The Canadian Information Ecosystem during the 2025 Federal Election
A warning for Canada’s democracy: Act now to protect future elections
Canada’s 2025 federal election upheld its integrity but exposed a digital ecosystem under mounting strain.
Veuillez noter que la version finale du rapport en français paraîtra au cours des prochaines semaines. Entre-temps, le sommaire exécutif en français est inclus dans la version anglaise du rapport.
Executive Summary
This report presents the findings of our monitoring of the 2025 Canadian federal election.
Our central judgment is that the integrity and outcome of the election were not compromised. We found no evidence of material covert foreign interference. However, we assess that both the United States and China impacted the Canadian information and political environment during the election. The election revealed a digital information ecosystem under mounting stress, shaped by influencers, polarized platforms, and new technological risks.
Influencers are now the loudest voices in the online political information environment. Amid the ban on news sharing on Meta and the reduced visibility of news on X, influencers, rather than traditional media, politicians, or political parties, commanded disproportionate attention and drove the circulation of political content across platforms. Their ability to blend entertainment and politics positioned them as powerful agenda setters in ways that can sometimes complicate accountability, transparency, and fact-based debate during elections.
Generative AI—powered misinformation emerged as a key challenge. We identified widespread use of AI-generated fake news, deepfakes, and automated bot activity. False content mimicking trusted Canadian outlets such as CBC and CTV spread widely, distorting political debate and confusing voters. These technologies amplified existing misinformation dynamics, evolving quickly and demonstrating their capacity to undermine trust at scale. While the immediate impact on the election appeared to below, our evidence suggests we are in the warning stage of an evolving information dynamic that could be catastrophic for public opinion, truth, and trust in future elections.
Political and platform segregation was evident during the campaign. Liberal-aligned voices and candidates continued to partially migrate to platforms such as Bluesky, while Conservative-aligned voices and candidates dominated X. TikTok use remained marginal for political candidates but proved effective for Canadian news outlets and influencers. This digital segmentation risks hardening partisan and information divides and weakening the broader resilience of the Canadian public to misinformation and manipulation.
Foreign interference was a central public concern but interference attempts appeared minor. We found only minor attempts by foreign actors to influence politics here in Canada through the information ecosystem. Their efforts achieved limited engagement. At the same time, U.S. politics, especially Trump, tariffs, and annexation rhetoric, featured prominently in Canadian discourse. U.S. politics was a primary concern for many Canadians, and had a material impact on the voting intentions of millions of Canadians.
Targeted manipulation attempts and high volume of claims questioning election integrity are undermining public trust. On X, suspicious accounts targeted political leaders, most notably Mark Carney, as content moderation standards weakened and enforcement declined. In the latter half of the campaign, claims alleging systemic election fraud gained traction online, especially on X and YouTube. This is consistent with an emerging pattern of election fraud claims surrounding democracies worldwide. While overall public trust in Canada’s electoral process remains relatively strong, partisan divides on questions of election integrity are widening.
Taken together, these findings reveal an information environment shaped by influencers, digital manipulation and disruption, political polarization, and weakened platform governance and accountability. While these dynamics did not alter the outcome of the 2025 election, they are steadily eroding the foundations of democratic trust and resilience. The persistent spread of misinformation, the growth of partisan echo chambers, and the rise of unaccountable actors have created vulnerabilities that can be easily exploited. Most troubling is the absence of meaningful platform accountability and cooperation: Poor data access, weak enforcement, increased lack of transparency, and systemic irresponsibility are limiting policymakers, researchers, and citizens’ ability to respond effectively. Without urgent reform, Canada is likely to enter future elections less prepared, more divided, and more exposed to manipulation.
At its core, this project sought to protect Canadians from manipulation and dishonesty. While we recognize the profound limits to what we were able to observe, the dynamics and manipulations captured in this report present sufficient evidence to sound the alarm. Given the current state of data access, emerging digital technologies, and the prevalence of malicious actors, Canadians are underprotected and vulnerable against manipulation.
We recommend immediate action:
Governments must mandate transparency, empower regulators, enforce oversight, and address new challenges with AI-generated content.
Platforms must guarantee ad transparency, strengthen moderation, grant data access, and reinvest in information and election integrity initiatives.
Traditional media must ensure newsroom-level training and commitment to covering information manipulation, build trust through accessible and accurate reporting, and focus on holding other actors accountable.
Influencers must embrace democratic responsibility by being transparent, fact-checking, and fostering respectful civic dialogue.
Civil society and researchers must anticipate threats, expand civic education, and coordinate efforts to build democratic resilience.
The public must intentionally broaden their information environment, practice informed vigilance, and engage across divides to build community and resist manipulation.
Anything less will leave Canadian democracy, stability, and prosperity ever-more vulnerable.