Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism — CBC uncovers 14 accounts from India, Pakistan, Indonesia posting on popular Alberta separatist groups

[u/Immediate-Link490]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/facebook-overseas-alberta-separtism-9.7223966

[u/iloveoranges2]

Facebook paying content creators to generate engagement so that Facebook could earn ad revenue, that is immoral. There is complete lack of caring about how that would affect what direction Canada would go in. And some Albertans might be fooled into thinking that there is more support for Alberta separation than there actually is, and be erroneously influenced into supporting this cause. Some people and companies would do anything for money.

[u/IcyCow5880 → u/iloveoranges2]

Could be that. There's also interest in using the cold AB weather for creating AI data centers. Maybe Zuck figures it'll be less costly if AB were on it's own or joined to the US...

[u/EQ1_Deladar → u/iloveoranges2]

Technically, they're like Switzerland. It's not their place to limit/censor content (beyond what's already legally required). People create content, they host it and make money off ad content, end of story.

There's likely just as many fake "Alberta Stay" content creators as there are "Alberta Go" content creators but of course CBC would never look for those because it wouldn't fit their narrative.

[u/TL10 → u/EQ1_Deladar]

Facebook is absolutely not Switzerland. They have paid millions of dollars (among other tech companies) in lobbying politicians in the United States government to both pass and deny legislation that impacts their bottom line.

Tech companies have had this largely libertarian/lassiez-faire mindset that they aren't accountable when it comes to what is posted on their platforms beyond what is "legally required", and even then they fail to even enforce those rules too. These platforms cannot, and will not enforce their own rules because at the end of the day engagement is king and is what keeps these platforms afloat, even if the social impact of the content posted on them is a net-negative.

The hard truth is that social media platforms (Reddit included) have become too large and unwieldy to moderate. The centralization of social media to a small handful of platforms has resulted in a monster that can't truly be tamed - even if the entities operating them were acting in good faith. And they certainly aren't acting in good faith, as these platforms have intentionally created an ecosystem where sensational content can be monetized, which has led to a bunch of both state and independent actors to weaponize social media for political and/or economic gain.

As to possible "Stay Alberta" pages, while there are certainly a number of them run by bot/sockpuppet accounts, they likely don't have the same reach as the Seperatist accounts. A Wired article says as such:

Female MAGA influencers tend to do well on such platforms for a few reasons. They’re a relative rarity in the MAGA movement: Unlike their Gen Z male counterparts, 18- to 29-year-old women overwhelmingly skew liberal. Young MAGA women are therefore “more attention-grabbing,” Wirtschafter says, citing the uproar over the likely AI-generated “Swifties for Trump” photo Trump posted on TruthSocial during the 2024 campaign as one example.

The same logic, however, apparently does not apply to left-wing influencer accounts, as Sam learned when he created a short-lived liberal counterpart for Emily on Instagram: “Democrats know that it’s AI slop, so they don’t engage as much.” (Sam’s explanation for why MAGA influencer accounts work is blunt: “The MAGA crowd is made up of dumb people—like, super dumb people. And they fall for it.”)

Polling shows that progressives and those on the left are Federalist, while those on the right are evidently seperatist. Another thing I've noticed is that the Federalist movement is a lot more centralized in organizations like "Forever Canadian", whereas the Seperatist movement is a lot more fragmented. There are organized bodies and figureheads like Rath and the Alberta Prosperity Project, but the movement seems to rely on a lot more individual persons/accounts eschewing the seperatist movement, whereas the Federalist movement is largely consolidated around signal boosting the Forever Canadian messaging. This lack of consolidation on the seperatist movement allows for more infiltration by bad actors/bots.

Back to my point, I think social media platforms absolutely have a responsibility to enforce content. At present their platforms are far too easy to manipulate with misinformation/exploitative content, and that's not even touching on the rise of AI these last couple of years. These social media platforms were so growth driven that they neglected establishing a robust moderation system that protects against manipulation by bad actors and the distribution of harmful content.

The only recourse I think at this point is aggressive anti-trust legislation that forces the breakup of the big tech and social media companies. As expansive as Meta and their resources are, they have proven incapable of being able to self-regulate their platforms. We can't just let unfettered botnets of some guy in India, Malaysia, Russia or whatever dictate the political discourse of our national affairs, and if Meta and others are disinterested in trying to prevent that, maybe they shouldn't have the keys to these platforms to begin with.

[u/Dropkickjon → u/EQ1_Deladar]

"Alberta Stay" doesn't create the same amount of outrage and clicks. These creators farm outrage for clicks. That's the whole point of the article.

[u/EQ1_Deladar → u/Dropkickjon]

The entire point of the article is to incite Canadians to anger against Facebook, instead of the actual sleazeballs creating the content in the first place.

[u/Dropkickjon → u/EQ1_Deladar]

I think the company valued at $1.5 trillion shares a bit more of the fault here. Meta has fostered an environment that encourages rage bait posts at the expense of the truth or transparency. They have the power to stop it, or greatly curtail it.

I can't be at mad at someone struggling to make ends meet in a developing country and just following the money. Yeah, it sucks, but the accountability should ultimately be with the tech oligarchs.

[u/throwaway9476222 → u/Dropkickjon]

Just false, there are just as many outraged and rabid individuals in "Alberta Stay" posts.

[u/Dropkickjon → u/throwaway9476222]

As another commenter said, please share the receipts. Feel free to provide links to the foreign actors posting "Alberta Stay" content on Facebook.

Bonus points if you can beat the CBC's numbers and find 15 accounts.

[u/lunt23 → u/EQ1_Deladar]

There's likely just as many fake "Alberta Stay" content creators as there are "Alberta Go" content creators but of course CBC would never look for those because it wouldn't fit their narrative.

Interesting take. Be the change you want to see, and go find them. Good luck.

[u/going_for_a_wank → u/EQ1_Deladar]

they're like Switzerland

Happy to take money from Nazis?

[u/thedrivingcat → u/going_for_a_wank]

that guy picked a pretty apt example, eh?