Posts on Facebook promoting investment opportunities in Shell that would “ensure a secure future for every Canadian” have been determined illegitimate by Agence France-Presse (AFP) fact-check news.
Several posts feature manipulated media, and the UK energy company has confirmed via AFP fact-check news that it is not associated with these offers.
One specific video, which has garnered more than 44,000 views, advertises a supposed Shell programme by highlighting Canada’s high cost of living, which remains a genuine concern for many people in the country.
“Together with the company Shell, we have created an investment project that will help to solve housing issues and ensure a secure future for every Canadian,” Jagmeet Singh, the leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, appears to say in a Facebook video on 23 August 2024.
Singh’s mouth movements don’t seem to match the audio in some instances.
An image search and analysis shows that the video aligns with a conference from September 2023, during which the party leader addressed claims of foreign involvement in Canada’s electoral process.
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By GlobalDataSingh’s altered video is featured in Meta’s Ad Library, which stores advertisements on social media platforms. AFP used the database to discover at least 15 additional advertisements aimed at Canadians, promoting apparent Shell offers.
Most of the advertisements appeared shortly after their respective pages were created, suggesting that the content might not be genuine.
Many pages use images or titles hinting at Shell or referencing news sources such as Global News. The videos start with different clips and then transition to similar screenshots of pages where users can register for the Shell platform.
One advertisement includes an apparent deepfake of a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broadcast. Other pages use individuals’ names while sharing influencer-style posts promoting the same offer.
Over the past year, there has been a rise in deceptive investment schemes in Canada, as reported by TransUnion, a credit monitoring company.
It revealed that in 2023, 5% of all digital transactions originating from Canada were suspected to be fraudulent. Additionally, 60% of Canadians have reported being targeted by fraud recently.
Social media platforms have spread untrue claims and deceptive advertisements on multiple occasions. In January 2023, Desmog, an international journalism organisation focused on climate change, reported that bodies associated with fossil fuels spent around $4m on Facebook and Instagram adverts, which disseminated climate change misinformation during the COP27 summit.
The Climate Action Against Disinformation (CAAD) coalition, which published the Deny, Deceive, Delay report, has also gathered evidence showing that PR companies, front organisations and major oil companies were spreading disinformation in the period leading up to and during the summit.
Researchers from the COP27 Intelligence Unit of the coalition identified more than 3,700 advertisements containing false information on Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta.
They also observed an increase in content promoting outright denial of climate science by “anti-woke” commentators on Twitter, who used hashtags like #ClimateScam and made claims such as “climate is a hoax”.
