Week 5 Blog
AI Misinformation on Canadian Social Media
A prominent example of an AI-amplified misinformation on Canadian social media is the news article on Judy Skene, an 86-year old Ontario woman who lost over $900,000 to a cryptocurrency scam. The scam relied on a realistic AI deepfake video of Prime Minister Mark Carney endorsing a fake cryptocurrency platform backed by the Bank of Canada.
Impact on Public Opinion and Trust
This scam highlights how generative AI moves beyond politics and into targeted financial exploitation, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations, like seniors. Deepfakes hijack existing institutional trust, such as using the authority of the Prime Minister and the Bank of Canada, to make fraudulent claims seem real. Beyond individual financial scams, such widespread manipulation creates broken trust on a societal level. When citizen can no longer distinguish real statements made by public officials from fabrications, it damages overall trust in news and politics. It creates a situation where leaders can easily dismiss real scandals or genuine news simply by claiming it’s AI.
Reflecting on National Strategies
Considering Canada’s official response, like MediaSmarts’ “Wait…What?” campaign and the federal AI for All plan, these show great steps forward, but also a few big missed opportunities:
Individual responsibility vs tech company accountability
MediaSmarts focuses heavily on teaching people to pause and double-check what they see online. While that is helpful advice, putting all the responsibility on everyday people, especially the elderly, is not enough when fake videos are being created on such a massive scale. Social media platforms actually profit from running these scam ads through targeted algorithms, so media literacy needs to go hand-in-hand with strict rules from the companies running these sites.
Risks and opportunities for Canadian digital citizenship
The government’s AI for All strategy arguably brings great initiatives, such as funding AI education for students and providing access to reliable AI tools. However, rushing to roll out AI across every industry without strong safety and caution beforehand puts citizens at immediate risk of being targeted by fake content.
The environmental cost of the AI boom
A huge ignored idea in both campaigns and government policies is the environmental footprint of AI. While leaders push for national technology advancements, they rarely address the massive amounts of electricity, water cooling, and electronic waste these systems require, as Rachel Gilmore points out (2026). True digital literacy should cover not just the online harms of AI, but the real-world environmental impact, especially since AI cannot continue if it has destroyed all the resources that keeps it running.
How well policies keep up
Proposed laws targeting deepfakes and online safety are a good step towards stopping online scams and fake media. The problem is that technology evolves much faster than policy. Detection tools, watermarking, and safety checks struggle to keep up with how easily anyone can access and use cheap AI software today. I know how much I can access for free from AI and I don’t even use it, the amount people can do with AI is unregulated and free.
Proposed Media Literacy Workshop
Target audience: University students, adult learners, anyone with a PLN
What learners will get out of it:
- Spotting fake content: Learn to notice common flaws in AI videos and audio, like hands and facial movements being unnatural, weird speech patterns and voices, and video glitches.
- Double-checking sources: Practice stepping off social media to check whether a news story or video is being reported by a trusted source or official government cite.
- Looking at the bigger picture: Understanding how social media companies make money off fake ads and scams, along with the massive amount of environmental resources that are required to power AI.
Hands on activities:
- Learners watch short clips of public figures promoting investment companies or news events
- Instead of relying just on what the video looks like, participants follow a few steps:
- Search for offical announcements on government or news websites
- Cross-reference claims with the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre or consumer protection alters
- Check website URLs before clicking links or giving away personal details
Tracing the real cost of AI:
- Learners look at what actually happens behind the scenes when AI content is generated and spread around on social media
- Learners can talk through how much electricity and water AI servers use, alongside how social media platforms profit from allowing suspicious ads to run
Teaching people to look for visual glitches alone won’t hold up in the long run, because AI technology is improving everyday. Instead, media literacy needs to teach people how to step back, cross-reference sources, and question who benefits from this content. Looking at AI this way helps people protect themselves from scams while also understanding the broader environmental and social impacts of new technology. We should also be working to help those who are vulnerable to AI misinformation, to help protect seniors and children from these risks.
References
Gilmore, R. (2026, June 4). Carney has AI strategy for “all” (unless you care about climate change or don’t like data centres). Substack.Com; Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore. https://rachelgilmore.substack.com/p/carney-has-ai-strategy-for-all-unless
Government of Canada. (2026, June 4). AI for all: Canada’s national artificial intelligence strategy. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/artificial-intelligence-ecosystem/overview-canadas-national-artificial-intelligence-strategy
MediaSmarts. (2025, October 27). “Wait… What?” Media Literacy Week highlights growing concern over AI-driven misinformation [Press release]. https://www.mediasmarts.ca