‘Spam’ videos use actors to spread fake Canadian political, western separatism content

Accounts with hundreds of thousands of views have published misleading Canadian political commentary using 'hosts' who advertise their services as voiceover artists or presenters.

The prospect of an Alberta sovereignty referendum triggered a wave of clickbait stories on video-sharing sites earlier this year.

But in a development that one expert calls “troubling,” content farms that typically use AI to narrate videos have come up with a way around crackdowns on such content – using real people.

With the proliferation of readily available artificial intelligence tools, social media users are likely to come across “AI slop” — low-quality, mass-produced and misleading content often seen as spam.

For example, a video that drew more than one million views on TikTok last month boldly claimed in its caption that “Alberta & Saskatchewan Just OFFICIALLY Made An EXIT DEAL That SHOCKED Canada!”

The story – which lacked any sources substantiating the exit deal – was delivered by an AI avatar generated by HeyGen. The automated voiceover even mispronounced Saskatchewan’s capital, Regina.

However, some channels with similarly sensationalist headlines have opted for a more human touch with real people following scripts that are at times riddled with errors and half-truths.

The Canadian Press identified three channels with hundreds of thousands of views between them that published misleading Canadian political commentary using hosts who advertise their services as voiceover artists or presenters.

The Canadian Reporter, Canadian Zone and The Effect Reporter channels on YouTube used thumbnails with AI-generated images of Prime Minister Mark Carney, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and others to attract clicks.