Emotionally-triggering information online may be disinformation, CSE warns in new ads

Concerned about the harms of disinformation, Canada's cyberspy agency has launched a new advertising campaign warning Canadians to be wary about information online that triggers their emotions.

Concerned about the harms of disinformation, Canada's cyberspy agency has launched a new advertising campaign warning Canadians to be wary about information online that triggers their emotions.

"If it raises your eyebrow, it should raise questions. Check the facts before you share online," is the tagline of the advertisements that the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) have been running across podcast and social media platforms, including YouTube and TikTok.

CSE's marketing director Christine Menard told CTV News that the ads are targeting younger Canadians, specifically millennials, as well as women and people of colour, as research indicates they are more disproportionally impacted by the negative impacts of disinformation.

"The focus is on getting people to recognize that if they see something that causes them to be emotional or it causes an emotional response, that that could be disinformation," she said.

Last month, in an interview on CTV's Question Period with Vassy Kapelos, then-outgoing national security and intelligence adviser to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Jody Thomas was asked what she viewed as the biggest threat to Canada, and what keeps her up at night. 

Disinformation was her answer.

"We worry about the military threat, we worry about domestic threats, radicalized youth, organized crime, but what worries me for the long term — because it's going to be pervasive and it's difficult to counter — is mis- and disinformation," Thomas said.