TWITTER CALLS OUT FREELAND OVER ‘MANIPULATED’ VIDEO
ELECTIONS CANADA URGED TO INVESTIGATE HEAVILY EDITED FOOTAGE OF O’TOOLE
Twitter placed a “manipulated media” label on a heavily edited video that Chrystia Freeland shared on social media on Sunday concerning Conservative Leader Erin O’toole speaking about public health care.
The Conservative party has also asked Elections Canada, via letters from party lawyers, to intervene and force the Liberals to remove the footage, in addition to investigating the origins of the edited video, saying they believe it constitutes a violation of the Canada Elections Act.
It seems to be the first time in the 2021 election campaign that a politician has been flagged by a social media company for spreading misinformation.
Twitter, along with other social media companies, came under considerable pressure during Donald Trump’s presidency for inadequately addressing misinformation and conspiracy theories, and Twitter announced its manipulated media policy in February 2020.
“You should be able to find reliable information on Twitter. That means understanding whether the content you see is real or fabricated and having the ability to find more context about what you see on Twitter,” the policy states.
In addition to sharing the video on social media, the Liberal Party used the edited video as a fundraiser on Sunday evening, sending an emailed plea for donations to supporters, under the headline “this shows what’s at stake.”
The original video, from an online question and answer session when O’toole was running to become leader of the Conservative party following the 2019 election, shows O’toole explaining that he believes there are opportunities for private investment within the public health-care system.
“We have to find public-private synergies and make sure that universal access remains paramount,” O’toole says.
The edited version of the video — which was also shared by Justin Trudeau, the prime minister and the leader of the Liberal Party — includes snippets of O’toole’s response, spliced together. It does not include his comment that maintaining “universal access” was paramount
Kate Harrison, the vicechair at Summa Strategies Canada, who had done the interview with O’toole as part of an interview project with the candidates to lead the Conservative party, said she wasn’t surprised the video itself had emerged.
“But, when I saw how much the initial clip had been edited, I found it quite concerning,” said Harrison on Monday.
Freeland, who served as deputy prime minister and is a Liberal candidate in Toronto, has been Trudeau’s point person on a number of files in his two terms in government. As of Monday, she had not taken the tweets down.
In an email, Brook Simpson, a party spokesperson, said the video is an “accurate reflection of Mr. O’toole’s statement in its entirety.”
“We disagree with the assessment (that the video is manipulated media) and are seeking an explanation from Twitter,” Simpson said.
On Monday morning, Trudeau defended the tweets.
“What’s really important here is that in the middle of a pandemic, Erin O’toole came out unequivocally in support of private health care, in terms of for-profit health care,” he told reporters. “We posted the entire interview in its entirety, and I encourage all Canadians to take a look to see what Erin O’toole has to say about what he sees on the future of health care.”
The Conservatives, meanwhile, have asked Elections Canada to investigate, and O’toole himself accused Trudeau of “dividing and misleading” Canadians.
“Let me be perfectly clear. I 100 per cent support our public and universal health care system,” O’toole said Monday. “In fact, it’s been the backbone we’ve relied on through the pandemic and the front-line workers in it.”
Lawyers for the Conservative party wrote to Elections Canada urging an investigation, arguing that the Liberal Party broke section 481 (1) of the Canada Elections Act. That section forbids distributing information “with the intent of misleading the public into believe that it was made ... by or under the authority of ... (a) political party, candidate or prospective candidate.”
The Conservative party did not respond to the Post’s request for further information about why they believe the sharing of the video may have violated that provision of the Canada Elections Act.
The party is asking the Yves Côté, the commissioner of Elections Canada, “to determine the identity of every individual responsible for the manipulation and editing of the CPC’S original video, and the identity of every individual who has transmitted or retransmitted this Liberal Party video.”
They’re also asking that the commissioners office force the Liberal Party to remove the video “from any platform where it continues to be published.”