Dutch YouTube creators behind Alberta separatist videos getting millions of views

Albertans end up bombarded with targeted messaging that amounts to Propaganda or Slopaganda, funded by dark money.

This week, a report by the Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO), a joint project between the University of Toronto and McGill University in Montreal looking into Canadian media, identified 20 YouTube channels as part of a co-ordinated network focused on separatism in western Canadian provinces, and other political issues.

The report noted they use near-identical scripts and dubbed them “slopaganda.”

Altogether, the accounts have garnered roughly 40 million views.

The report says many of the videos contain “frequent and obvious lies, drawing on real news stories to reach exaggerated conclusions designed to exploit political divisions.” The report did not identify the individuals behind the apparent network, citing a lack of “identifying information to real humans or organizations nor ties to the secession movement in Alberta.”

“I think it’s disturbing that these voices are able to insert themselves in the conversation, and their interest is not to further the democratic discourse or … have a healthy, authentic conversation,” said Chris Ross, a senior analyst at the Media Ecosystem Observatory.

“They’re putting themselves in the middle of that, misleading Albertans, Canadians, and they’re just doing it to make money.”