"This study uses data from the Survey Series on People and their Communities (SSPC) to explore how Canadians are navigating the complexities of today’s information environment. Specifically, it examines the characteristics of those who reported having high levels of concern about misinformation online and how this concern may relate to perceptions of media trustworthiness, confidence in institutions, hopefulness about national unity and democracy, as well as voting behaviour (as a measure of civic participation)" (Statistics Canada, 2025).
Fake news is falsified information created with the intent of misleading people. It aims to shape public opinion by eliciting an emotional and biased response that is divorced from facts but in alignment with a particular ideology or perspective. Fake news can effectively weaponize information. It uses disinformation, misinformation or mal-information to demonize or damage a political foe, or to sow confusion and mistrust among the public. Fake news came to the fore of public consciousness during and immediately after the 2016 US presidential election, though its origins date back much further.
A lot of fake and misleading news stories were shared across social media during the election. One that got a lot of traffic had this headline: "FBI Agent Suspected In Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide." The story is completely false, but it was shared on Facebook over half a million times.
Digital literacy helps people identify misinformation — but it doesn’t necessarily stop them from spreading it.
People are more likely to share misinformation when it aligns with personal identity or social norms, when it is novel, and when it elicits strong emotions
Criticisms appearing in opponents’ letters appear to misunderstand or distort much of the curriculum’s content.
Growth of artificial intelligence software is driving ‘democratisation of propaganda'
Bogus news has been around a lot longer than real news. And it’s left a lot of destruction behind.
The deliberate making up of news stories to fool or entertain is nothing new. But the arrival of social media has meant real and fictional stories are now presented in such a similar way that it can sometimes be difficult to tell the two apart.
It was one of the worst school shootings in American history, but some people insist that the Sandy Hook massacre never happened. They post YouTube videos and spread rumours online, and their false theories have been repeated by a media mogul conspiracy theorist who has been linked to Donald Trump. Now, after years of harassment, the families of the victims are fighting back online.
