What a huge claim to make with no evidence whatsoever, written in response to nothing.
I'm not saying I agree with them that anti-Sohi rhetoric is being spread by Russian bots, but people do need to be aware that Russia is absolutely using so-called "bot farms" to sow division even in small towns and big cities alike.
As early as 2016, two Russian-controlled Facebook accounts posing as local interest groups managed to organize an anti-Islam protest and a counter-protest in Huston that each had dozens of participants. For the price of $200 in ads, they got a lot of locals fighting each other. And it's not like these accounts had big Russian flag banners; the anti-Islam account was called "Heart of Texas", it described itself as "Home of bbq, guns, and ur heart", and it pushed succession from the US.
Since then, Russia has turned its attention toward local issues in the US to really try and pit people against each other, and
there are signs that this could now happening in Canada. This is not unexpected:
"Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) officials have previously identified Alberta as a “very attractive” target for foreign interference due to its geostrategic importance, energy resources, and large diaspora communities, Postmedia has reported.
In a presentation given by CSIS to representatives of Elections Alberta and the province's political parties in December 2022, the agency noted the provincial and municipal levels of government are perceived as being easier targets because they receive less scrutiny and attention, documents released through freedom of information requests show."
Furthermore, it's easier now than ever to run massive campaigns to sow division or disinformation; in recent years
Russia has made great use of AI to flood social media with content that can pass for human-generated.
Again, I'm not saying the Sohi hate is because of Russia. But I *am* saying that we need to just expect at this point that a not-insignificant chunk of the angry rhetoric we're seeing in local online communities is fueled by Russian bots. It's been clearly established for almost a decade now that Russia runs troll farms (the now-late chief of the Wagner mercenary group even
admitted to running a big one), they've found a good return on investment in delving into local communities, and AI technology makes it even easier and cheaper than ever to reach countless audiences at once. And think about it: They can get people blindly hating the government, hating each other, and all the while they'll go undetected because everyone assumes "Russia wouldn't bother with a small town/city like ours."
Remember this during the coming election season, and think critically about what you read online. The comments you read could be posted by people who are much further away than you realize.
