Elections Canada is advising Canadians to beware of images containing “inaccurate information” related to the upcoming federal election.
On X (Twitter), the non-partisan agency said pictures have been shared online to wrongfully suggest that there are “unguarded ballot boxes full of votes.” It notes that these are pictures of boxes that are being set up for Election Day and therefore don’t yet contain any votes.
What’s in those yellow bags? Materials needed for the polls—but no marked ballots!
Check out our ElectoFacts, just one click away: https://t.co/r6SGUco8CE (2/2)— Elections Canada (@ElectionsCan_E) April 24, 2025
Later in its thread, Elections Canada noted that the yellow bags in these boxes have “materials needed for the polls,” not unmarked ballots. Clearly, bad actors are attempting to use these images to claim there is some sort of election interference happening with ballots when there’s no real evidence to back that up. Elections Canada encourages Canadians to check out its “ElectoFacts” resource to help identify misinformation related to the election.
On a related note, the agency recently acknowledged the “serious” concerns surrounding deepfakes in the election and says it’s been working with social media platforms to crack down on them. According to the Government of Canada, there were 60 reported AI-generated synthetic disinformation campaigns and 34 known and likely cases of AI-enabled social botnets during 151 global elections between 2023 and 2024.
Canada’s federal election takes place on Monday, April 28. If you didn’t vote in the advance polls, you can still do so on the 28th — check out Elections Canada’s website for more information.
Image credit: Elections Canada
Source: Elections Canada
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
