Rory White

How's your local government doing differentiating what's real and what's AI-generated propaganda. Join me @supriya.bsky.social @rorywh.bsky.social @zoegrams.bsky.social

Release the shoe scene!

The people demand shoe scene details!

Documents reveal Ontario's $7M Ring of Fire ad bill These ads are pushing the controversial mega-project through a campaign it has dubbed “Protect Ontario,” which Canada’s National Observer has learned is earmarked with a budget of more than $7 million...

New from me today for @nationalobserver.com. I submitted an FOI request, which revealed the province’s ad campaign budget for the Ring of Fire. One budget line lists nearly $60,000 for “additional costs as a result of eliminating shoe scene from TV spot.” WHAT IS A SHOE SCENE

Soon artificial intelligence will be redacting government documents. Would love to read the instructions they feed to the LLM.. "Your task is to minimize embarrassment to the department."

@davidmckie.bsky.social

Amid U.S. redaction scandal, Carney government developing AI systems to black out sensitive documents At least three government departments are developing AI tools to help with redaction, but experts say the tech could "be a nightmare.”

At least three federal departments are developing AI tools to help redact sensitive information from documents before they’re released to the public, reports Ben Andrews in his latest. Observers warn it could damage transparency in an already secretive access-to-information system.

The same firm ran a campaign to save CBC — and Canada Proud's push to defund it “It's like the Trump administration promoting Biden in an ad campaign,” said Ahmed Al-Rawi, Director of the Disinformation Project at Simon Fraser University. “This is unreal, like science fiction.”

Via @rorywh.bsky.social
The same firm ran a campaign to save CBC — and Canada Proud's push to defund it www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/08/i...

Perfect summary of our story. Thank you Rachel!

As the right-wing meme page Canada Proud was posting calls to "DEFUND THE CBC," the same PR firm behind it was being indirectly funded by CBC journalists’ own union dues.

Yeah. And that's not all.

So I’m teaming up with my friends at @nationalobserver.com to tell you all about it:

Jeff Ballingall being connected to both the pro-CBC and anti-CBC campaigns at the same time sounds about right

There are actually just 10 real people on the entire Internet in Canada, four of whom are you, me, @ericwickham.ca and Wyatt Claypool

The rest are just sock puppet accounts and Facebook pages run by Jeff Ballingall

The same firm ran a campaign to save CBC — and Canada Proud's push to defund it “It's like the Trump administration promoting Biden in an ad campaign,” said Ahmed Al-Rawi, Director of the Disinformation Project at Simon Fraser University. “This is unreal, like science fiction.”

A PR firm hired to produce ads in support of the CBC is the same firm that has, for years, been calling for the public broadcaster to be defunded through its right-wing Canada Proud Facebook pages, a @rorywh.bsky.social investigation finds.

The same firm ran a campaign to save CBC — and Canada Proud's push to defund it “It's like the Trump administration promoting Biden in an ad campaign,” said Ahmed Al-Rawi, Director of the Disinformation Project at Simon Fraser University. “This is unreal, like science fiction.”

Must-read, for Canadians

We should all be "concerned about the integrity of Canadian democratic discourse when the most influential ideological voices are products for clients, and when transparency erodes through nested corporations."

www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/08/i...

The same firm ran a campaign to save CBC — and Canada Proud's push to defund it “It's like the Trump administration promoting Biden in an ad campaign,” said Ahmed Al-Rawi, Director of the Disinformation Project at Simon Fraser University. “This is unreal, like science fiction.”

CBC employees’ union dues indirectly funded the same firm calling for their jobs to be eliminated. Likewise, the firm behind Canada Proud — one of Canada’s leading critics of public broadcasting — ran a campaign on behalf of CBC workers. Stunning finding from @rorywh.bsky.social

The same firm ran a campaign to save CBC — and Canada Proud's push to defund it “It's like the Trump administration promoting Biden in an ad campaign,” said Ahmed Al-Rawi, Director of the Disinformation Project at Simon Fraser University. “This is unreal, like science fiction.”

I called number for the Local Matters campaign from the Canadian Media Guild on Facebook. The call was answered by an employee of the group behind Canada Proud, one of the loudest advocates for defunding the CBC.

www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/08/i...

Alberta towns see AI data centres as 'second coming of oil' — but some worry at what cost Municipalities across Alberta are trying to figure out whether they can — or should — try to cash in on the influx of AI data centre developers looking to set up shop in the province. For some council...

