Use of Online Influencers Needed to Reach Public, Say Ministers

President of the Treasury Board Anita Anand, left, looks on as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland speaks to reporters during the Liberal Cabinet retreat in Charlottetown on Aug. 22, 2023. Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press

Social media influencers, including those on TikTok, are increasingly becoming part of Ottawa’s strategy to capture the interest of young voters.

Ottawa has paid content creators on a wide variety of social networks, including the popular short-form video hosting app, to broadcast government messaging despite TikTok being deemed a potential security threat by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

While the use of TikTok appears to contradict warnings issued by CSIS, Treasury Board President Anita Anand downplayed the decision during a June 18 press conference when questioned by reporters on the issue.

“Influencers, being influencers, are heard on other media platforms other than TikTok,” Ms. Anand said. “We know that influencers are able to reach different sectors of the Canadian population through different media platforms.

“That doesn’t mean the decision relating to TikTok is somehow wrong,” she added. “It just means that we need to be using safe platforms in order to disseminate the information about our policy, and reach those particular sectors of the population.”

The Treasury Board is responsible for the federal government’s cybersecurity strategy and, along with the Communications Security Establishment, evaluates the security risk posed by each platform it uses, she said.

Ms. Anand made the comments in response to a question from reporters on why the government relied on TikTok to deliver government messaging despite the app’s reported risk to national security. 

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland also weighed in, saying the Liberal government has “taken real meaningful action” on the “potential threat” posed by TikTok.

“That is certainly an issue which we are discussing with our allies, the broader question of foreign interference, and how, as countries, we can protect our own democracy and the democracy of our partners,” she said at the press conference.

TikTok has become one of the world’s most widely used social media platforms since its 2016 release by China-based parent company ByteDance and is often used as a news and entertainment source by Gen Z and Millenials.

TikTok has been banned in a handful of countries due to security concerns and is currently under scrutiny in the U.S., where a new law is threatening a nationwide ban.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last month that while his government is not considering a Canada-wide ban on TikTok, the app has been banned from government devices since 2023.

He added that Canadians should heed warnings from CSIS director David Vigneault, who has said data from the app “is available to the government of China.”

A recent report from the Macdonald-Laurier Institute echoes CSIS’ stance, describing TikTok as “a Trojan Horse” used by the Chinese regime to both access and influence Western democracies.

Influencer Use

Ottawa has been actively courting social media influencers for some time to help share government messaging with younger Canadians who are less likely to watch the news or read a newspaper online.

Health Canada, for instance, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on social media influencers, according to federal documents, including more than $132,000 to promote its COVID-19 vaccines messages while Heritage Canada paid $196,650 to have influencers promote events like Canada Day and Winterlude activities.

Health Minister Mark Holland noted that while social media can be used as a way to inform, it can also be used to deceive.

He described the Canadian government’s use of social media as a tool for reaching citizens to promote “what is true” and share “what the government is trying to accomplish, and why it’s doing what it’s doing.”

Ms. Anand said the government’s decision to use social influencers is not only about “evolving” with the times, but about reaching a wider audience. Reaching Canadians via influencers may be a strategy the government is using, she added, but it is just one part of Ottawa’s overall plan to respond to the growing issue of misinformation online.

“We are now in an era where people debate what is true,” she said. “And in order to be in the realm of discussing the truth, we need to ensure that the work that we are doing in whatever portfolio is actually disseminated in an honest and clear way so that Canadians can understand what their taxpayer dollars are paying for.”