Some foreign governments are paying trollers to provide internet propaganda. Are political parties?
It was the kind of story that was almost guaranteed to bring out the internet trolls.
On April 15, Margaret Trudeau, wife of the late prime minister and mother of the current Liberal leader, was interviewed by CBC Radio’sOttawa Morning. She was promoting her new memoir, The Time of Your Life, but she also took the opportunity to opine on the current state of federal politics in the run-up to the coming election.
“I’m not looking forward to the attack ads,” she told host Robyn Bresnahan. “I think it’s straight out bullying, and I’m ashamed of Canadians for doing this.”
Although she didn’t mention the Conservatives by name, it was clear she was referring to the negative ads targeting her son that the governing party has been running ever since Justin Trudeau became Liberal leader.
And when his mother’s opinions appeared online in an article published on cbc.ca, readers were ready to rumble. Within 24 hours, the story had attracted 2,698 comments.
The number of comments is not surprising considering that the people involved — Margaret and Justin Trudeau, and the current prime minister, Stephen Harper — are all polarizing figures who attract very loyal and vocal supporters, and detractors.
Nor was the nasty and combative tone of the comments surprising, because that’s what we have come to expect from the partisans who troll the web looking to pounce at every opportunity.
“Will Mommy be participating in the debates to make sure those big meanies don’t say anything bad to Wonderboy?” asked LarryRight, in one of his several comments about the article.
“Economy is in the toilet. Senators on trial. Deficit after deficit. But yup Justin is the problem lol,” responded Skippy, who then went on to observe, “it’s unfortunate that paid Conservative Posters are so nasty.”
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