Misinformation is unstoppable in Alberta

Alberta is politically diverse, and the citizen initiative petitions from all sides of the political spectrum are receiving massive amounts of harassment and misinformation. Elections Alberta recently issued a statement about the current state of citizen initiative petitions. They issued the statement due to the recent uproar in misinformation, and canvasser harassment reports. Right now Alberta is in a time of great change. This level of activity documented by Elections Alberta is simply just the proof.

Elections Alberta is responsible for all the provincial elections that take place in Alberta. Alongside that, they also work with those who want to start petitions. The citizen initiative petitions began rolling out on June 30, 2025, and since then the Elections Office has observed them closely. Primarily, they watch for misinformation and violations regarding all areas, from legislation to canvassers’ requirements. Nothing has come close to the level of canvasser harassment reports that led to this most recent statement. Most interesting is knowing that harassment and misinformation is coming from both sides. 

Alberta, in the last 10 years, has arguably seen more change than the 50 before it. It would be nearly redundant to name every reason for why, as it is a culmination of millions of different things. Ultimately, though, what a lot of it boils down to is the, now not-so-new, age of the internet and social media.

In some ways we are still trying to understand the repercussions of using social media, how it can spread information, and how fast it is. The last point is especially pungent. Before, when news came through the newspaper, it took time to arrive. It also took time for people to process the information. With social media working at lightning fast speeds, information, and more importantly, misinformation, is consumed and discarded in seconds. And somehow no one can separate real life from the internet.

The important thing to note is that no one side is more right than the other. Whether it be sides of the political spectrum, or of those harassment reports and reportees — there’s a lot of anger. Social media makes much of this anger misplaced. Buzzwords and artificial intelligence (AI) easily fools people into this kind of anger. It comes so easy simply because misinformation can spread so quickly through those mediums. With all of this in mind, Alberta is also very politically diverse. It makes seeing both sides of the political spectrum very easy. And with that, easier to find disagreements.

The answer to this situation is not very straightforward even if there is one. Of course, not all misinformation comes with malice. But, unfortunately, it still has dramatic effects on consumers of this content. The bottom line — of which has been researched — the more misinformation one is exposed to, the more likely they are to believe misinformation in the future. This misinformation, though, specifically differs from disinformation which is the act of purposefully spreading wrong information. Regardless, Elections Alberta quoting an uptick in misinformation and harassment should be worrying for everyone. All that can come of misinformation is misplaced anger.

This chaos, though, can only go on for so long. Alberta’s provincial election takes place next year and several referendum questions will appear on the ballot this fall. This means there will be a lot of change and a lot of attempted change taking place. Unfortunately, it is difficult, if not impossible, to stop the spread of misinformation. The only thing we can do is become more vigilant of the media we consume on the internet.