Conspiracy theories. Donald Trump followers. Pandemic sees rise in right-wing extremism online in Canada — and report warns of a ‘surge’ as lockdowns lift
… Canadian politics was the second-most talked about subject with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau being the most mentioned politician. Discussion around him was overwhelmingly negative, the researchers found.
Not far behind was U.S. politics. The data showed Canadian right-wing extremists were very much influenced by events happening in the U.S. and Donald Trump came up in a lot of posts.
“This raises the concern that an emboldened and increasingly violent extreme right in the U.S. could help to inspire similar activity in Canada, as Canadian right-wing extremists look to their U.S. counterparts for inspiration,” the researchers wrote.
Around the time of the U.S. election last year, trolls on 4chan created and disseminated a fake article that suggested Canada was preparing to launch an invasion of the U.S. should Donald Trump win the election. It all appeared to be part of an effort to exacerbate political tensions between the neighbouring countries “at the time of a high-stakes political event,” the researchers wrote.
The Star is a comic book.
Full disclosure to CSIS and the RCMP – This is the 1st I’ve heard of Canada invading the US!
