OTTAWA, ON – As Canada gears up for a federal election pitting the Mark Carney Liberals against Pierre Poilievre‘s Conservative Party, Elections Canada is taking decisive action to counter the growing threat of misinformation on social media. On March 24, 2025, Chief Electoral Officer Stephane Perrault announced that his agency has initiated talks with platforms like X and TikTok to ensure a secure and trustworthy electoral process. This move comes amid heightened concerns over disinformation, which a recent foreign interference inquiry labeled the “single biggest risk to our democracy.”
Speaking to reporters, Perrault emphasized the importance of collaboration with social media giants, stating, “I have reached out to social media sites such as X and TikTok to seek their support to making this election a secure election.” While he expressed satisfaction with the platforms’ initial responses, he remained pragmatic: “We’ll see what action actually takes place during the election. Hopefully they won’t have to intervene, but if there are issues, hopefully they will be true to their word.” In a bid for transparency, Perrault committed to releasing both his outreach efforts and the platforms’ replies to the public.
TikTok, a platform owned by China-based ByteDance, has already outlined its strategy to protect Canada’s election integrity. In a statement released on March 23, 2025, the company said it is “shoring up our efforts to safeguard the TikTok platform during Canada’s federal election season.” It detailed its approach, noting, “[There are] several ways we do this — including that we protect the integrity of elections by removing harmful misinformation about civic and electoral processes, partnering with fact-checkers to assess the accuracy of content, and labeling claims that can’t be verified.” These measures reflect a broader industry trend toward tackling election-related falsehoods.
The stakes are high, as underscored by a 16-month public inquiry into foreign interference, concluded in January 2025. Commissioner Marie-Josée Hogue’s report found “no evidence” that foreign meddling had swayed past election results, yet warned that misinformation remains a critical vulnerability. “In my view it is no exaggeration to say that at this juncture, information manipulation (whether foreign or not) poses the single biggest risk to our democracy,” Hogue wrote. “It is an existential threat.” Her findings have spurred Elections Canada to launch “ElectoFacts,” a new online tool aimed at debunking false claims circulating online.
Not everyone is convinced her findings were credible, however; there were multiple documented examples of foreign influence that had taken place directly affecting Canadian elections, which resulted in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) – the Canadian equivalent of a combined FBI and CIA – publicly alluding to those as having legitimately occurred. There is a sense among observers that the Hogue Commission was politically motivated to find no wrongdoing, possibly due to the risk it would pose to the embattled Trudeau government’s ability to remain in power amid ongoing scandals and accusations of incompetence.
Perrault urged vigilance among voters, advising, “I encourage Canadians to use Elections Canada as the authoritative source of information about the federal electoral process.” Speaking in French, he added, “I also encourage Canadians not to let their social media feed dictate what they read.” He further encouraged the public to report suspicious content, saying, “If something looks like it’s from Elections Canada but is a bit fishy, someone can verify on our website whether this is content that is coming from Elections Canada.” With electoral boundaries recently redrawn, Perrault also recommended checking riding updates on the agency’s site.
Government Oversight and Past Lessons
To bolster defenses against foreign interference, Canada has deployed two specialized panels. The Critical Election Incident Public Protocol Panel, composed of five senior civil servants, is tasked with publicly identifying interference threats, drawing intelligence from the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) task force, which includes experts from the (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). SITE intervened during the recent Liberal leadership race, highlighting misinformation on WeChat targeting candidate Chrystia Freeland.
Critics have previously questioned the Protocol Panel’s responsiveness, arguing it focuses too heavily on national-level threats rather than riding-specific incidents. The inquiry revealed potential foreign influence in a British Columbia riding during the 2021 election, prompting renewed scrutiny. On March 24, 2025, Allen Sutherland, assistant secretary to the cabinet in the Privy Council Office, defended the panel’s approach: “I don’t know that that’s an actual change. Previous panelists have said that had a single riding been deeply impacted, that would have been enough to trigger the protocol.” However, he acknowledged the need for greater proactivity, stating, “What is impacting what you’ll see this time in the 2025 election is the need to perhaps be a little more proactive in calling out smaller instances, less impactful instances of mis- and disinformation. And the idea is that transparency is the best sunlight.”
Expanding the Context
The issue of election misinformation is not unique to Canada. A 2023 report from the Centre for International Governance Innovation highlighted how disinformation campaigns have disrupted democratic processes globally, citing examples like the 2016 U.S. election and the Brexit referendum. In Canada, the 2021 election saw false narratives about mail-in voting spread on social platforms, prompting Elections Canada to issue clarifications. As digital platforms evolve, so too do the tactics of those seeking to undermine trust, making Perrault’s outreach a timely step toward resilience.
xAI’s Inferences and Considerations
The collaboration between Elections Canada and social media platforms suggests a recognition that traditional regulatory frameworks may struggle to keep pace with the rapid spread of online misinformation. Perrault’s cautious optimism about platform cooperation could imply past frustrations with inconsistent enforcement, though this is not explicitly stated. The emphasis on transparency—making communications public—might also serve as a pressure tactic to hold platforms accountable, especially given TikTok’s foreign ownership, which has raised security concerns in Canada and beyond, as noted in a Government of Canada security review.
Furthermore, the launch of “ElectoFacts” indicates a shift toward proactive public education, potentially reducing the burden on monitoring panels by empowering voters to self-verify information. However, its success may hinge on public awareness and digital literacy, areas where Canada has lagged compared to nations like Finland, which has integrated media literacy into its curriculum since 2014, according to UNESCO. The SITE task force’s intervention in the Liberal leadership race also hints at a growing sophistication in targeting specific political figures, a trend that could intensify in 2025.
- If you notice any errors in this article, please email us at 604[@]604News.com and we will address them.
Keywords: Elections Canada misinformation, 2025 Canadian federal election, social media election interference, foreign interference Canada democracy, Stephane Perrault interview, TikTok election security, ElectoFacts tool, Marie-Josée Hogue report, disinformation threat Canada, Critical Election Incident Panel
