A CBC analysis of thousands of troll tweets has found evidence of foreign influence campaigns targeting Canadians’ debates over pipeline and immigration policy. (Thomas White/Reuters) (Thomas White/Reuters)

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Twitter and other social media networks have been manipulated by thousands of foreign accounts from Russia, Iran and other countries that benefit from this manipulation. This involved millions of tweets, posts and interactions to spread disinformation, create confusion, exploit existing societal tensions and divide Canadians and Americans on issues like pipelines, oil and gas and immigration. They also used to spread baseless conspiracy theories. Similar in the UK with Brexit and elsewhere.

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9M troll tweets released by Twitter reveal foreign campaigns to influence Canadians’ opinions

Roberto Rocha, Jeff Yates · CBC News · Posted: Feb 12, 2019 4:00 AM ET

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/twitter-troll-pipeline-immigrant-russia-iran-1.5014750

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“Suspected automated Russian accounts also retweeted messages from at least 24 different seemingly Canadian accounts promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory. This baseless conspiracy theory claims that a high-ranking member of President Trump’s administration — known only as ‘Q’ — is secretly leaking information on the anonymous 8chan message board.

‘Q’ insisted in October 2017 that former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton had been extradited and would soon face a military tribunal. ‘Q’ also claims that Trump is on the cusp of triggering ‘The Storm’ — a far-reaching takeover of the U.S. government to expel “deep state” enemies of the administration. After some 2,600 ‘Q’ posts, none of its predictions have materialized.”

Some examples of tweets promoting the conspiracy in the article.