrystia Freeland, the former finance minister and deputy prime minister, when she was running for the Liberal leadership against Carney.

“Make no mistake, the Communist Party in Beijing is engaging in a sophisticated campaign to interfere in Canada’s election with the aim of re-electing Mark Carney and the Liberals to a fourth term,” Chong said in a statement from the Conservative Party that focused on the positive narratives spread by the Chinese operation.

“The next Government of Canada should be chosen by Canadians and Canadians alone.”

Federal officials have determined China sought to influence the 2019 and 2021 federal elections, but that their activities did not sway the results. Concerns about foreign interference have led to more safeguards, monitoring and efforts to keep Canadians informed about influence efforts, including weekly briefings by the SITE task force.

SITE officials have assessed that Chinese state-affiliated actors will continue to target Chinese communities in Canada, “pushing narratives favourable to the PRC’s interests on social media platforms,” Bridget Walshe, associate head of the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, told the Ottawa briefing.

The task force has previously assessed that foreign threat actors like China, Russia and Iran were likely to use artificial intelligence tools and AI-generated content like deepfakes to try and disrupt the federal election and influence Canadian voters.

Such attempts are becoming increasingly likely, officials said Monday.

“While it is difficult to predict what disinformation or influence campaigns will gain traction, we assess that it is very unlikely that disinformation or AI-enabled cyber-activity would fundamentally undermine the integrity of Canada’ democratic processes in this general election,” Walshe said.

—With files from the Canadian Press