Across Alberta, municipalities are weighing the pros and cons of hosting AI data centres. I used @nationalobserver.com's Civic Searchlight tool to figure out which towns are looking at data centres and dig into how they are thinking about the costs & benefits www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/16/n...

This story is such a great example of one of the use cases for Civic Searchlight. By searching across municipalities, @natashabulowski.bsky.social was able to build a far more comprehensive picture of data centre debates than we could have done even a year ago.

A screenshot from Civic Searchlight.

Civic Searchlight just got more useful. We've added the ability to watch council videos in the tool so that you can see and search the transcript while watching the video, to make sure you don't miss a beat.

Let us know how it works for you! civicsearchlight.nationalobserver.com

Meta tolerates rampant ad fraud from China to safeguard billions in revenue A Reuters investigation reveals the owner of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp decided to accept high levels of fraudulent advertisements from China. Internal company documents show Meta wanted to mini...

This is valuable but not at all surprising to me given the frequency with which @indicator.media finds that it is Chinese advertisers behind scam nudifiers and pornbait ads.

see for ex:
> indicator.media/p/meta-ran-t...
> indicator.media/p/meta-ran-4...

We're hiring for a nine-month contract covering federal politics! Posting coming soon, but don't hesitate to reach out if you're interested — jimmy at nationalobserver dotcom

AI can influence voters' minds. What does that mean for democracy? Voters change their opinions after interacting with an AI chatbot – but, encouragingly, it seems that AIs rely on facts to influence people

More evidence that chatbots can persuade voters. And most AI companies still let you create a custom chatbot to push your ideology.

www.newscientist.com/article/2507...

Inside the AI-powered conspiracy machine selling ‘Truthwear’ to Canadians Multiple researchers told Canada’s National Observer that conspiracy companies like Mutinni are the inevitable result of artificial intelligence colliding with the attention economy. Social media algo...

Inside the AI-powered conspiracy machine selling ‘Truthwear’ to Canadians.

More great investigative work by @rorywh.bsky.social
www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/08/i...

Inside the AI-powered conspiracy machine selling ‘Truthwear’ to Canadians Multiple researchers told Canada’s National Observer that conspiracy companies like Mutinni are the inevitable result of artificial intelligence colliding with the attention economy. Social media algo...

"Petrakis remains a fan of Mutinni despite now knowing that it is an AI-powered business run by a Pakistani consultant on behalf of a Toronto rapper with the goal of convincing conspiracy theorists to buy T-shirts."

What's stranger, truth or fiction?

www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/08/i...

There’s an AI-powered conspiracy machine selling ‘Truthwear’ merch to Canadians, and my friends at the National Observer unmasked the person profiting from this account.

The story shows what happens when people are given incentives to publish fake information, at scale, all with the help of AI:

Inside the AI-powered conspiracy machine selling ‘Truthwear’ to Canadians Multiple researchers told Canada’s National Observer that conspiracy companies like Mutinni are the inevitable result of artificial intelligence colliding with the attention economy. Social media algo...

Excellent original reporting that cuts through the conspiracies - yes, the truth is still out there but not at Mutinni: www.national-observer.com/2025/12/08/i...

Inside the AI-powered conspiracy machine selling ‘Truthwear’ to Canadians Multiple researchers told Canada’s National Observer that conspiracy companies like Mutinni are the inevitable result of artificial intelligence colliding with the attention economy. Social media algo...

Mutinni began directing users to a Shopify website, selling $50 T-shirts branded as “Truthwear.” “You’re not just buying clothes — you’re claiming a piece of the rebellion,” it told followers.

The company has built followings in the hundreds of thousands using AI to pump conspiracy theories.

Amazing work here by @rorywh.bsky.social: an AI slop factory churning out thousands of videos and posts on everything from climate denial to lizard people is, essentially, just going where the money is now.

Rory tracked down the Canadian rapper running the page.

Inside the AI-powered conspiracy machine selling ‘Truthwear’ to Canadians Multiple researchers told Canada’s National Observer that conspiracy companies like Mutinni are the inevitable result of artificial intelligence colliding with the attention economy. Social media algo...

Step 1. Use AI to generate glossy conspiracy videos about climate change and Health Canada at scale

Step 2. Monetize in a Shopify store selling merch

Read my latest investigation into why conspiracy-commerce businesses are the logical endpoint of attention economy.

This is an incredible tool built by @nationalobserver.com that will help foster enhanced transparency at the local level.

All CAJ members can join Civic Searchlight....NOW!

A big thanks to @jameswsthomson.com for this. Contact him ASAP! HT to @rorywh.bsky.social @davidmckie.bsky.social and team