Social media users have been sharing opinion poll results that suggest 64 per cent of young Canadians support the federal Conservative party. The numbers are supposed to be from a poll conducted by Abacus Data. This is false. A genuine post about an Abacus poll was digitally altered to misrepresent the results.
Some accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter, are circulating by an account called The Climate about the poll figures.
It incorporates a screenshot of a purportedly original post by the account Polling Canada, presenting federal vote intention among 18- to 29-year-olds. It puts support for the Conservatives at 64 per cent, the NDP 11 per cent, the Liberals 10 per cent, the Bloc Québécois seven per cent, the Greens six per cent and the People's Party of Canada one per cent.
The figures are attributed to "Abacus Data / November 22, 2023 / Online."
The post by The Climate is introduced with the words: "Young people will DESTROY Canada. This is frightening."
By afternoon on Dec. 1, the post had more than 277,000 views.
Rating: False
The X account of Polling Canada, an aggregator of polling data and related content, indeed about youth voting intentions, but the figures were rather different. The Abacus poll cited actually put the Conservatives at 31 per cent, the NDP 26 per cent, the Liberals 22 per cent, the Greens seven per cent, the Bloc seven per cent and the People's Party six per cent.
The Climate account appears to be a tongue-in-cheek endeavour that presents a satirical take on efforts to fight climate change.
However, this was not evident to everyone online.
One user to the fabricated post by saying, "The ideological Left is what created this polling result. Kids are sick and tired of narratives being pushed on them in school."
The Climate with the quip: "The only thing children need to learn is how to properly sort out their recycling."
Poll numbers 'are not accurate'
The founder and managing director of Polling Canada, Curtis Fric, said in an email the image posted by The Climate "is a fabrication and the poll numbers are not accurate." He noted it is possible to tell the image is doctored because of a shadow around the percentages and the fact they appear in a different font.
"I’ve seen this plenty of times before," Fric said.
During the 2019 and 2021 elections, People's Party supporters frequently doctored Fric's graphics online to show the party "way ahead of the other parties, unnaturally so," he said. "It goes without saying that it doesn’t make me particularly happy to see anyone (satirically or seriously) using my graphics/tweets in a way that’s meant to distort reality." The purpose of is to be a public repository of polling data in Canada for people to easily access in one location and trust that the numbers posted are as factually accurate as they possibly can be, Fric said.
At least one X user availed themselves of a feature on the social media platform that allows readers to add context they thought people might want to know. Under the post by The Climate, the user said: "Tweet pictured is doctored and does not show the real poll results. The real tweet and polling data is below."
On Nov. 26, "Polling Canada" with the preface: "Bro, dont make fake tweets using my profile."
Sources
The Climate post on X, formerly Twitter, with the doctored image can be found ()
Original Polling Canada X post can be found ()
Responses to The Climate's X post can be found () and ()
Polling Canada's X post in response can be found ()
Polling Canada's ()
Tools to detect – Government of Canada ()
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