Facebook is paying people overseas promoting Alberta separatism
Points and comments are a snapshot, not live.
CBC investigation finds overseas content creators earning money from Meta by impersonating Canadians and promoting Alberta separatism.
CBC identified 14 overseas accounts in Alberta separatist Facebook groups, run from Indonesia, Pakistan, India, the U.S., and Sri Lanka. One account, posed by Indonesian noodle merchant Nieta Aqila, stole posts from real Albertans, claimed to canvass for independence while in Indonesia, and earned roughly $14 USD monthly through Meta's monetization program. Multiple accounts generated tens of thousands of reactions cumulatively. Experts note Meta's monetization incentives reward engagement over accuracy, creating profit from divisive content. Meta subsequently removed several accounts but Aqila's remains active. The preliminary analysis suggests inauthentic separatism activity has tripled recently, though still represents a fraction of group content.
What commenters are saying
The thread's center focuses on the economic rather than state-sponsored nature of the disinformation. Top comments argue this represents a banal, profitable scheme rather than coordinated foreign interference: people in low-income countries exploit engagement algorithms because the payout justifies the effort. One commenter links to a related investigation of income-generating astroturfing. Discussion notes Twitter revealed account origins and exposed offshore GOP-adjacent accounts, while Facebook lags in transparency. Some commenters defend the nuance that people outside a country can legitimately hold political opinions without pretending to be locals. A few raise broader questions about wage arbitrage and whether normalized global wages would reduce such schemes.