They were two-words launched into the middle of a Canadian election that exploded online.
A week into the election campaign, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted a video of Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole responding to a question about his views on private, for profit, health care in Canada.
Twitter suddenly slapped a tag on the posts, first in French and then in English, saying they were "manipulated media," apparently because part of O'Toole's answer upholding the principle of universal access had been edited out.
An online furor erupted, spawning criticism and conspiracy theories. The commotion eventually died down but not before the English video was viewed nearly 232,000 times - far more than it likely would have been seen if Twitter had not tagged it.
"If Freeland had posted this doctored video and sent it out into the Twittersphere, a small number of people would have seen it and the conversation would have moved on," said Aengus Bridgman, director of the Canadian Election Misinformation Project, which is monitoring what is happening online during the election.
"The fact that Twitter flagged it as manipulated media meant that, suddenly, the issue and the tweet got an enormous amount of attention and sort of has driven the news cycle."
The incident shines a light on the role of American social media giants in Canada's election - a role that risks being a lot more active than in past campaigns.
Companies such as Facebook and Twitter have come under fire...
Read Full Story: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/social-media-canadian-election-1.6158467
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