The same Russian troll farm involved in the U.S. presidential election has also targeted Canadian targets, such as oil infrastructure and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Evidence is incorporated into the data made public during investigations in the United States. Congress is currently examining information from Russia obtained in the wake of the 2016 election.
A report from the House of Representatives committee says that the St. Petersburg-based computer troll facility has published nearly half as many energy resource messages online as it does about US presidential politics.
This committee has investigated more than 4,000 accounts related to the now famous Internet Investigation Agency that have published more than 9,000 messages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram regarding oil pipelines and soil fracturing, including a number unspecified about the Keystone XL Canada-US project.
He did not publish the raw data about Canada. The Canadian Press found a few dozen micro-messages against Keystone in a set of files provided by Twitter to the House of Representatives committee.
Some micro-messages simply redirected newspaper headlines, references to oil spills, or wrote a link to blog posts. One of them bore the title: "Oh! Oh! Progressive supporters of Justin Trudeau will be disappointed (hint: Keystone, Trump, OMG!).
The same file also included messages about Mr. Trudeau. Most of them were messages redirecting the Prime Minister's views on refugees, Muslims and Fidel Castro.
The percentage of messages about Canada is very low. Thus, out of more than 203,000 micromessages submitted by Twitter to Congress, less than 150 mentioned Justin Trudeau or Keystone XL.
According to an expert on Russian misinformation campaigns, Canadian oil infrastructure is a natural target.
"I would not be surprised (if they were attacking Canadian oil)," said Daniel Fried, a former state department official who coordinated US sanctions until 2017. The Russians are interfering in any which subject, deliberately triggering debates and trying to mislead them. It is, of course, ironic that the Russians use the arguments of environmentalists against whom the authorities have no patience, to undermine the energy infrastructure abroad. "
He believes that the best way to neutralize Russian trolls is to denounce them.