Canadian Officials’ Twitter Accounts Flagged by US State Department

Canadian Officials’ Twitter Accounts Flagged by US State Department

Twitter accounts used by the Canadian government have been caught in the U.S. government dragnet attempting to counter online disinformation, a recent iteration of the so-called Twitter Files released by journalist Matt Taibbi reveals.

Taibbi published a new thread on Jan. 3 which provides further details on how the U.S. government and its agencies interacted with Twitter to pursue its agenda. Internal company files are being released since Elon Musk took over in late October.

Taibbi’s latest thread is labelled “Twitter and the FBI ‘Belly Button,’” in reference to the bureau asking Twitter whether it should be the main point of contact between “industry partners” and the U.S. government (USG).

The mention of a Canadian link was in relation to a campaign by the U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) to counter Chinese propaganda.

The stated mission of the GEC is to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation that runs counter to U.S. interests.

“When the State Department/GEC – remember this was 2020, during the Trump administration – wanted to publicize a list of 5,500 accounts it claimed would ‘amplify Chinese propaganda and disinformation’ about COVID, Twitter analysts were beside themselves,” wrote Taibbi.

“The GEC report appeared based on DHS [Department of Homeland Security] data circulated earlier that week, and included accounts that followed ‘two or more’ Chinese diplomatic accounts. They reportedly ended up with a list ‘nearly 250,000’ names long, and included Canadian officials and a CNN account.”

Taibbi provided screenshots of purported internal conversations of Twitter staff related to the GEC request.

Senior legal executive Stacia Cardille sent an email to policy director Nick Pickles on May 7, 2020, providing “transmittal information” from the State Department.

“We are providing these 5,500 accounts that display inorganic behavior and follow two or more of the 36 Chinese diplomatic twitter accounts that we have identified in the report,” reads the message.

“Due to the fact that these accounts follow two or more of these diplomatic accounts, and a good portion of them are newly created, we believe they are suspicious.”

The State Department did not request any action to be taken on those accounts and said the information was being shared for “situational awareness.”

Previous iterations of the Twitter Files have shown U.S. government agencies requested the social media company take action against accounts sharing information on COVID-19 which diverges from the U.S. government’s view or that related to the elections, with ensuing censorship in many cases.

Later on May 7, 2020, Pickles commented in an email to an unidentified interlocutor on the GEC request.

“I am assuming that the policy/comms folks on their side [USG] haven’t reviewed the list line by line, so curious how they’d react if told their analytics colleagues had included the Canadian military and CNN…” he wrote.

Twitter Pushback
The day after receiving the information from the State Department, Twitter was pushing back in the media on the claims that its platform was being used to spread Chinese disinformation.

CNN reported Twitter as saying that an initial review of the over 5,000 accounts did not support the government’s claims and that many accounts belonged to “government entities, nongovernmental organizations, and journalists.”

“The GEC provided Twitter with a small sample of the overall dataset that included nearly 250,000 accounts,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN, adding that it’s “not surprising that there are authentic accounts in any sample.”

“Our overall analysis is based on a confluence of factors that drive our assessment, which we stand by.”

Then Twitter head of safety Yoel Roth commented in an email to colleagues on May 6, 2020, that the GEC “blitz” on the issue was “at least in part an attempt to insert themselves into the conversations we’ve had with DHS, FBI, ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence], and others.”

A month later, Roth emailed Cardille and others saying that Twitter, Facebook, and Google found the involvement of the GEC in a meeting between industry and government on election security problematic.

He said this was in part because of the GEC’s “mandate for offensive IO [information operations] to promote American interests” and their sharing of reports “based on shaky methodology.”

Taibbi’s thread also highlighted the GEC’s attempt to counter Russian disinformation, noting a report it released in February 2020.

“The GEC flagged accounts as ‘Russian personas and proxies’ based on criteria like, ‘Describing the Coronavirus as an engineered bioweapon,’ blaming ‘research conducted at the Wuhan institute,’ and ‘attributing the appearance of the virus to the CIA,’” he wrote.

Taibbi said this report “still led directly” to some media picking up the story.

Noé Chartier

Noé Chartier is an Epoch Times reporter based in Montreal. Twitter: @NChartierET Gettr: @nchartieret

Public Health Canada to Collect Online Data to Target the Vaccine Hesitant

Story From: Noé Chartier is an Epoch Times reporter based in Montreal. Twitter: @NChartierET Gettr: @nchartieret

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Public Health Canada to Collect Online Data to Target the Vaccine Hesitant

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has announced a contract with a social media intelligence collection firm based in the U.K. to obtain data on vaccine hesitant individuals in order to be able to deliver targeted messaging to break through their hesitancy, contract details indicate.

“In preparation for increased vaccination education, promotion, and outreach, The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is requiring the services of a consultant to analyze the vaccine related conversations on social media and PHAC social media initiative and campaign performance,” says the tender notice description posted online on Dec. 22.

The notice says the contract will be awarded to U.K.-based Pulsar Platform if no other supplier submits a bid meeting the requirements before the closing date. The estimated value of the contract is $339,000.

Pulsar describes itself as an “audience intelligence company” using artificial intelligence and “smart human minds” to comb through conversational and behavioural data on social media.

The notice says the consultant will need to analyze Twitter and other online sites and platforms spanning three years of historical data.

PHAC is seeking to obtain information on individuals who are participating in and influencing online conversations about vaccination.

It wants reports produced by the consultant to “provide PHAC an actionable understanding of the vaccine conversation landscape online and the conversation participants, while determining a conversation baseline,” according to the Statement of Work.

