Um, isn't the money in this case coming from a Dutch company? Youtube is being used to propagate this misinformation campaign, but they're not driving it.

It doesn't matter that Youtube is an American company, what matters is that there is a large audience on Youtube to influence with this campaign. Similar campaigns are done on every major platform, regardless of what country they're based in.

[–] bluejade@lemmy.ca 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oil companies tend to be fairly multinational, and are perfectly able to spawn shell corporations or even hire local authentic corporations to push their aims. As an example, you can look at Lauren Chen, who operated Tenet Media, essentially a shell company to pay north americans to push a certain narrative to advance the aims of another group.

Would it be a huge shock to find out some conglomerate like Koch Industries or ExxonMobil were involved in an astroturf campaign in Alberta, or maybe the western cape, or other similar oil rich areas?

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Would it be a huge shock to find out some conglomerate like Koch Industries or ExxonMobil were involved in an astroturf campaign

Maybe not, but there's no evidence of that here, it's pure speculation.

The influence campaign being perpetrated here looks very similar to Russian operations against former Soviet states, where they encourage or create a "separatist" movement within the target nation and then antagonize both sides until the separatists eventually break off a chunk of territory from the target nation, and then wouldn't you know it Russian troops show up and "help" establish a new orderly, Russia-aligned government. For example:

Georgia

"... the South Ossetia war and the Abkhazia war resulted in Georgia's loss of territory in what had been the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast and the Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, respectively, to two internationally unrecognized separatist movements that were supported by the newly independent Russian Federation."

Moldova/Transnistria

"... the Transnistria War, in which Russian-backed Transnistria managed to stay separate from Moldova."

Crimea

"The referendum was held under Russian occupation and, according to the Russian-installed authorities, the result was overwhelmingly in favor of joining Russia."

Ukraine

"Intercepted phone conversations of Sergey Glazyev, a top advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin, disclosed the specifics of the project Novorossiya to take over not just Crimea, but also the Donbas, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine, which Russia apparently aimed to annex following Crimea. The plan involved fomenting widespread unrest using pro-Russian agents on the ground, and then orchestrating uprisings that would announce rigged referendums about joining Russia, similar to the one that took place in Crimea on 16 March 2014."

This fits the pattern, with the obvious major difference being that Canada is not a former Soviet nation.

Also speculation, of course. But to me it looks like Russia has this strategy which they play over and over, and with which they've been getting more ambitious and seeking larger targets.

[–] RaskolnikovsAxe@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Somebody is watching the videos and giving these Dutch guys money via YouTube views. It makes me angry that CBC didn't push a bit harder to try and find out why these Dutch guys thought to start separatist YouTube channels. Why did they think it would make money, particularly since the movement only has a bare few percent support and only in Alberta? And what are their viewership statistics?

CBC only went far enough to say "nothing to see here, just some Dutch guys making untraceable money on something that they have no earthly reason to know about and even less of a reason to suspect would be profitable, because under normal circumstances it absolutely would not be."

The whole thing stinks like bullshit, and CBC dropped the ball. We are all way too fucking complacent for the magnitude of these problems and the forces driving them.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

CBC?

Nah, better question is... Where the fuck are CSIS and CSE? This is a foreign influence campaign that's an existential threat to Canada -- why are CBC journalists the ones taking action, and not our "spy" agencies that are tasked with this sort of shit.

[–] DriftingLynx@lemmy.ca 2 points 3 days ago

At least CBC picked up the ball, it's unlikely any of the corporate media will mention this.

[–] wampus@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

It's wild to me that the USA administration / theorists supported by the administration can publish work specifically praising Russia/Dictators and fascists, and that they can explicitly comm things about "operationally preparing the environment" (sowing discord, prior to further action, to ensure greater chances of success), and that they can also explicitly note in the news last year that they view Alberta as path to annexing Canada... and that this is all occurring on an American platform, which is providing payment to these 'influencers' through click-revenue.... But we've still got people trying to refocus it on Russia.

The same Russia that the USA removed from their national security lists, and dismantled their counter-signals programs for, because they view Russia as an ally (which makes the whole "we need greenland!" even more funny, like if Russia's a threat, why'd you discontinue all those programs America?? The "threat" they're referencing is the EU, and an independent Canada at this point ;p). In fact, using an EU country to launch these things, would fit perfectly into the USA administrations current ideological mindset, as they want to break apart middle nation alliances / blocks -- and it'd be a potential wedge they can push between Canada and the EU.

It's sorta like Freeland screaming about how China or Russia is the greatest threat to Canada, when the USA is right next door, is incredibly militaristic, is increasingly fascist/authoritarian, is overtly targeting Canada with economic warfare -- made explicit by social media posts by their administration even. Like, yes, sure, Russia and China are potential threats -- but there's a crazy orange diaper shitting pumpkin man with the largest military in the world actively attacking us / threatening us, right next door.