Rapid Response Mechanism Canada detects information operation targeting a candidate for the leadership campaign of the Liberal Party of Canada

Rapid Response Mechanism Canada detects information operation targeting a candidate for the leadership campaign of the Liberal Party of Canada

February 7, 2025 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada

The Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections Task Force (SITE) today issued the following statement:

“Global Affairs Canada’s Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM Canada), in its mandate as part of the Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force to monitor the digital information ecosystem during the Liberal Party of Canada [LPC] leadership campaign, has identified an information operation targeting Chrystia Freeland. Ms. Freeland is Member of Parliament [MP] for University-Rosedale, and candidate in the LPC Leadership contest.

“RRM Canada detected coordinated and malicious activity about Ms. Freeland. The launch of this information operation was traced to WeChat’s most popular news account – an anonymous blog that has been previously linked by experts at the China Digital Times to the People’s Republic of China. RRM Canada identified over 30 WeChat news accounts taking part in the campaign. The campaign received very high levels of engagement and views, with WeChat news articles disparaging Ms. Freeland netting over 140,000 interactions between January 29 and February 3, 2025. RRM Canada estimates that 2 to 3 million WeChat users saw the campaign globally.

“On February 7, 2025, SITE briefed the executive of the Liberal Party of Canada and members of Ms. Freeland’s leadership campaign about these findings. The members of SITE will continue to monitor the digital information environment for foreign information manipulation, and to shine a light on hostile foreign state-backed information operations during the Liberal Party of Canada leadership campaign.”