Once this data is obtained, PHAC will run a tailored messaging campaign, which it says will seek to target “communities of interest,” such as “indigenous peoples and millennial males,” states the Advance Contract Award Notice.

The study is to be rerun within a three to four month period to “monitor shifts in attitudes and confidence levels,” says the notice.

‘Keyword-Based’
PHAC lays out how the consultant must conduct its work, including the establishment of a “keyword-based social listening tracker to capture social media conversations around vaccinations in Canada.”

Data must also be parsed along conversation themes such as “experiences with long Covid, previous vaccine side effects, engaging with mis/disinformation, shift in perceived risk of infection.”

PHAC also seeks to obtain a breakdown of reasons for vaccine hesitancy for different regions and cities to allow more targeted messaging.

Along with identifying regions, cities, and subgroups such as First Nations communities, PHAC is also requesting segmentations of key audiences to include “demographics, interests, affinities, online behaviours, and the leading topics of vaccine hesitancy conversation, per each sub-community.”

The Statement of Work provides an example of what the consultant should do once a sub-community has been identified.

It says that once a community of “Toronto University Students that indicate low confidence in vaccinations” has been identified, then some factors should be investigated.

These include their reasons for being hesitant and the topics of their conversations, the media they consume and the content they share, and the tone they use when discussing their vaccination status.

The Epoch Times contacted PHAC to find out if previous such programs have been implemented and to learn more about how the data from private individuals will be protected, exploited, and if it will be shared with other departments.

PHAC was also asked whether it consulted the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) on the program. A response was not obtained before publication time.

The OPC was also contacted to know whether it was aware of PHAC’s social media collection program, but a response was not received immediately.

Cellphone Tracking
PHAC has been embroiled in a data collection-related controversy in recent months when it was revealed it was analyzing the anonymized movement of millions of Canadians through the tracking of their cellphones, unbeknownst to them.

PHAC had been obtaining the data from carrier Telus and other cellphone tracking companies, but in December 2021 it sought a contractor to directly access data from cellphone towers to conduct its analysis.

The data has been used to measure the compliance of Canadians while provinces implemented COVID-19 lockdowns.

When this became known, MPs started examining the issue and the Commons ethics committee told the government last spring that Canadians should be allowed to opt out of the data collection program.

The OPC also said it was investigating the matter, but the results have yet to be announced.

PHAC and the OPC have been asked about the status of the contract and the investigation.

 

Story From: Noé Chartier is an Epoch Times reporter based in Montreal. Twitter: @NChartierET Gettr: @nchartieret

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Virtual Fashion Art Toronto : urbancoolab_

More pictures on our fashion site = fashionpage.ca 

Virtual Fashion Art Toronto : urbancoolab_

More pictures on our fashion site = fashionpage.ca 

Credits

by @jennjevons from @urbancoolab_ showcasing their AI x Streetwear capsule collection RxR under the Gardiner @thebentway

MODELS

@slesean.tv
@__jessietk
@devaughnte.lawrence
@a.pri.official
@sptxo_
@garrett_
@mxriee_
@juliet.sora
@roneyxmusic
@katrxse

TEAM

Director @_vanjavasic_
Director of Production @liammicha
Assistant Director @locodrito

Lead MUA Direction @bprettymua
Lead Hair Direction @lisatuff_tilu
Makeup Assist @stephaniestellamua
Makeup Assist @makeupbyjacfoo
Hair Assist @jazziestylezz
Fashion and Media Communicator @sedgvvick
Team Assist @erin_case_ @kaitlyn.riccio

Director of Photography @jennjevons
On-Set Photography @tashd.art @jimorgill @chiaradefalco_photo
Official Video Team @wearenxtlvl
BTS Video @cosplay

 

4.6% of tests that were performed for COVID-19 Ontario

4.6% of tests that were performed COVID-19

Ontario is reporting 2,998 cases of COVID19 and nearly 76,500 tests completed. Locally, there are 800 new cases in Toronto, 618 in Peel, 250 in York Region, 161 in Waterloo and 153 in Niagara.

Percent Positivity: 4.6% (-0.5%)

The total percent positivity means that 4.6% of tests that were performed for COVID-19 were positive for COVID-19 on January 14, 2021. This was a change of -0.5% from the previous day.

Number of tests completed: 76,472

The number of tests performed for COVID-19 on January 14, 2021 was 76,472. This was a change of +5,303 tests from the previous day.

Castello Italia Italian National Day Canada

Castello Italia Italian National Day Canada

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#Toronto
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Wineva Ave Hubbard Blvd Toronto Housing Rents Out Prime Beach Homes

Wineva Ave Hubbard Blvd Toronto Housing

5-7 Hubbard Boulevard and 2-4 Wineva Avenue (Hubbard and Wineva Fourplexes) are being renovated to be rented out. These 3 million dollar homes on the beach in toronto will be used as political favours to friends of the city.  Homes can not be demolishing as they are now listed as “Heritage Properties”

They were going to be sold and this money was to fix other Toronto properties. Some homeless person will have the misfortune of paying $550 per month for a 1.7 million home looking over the beach — we all would like to lose our mortgages and live on the beach and have this misfortune.
It is who gets it — should be a lotto max prize

reno

The properties at 5-7 Hubbard Boulevard are worthy of designation under Part IV, Section 29 of the Ontario Heritage Act for their cultural heritage value, and meet the criteria for municipal designation prescribed by the Province of Ontario under all three categories of design, associative and contextual values.  Located on the south side of Hubbard Boulevard, east of Wineva Avenue, Hubbard Fourplex (1928) is a two-storey residential building containing four units that was listed on the City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties in 2010.

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