Security and Intelligence Threats to Elections (SITE) Task Force has spotted a foreign repression operation targeting Joe Tay (鄭敬基) — the federal Conservative candidate for the suburban Toronto riding of Don Valley North — who is known for his opposition to 
government policies.
The operation features a mock "wanted" poster and disparaging headlines and comments about Tay.
Last last year, Hong Kong police issued arrest warrants for six activists based overseas — including Tay — with bounties set at about $185,000 for information leading to their arrests.
The transnational repression operation is taking place on social media platforms where Chinese-speaking users in Canada are active, including Facebook, WeChat, TikTok, RedNote and Douyin, a sister app of TikTok for the Chinese market.
The SITE Task Force notices two significant trends concerning Tay during the electoral writ period.
The first trend involves "inauthentic and coordinated" amplification of content related to the Hong Kong bounty and an arrest warrant against Tay, as well as material about his competence to hold political office.
"We've seen that multiple accounts or platforms published or interacted with content at similar times and dates, sometimes within minutes or even seconds of each other.”
This sort of activity increases the volume of online material, making it more likely that users of the platforms are exposed to the amplified content.
One of the Facebook accounts involved in the activity concerning Tay is historically connected to government authorities and pro-Beijing entities in Hong Kong — including links to the central government liaison office in Hong Kong.
The second trend was deliberate suppression of search terms, or keyword filtering, censoring Tay's name in simplified and traditional Chinese on certain China-based social media platforms used by Canadians.
"The transnational repression and its effect on the democratic process is not about a single act, but rather about the accumulated impact of many acts designed to discredit a candidate, silence criticism and dissent and manipulate the information that informs voters.”
cbc.ca/amp/1.7514934
globalnews.ca/news/11141400/
canada.ca/en/privy-counc
canada.ca/en/privy-counc
