Canadians Say They Don’t Need Government Help to Spot Fake News

A person uses a cell phone in Ottawa on July 18, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Canadians are confident when it comes to recognizing fake news online without help from the government, a survey shows, but they are not so sure when it comes to AI-generated content.

Results from federal focus groups found that “a number of participants express reservations about the government presenting itself as an ‘authority’ on disinformation.”

The information was published in a Study on Online Disinformation Advertising Creative Testing (2023–2024), as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“Most participants said they feel confident they can tell the difference between real and false information you see on the internet, at least most of the time,” the publication said.

Participants were also hesitant that the federal government “would be declaring what is true or not.”

The results were compiled from questionnaires given to eight focus groups from different regions across the country. The report cost $45,192 and was contracted to Ekos Research Associates.

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Canadians have been handling “misinformation” online for some time, with a large number saying they have started verifying what they’re reading.

Data from Statistics Canada said that 59 percent of Canadians were “very or extremely concerned” about online misinformation. Forty-three percent said it was getting harder to decipher truth from fiction on the Internet.

A majority of those surveyed, or 96 percent, said they have verified information they found online. About 17 percent of Canadians say they always use an additional source of information to verify news stories.

Defining ‘Misinformation’

In 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke on the issue of misinformation to a group of students at the University of Ottawa.

He noted there was a difference between “misinformation” and “disinformation.”

“Disinformation is when things that are false, things that are untrue, are spread by people who don’t know any better,” he said in a video posted by CTV News.

“‘Misinformation is a deliberate choice to spread and share falsehoods for a particular purpose,” he said, adding some reasons could be personal, political, or “creating chaos.”

Deciding on what’s true and what’s not requires trust in experts, Mr. Trudeau told the students.

“There has to be an acceptance that there are experts out there that create a basis of fact,” he continued. “There are scientific realities that have been proven and accepted.”

‘Misinformation’ and AI

The rise of artificial intelligence or AI-generated content has left many Canadians feeling “vulnerable,” according to research from Ipsos.

Information collected by Ipsos from 29 different countries found that two in three individuals are confident they can tell the difference between fact and fiction.

Canadians are the most worried about the impact that AI will have on false information online. Sixty-four percent said that the technology will make misinformation worse. That was the highest among the countries surveyed.

“Canadians have seen a decline in the number of local media and news outlets. They do not feel that our governments are up to the task of managing increasingly complicated issues. And their views toward tech and science are fairly utilitarian — they support it but also want to control it,” Ipsos Canada public affairs president Mike Colledge said.

Mr. Colledge added that Canadians likely feel there are not enough checks and balances as the number of media outlets drops.

“It’s a perfect storm that leaves them feeling very vulnerable.”

Another survey says that about half of Canadians are not confident they can distinguish between AI-generated content and human-created content.

The survey was conducted by Maru Public Opinion on behalf of The Canadian Journalism Foundation.

Over half of Canadians (58 percent) believe they have uncovered AI-generated content in the last six months that was misleading or false, the survey said.

Seventy-one percent of Canadians say that the government will not be able to regulate companies that create AI content online.