Canadian army funds know-how to gather social media knowledge regardless of claims it was shutting down such efforts

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Six months after Nationwide Defence claimed it was shutting down efforts to gather social media knowledge of Canadians, the army was again once more creating new know-how to perform such duties.

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Defence corporations and different firms got nearly $10 million to develop new methods to research social media and sift by accounts.

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In November 2020, Nationwide Defence claimed it shut down a controversial plan that may have allowed army public affairs officers to make use of propaganda to vary attitudes and behaviours of Canadians in addition to acquire and analyze data from the general public’s social media accounts. The Canadian Forces had already spent greater than $1 million to coach public affairs officers on behaviour modification methods of the identical kind utilized by the father or mother agency of Cambridge Analytica, the corporate implicated in a 2016 data-mining scandal to assist Donald Trump’s election marketing campaign.

After particulars of the initiative turned public, then chief of the defence workers Gen. Jon Vance ordered this system shut down, noting that data warfare capabilities ought to solely be accessible for abroad missions and public affairs officers had no function in concentrating on Canadians.

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However members of the identical public affairs group behind the propaganda initiative had been as soon as once more conducting actions underneath then appearing chief of the defence workers Gen. Wayne Eyre, in accordance with paperwork obtained by this newspaper. A know-how demonstration of recent methods to watch and cull social media accounts, funded by Nationwide Defence, was held in Could 2021.

Nationwide Defence, in an announcement to this newspaper, famous the know-how demonstration day was for innovators, science evaluators and program representatives. “Public affairs is just not concerned,” it added.

That declare isn’t true.

In a Could 3, 2021 e mail to senior army public affairs workers, together with Brig.-Gen. Rick Perreault after which Brig. Gen. Jay Janzen, it was identified that the general public affairs department was a driving drive with defence scientists and researchers behind most of the social media monitoring initiatives. The cash spent to finance the initiatives was dealt with by Defence Analysis and Growth Canada (DRDC) and the workplace of the Assistant Deputy Minister for Science and Expertise (ADM (S&T).

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“We’ve got been partnering with ADM (S&T) DRDC on many of those initiatives,” Lt. Col. Doug Allison identified in a message to the general public affairs senior management.

“The idea reached out to non-public trade with some downside units, and requested them to suggest options. One of many downside units was understanding and making sense of social media on any specific matter, and instruments that may assist deal with challenge/matter.”

Three corporations offered options. Allison famous that the brand new know-how might be adopted throughout the federal authorities or in a selected sector. “This is a superb alternative to realize SA (situational consciousness) on leading edge know-how,” he added.

The funding for the brand new know-how got here on the heels of a lot of controversial propaganda initiatives. Canadian army leaders noticed the pandemic as a singular alternative to check out new propaganda methods on unsuspecting public, a 2021 inside Canadian Forces investigation into the initiatives concluded.

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A army group monitored and picked up data from folks’s social media accounts in Ontario, claiming such data-mining was wanted to assist troops who had been to work in long-term care properties in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. That initiative concerned amassing adverse feedback Ontarians made about Premier Doug Ford and the failure of his authorities to maintain the aged after which ahead these on to the Ontario authorities.

Knowledge was additionally compiled on peaceable Black Lives Matter gatherings and BLM leaders, once more supposedly to help army commanders serving to co-ordinate work in long-term care properties.

Army officers noticed nothing unsuitable with such assortment of information because it was already within the public area on social media accounts. “That is actually a studying alternative for all of us and an opportunity to begin getting data operations into our (CAF-DND) routine,” Rear Admiral Brian Santarpia later instructed investigators.

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When Eyre was military commander, the service held an train in September 2020 the place army data operations workers solid a letter from the Nova Scotia authorities warning about wolves on the free in a selected area of the province. The plan was to check methods on methods to affect native populations. However the letter was inadvertently distributed to residents, prompting panicked calls to Nova Scotia officers who had been unaware the army was behind the deception.

The brand new public affairs technique would have seen workers transfer from conventional authorities strategies of speaking with the general public to a extra aggressive strategies of utilizing data warfare and affect techniques on Canadians. Included amongst these techniques was using pleasant defence analysts and retired generals to push army PR messages and to criticize on social media those that raised questions on army spending and lack of accountability.

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Plenty of army public affairs officers embraced the initiative, viewing themselves as data warriors and the Canadian public as targets to control. Some brazenly referred to the information media because the enemy.

However retired senior public affairs officers repeatedly warned the initiative was a recipe for catastrophe and will do severe hurt to the army’s popularity.

Janzen who was main the initiative — later described as weaponizing public affairs — mentioned on the time the army was “on the vanguard, and we had been exploring uncharted territory. Innovation is usually liable to being misunderstood.”

Janzen left the Canadian Forces and is now a communications director at NATO headquarters.

It’s unclear why Nationwide Defence officers tried to mislead this newspaper with its false declare public affairs department was not concerned within the know-how initiatives.

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However paperwork obtained underneath the Entry to Info legislation present that the general public affairs department initially tried to restrict reporting by this newspaper on a number of the controversial propaganda initiatives.

In a single e mail, Lt. Col. Andre Salloum, citing discussions with then Brig. Gen. Janzen, famous that course had come from Sajjan’s workplace in addition to the workplace of Deputy Minister Jody Thomas to restrict the data to be offered to this newspaper.

The general public affairs workers and Sajjan’s workplace had been notably nervous about any references to a doc which outlined how the army might reap the benefits of the pandemic to check new propaganda methods on Canadians. This newspaper finally obtained that doc and reported on it.