US Intelligence may have launched a social media information war to break Canada. Some Youtube videos are suddenly flooded with comments like this.

Canadian expat living in the UK here. Do not be so quick to dismiss these as bots.

I moved to London 6 months before the country shot itself in the ass with Brexit. Even days before the vote, literally everyone I spoke to in person and online agreed that Brexit was too stupid to happen, but my wife wasn't convinced. She'd been spending time on right wing subreddits, reading the misinformation and vitriol. She was convinced that Leave would win.

The day after the vote, two of my work colleagues proudly announced that they'd voted to leave.

Our social spheres are small, and despite (or perhaps also because of) the internet, typically insulated from people with whom we disagree. There are very likely more Leavers out there than you might think.

Alberta has had a deep "fuck Canada" streak for as long as I can remember. It's entirely plausible that at least some of these comments are from real idiots with real power to vote Leave, and we dismiss them at our peril.

Has an implausibly high number of these comments perchance been posted at night hours? (I noticed that once with pro-AfD comments in Germany.)

If you're suspecting the youtube comments of being manipulated in ways that are contrary to the interests of Canada, you're not nearly paranoid enough. You should be suspecting the youtube video recommendations algorithm.

Bot avalanche. I’m sitting here with in laws from AB, life long conservatives they think Marlaina is a big mouthed idiot, for the first time in their life they voted liberal because Polievre is not a compelling leader - and them and none of their conservative Christian friends or anyone they know anywhere in Alberta have any interest in separating. The internet doesn’t reflect the real world. There IS no critical mass of people in AB who want to separate. And oil & gas is not a culture, it’s an industry - not an identity.

it is extremely likely that llm bot account Farms are behind this, inauthentic behavior networks are for sale and are routinely used to boost right wing bullshit like this these days. you are not paranoid if they are actually out to get you

russian bots wouldve done the same, if not at a better effect than US would.

Is that Youtube comments?

Lol, if you are just realizing this, I think you are late to the party buddy.

Youtube has been filled with extremist comments for a while, like at least a decade now.

The backend on YouTube is pretty much designed to encourage skub (ragebait/"engagement"). Having comments that are incendiary is good for the video's performance.

Does that make it the perfect breeding ground for astroturfing and pushing misinformation? Probably. Bad actors can basically use it as a cheap form of advertising and pushing ideas that benefit them. Even the creator of the video if it was a video that has a completely opposite viewpoint of those comments still stands to benefit from having them because that increases engagement and their revenue.

So I guess my point is is that YouTube has a lot of problems and there is a multitude of reasons why comments like that have a home there and motives for them.

Regardless of whether or not these particular comments are US intelligence, I am 100% convinced that Trump is going to try and make Alberta the Canadian Donbas.

They'll do their little Wexit vote thing and they'll lose, but there will be a massive amount of disinfo in all of the places you'd expect saying it was rigged, and they'll just escalate from there. Who knows when the guns break out, but I feel like there are people down south who are planning on this leading to a military "liberation"

As someone who lives in Southern Alberta. I can say that no one I've spoken to would support this nonsense. Mainly because they understand how levels of government work, how funding works, and how trade deals work. The basics lol.

You might look at the history of Calexit and Brexit to deduce who's behind Albexit.

This can be anybody really. Russia for example is known to just stir the pot as much as possible. Whatever argument will cause destabilization.

This is scary because astroturfing campaigns like this is part of how the Russians managed to annex Crimea. With enough propaganda and psychological warfare you can eventually turn people against their own interests. Ask the Chechens.

Ordinary people have no clue that this is going on. They need to know so they can recognize it.

Danielle is greedy for Canada's oil (not Alberta's oil...Canada's oil) and she is willing to use all kinds of chicanery while she gets more and more in cahoots with our southern neighbours.

Would be nice if people just completely disregarded the opinion of about 5 obvious bots or a troll house. Counting on you Canada. Don't get sucked into the social media shit hole like the rest of the world did.

This is much more mundane but no less evil or wholy encapsulating of those in power than a perfectly executed conspiracy, because this is simply the only way U.S. Silicon Valley Techbros know how to monetize online communities (which is boring AND evil, the saddest kind of worst). They sell the capacity to distort and undermine the communities that choose their platforms as foundations like a hotel charging guests for rooms while also selling the service to assassinate any of their guests on demand if a wealthy person is willing to pay a reasonable sum.

Canada is under grave danger so long as it is reliant on U.S. Silicon Valley Tech companies to provide and more importantly moderate social media infrastructure, but it is a much more pathetic grave danger than you might expect.

This is why it is awesome to see lots of Canadians on the fediverse!

Canada has a history of separatists, most notably Quebec who held two referendums on the issue.

The first (in 1980) was rejected by 60% of Quebec voters. The second (in 1995) was extremely close -- 50.6% to 49.4% against separation.

After the last vote the Quebec separatist movement seemed to die down a bit.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_sovereignty_movement

While we should pay attention to what some Albertans say on the issue I am hopeful that others will look to Brexit and Quebec for teachable moments.

Youtube comments have always been some of the biggest sources of bots and are extremely prone to manipulation. Especially since when legitimate users comment they very often dont appear while bots can comment so often they're guaranteed to appear. In addition I feel like google allows for like manipulation by the US gov.

Obviously not from Alberta. Proper grammar and punctuation is a dead give away.

He says that in spite of visible signs of Canadian unity in the face of annexation threats, there are those who are vulnerable to the siren call, particularly among the young who feel economically disadvantaged

And they're talking about bolstering social media, watching money flows, but not bolstering defense and living standards.

Hey, totally not an American agent here. Comments have totally always been like that. Just ignore it and don't push back, troll them, or engage in anyway. You should just post about how you don't like this stuff on Lemmy where it's just us here.

This has been happening for a while on shit like toktok. I personally suspected Russia.

this is everywhere. I can't read comments on UK news videos because they're spammed with absolutely vile sewage spewed from LOADS of accounts. definitely botting going on.

Talk to real people that you know, don't form your opinions entirely from the internet

@dwazou Just because your paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you

We'll see. If think USA is pulling a Crimea with Alberta. It's the same strategy with separatists.

Meh they can have Alberta.

Canada should ban YouTube for being foreign interference with their sovereignty.

Balcanization is the word canada is looking for

Mouth breathers will breathe thru their mouth

oh shit sorry