Canadian Election False Claims Spread on Meta, Which Bans Most News
PLUS: Pope’s Death Sparks Falsehoods; COVID Vaccines Won’t Make You Schizophrenic
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In today’s edition:
Ahead of Canada’s first federal election since Meta took most news outlets off of its platforms, misinformation mainly targeting PM Mark Carney has spread across Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, garnering more than one million views, a NewsGuard analysis found.
As Catholics mourn Pope Francis, conspiracy theorists resurfaced a false claim that images show the late pope kissing the hands of David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and a member of the Rothschild family — supposed proof that Francis was beholden to powerful Jews.
Health misinformers are citing a study commissioned by a known anti-vaxxer to falsely claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause 86 psychiatric conditions, including homicidal ideation and schizophrenia.
Finally, NewsGuard received a telling statement from a trusted academic we asked to comment on a bogus health claim: No commenting on the record so long as federal grants to universities are being withheld.
Today’s newsletter was edited by Sofia Rubinson and Eric Effron.
1. With Canadian News Outlets Barred from Facebook and Instagram, Bad Actors Are Filling the Void with Election Misinformation
As Canadians go to the polls to elect a new parliament, NewsGuard found that most false claims on Meta’s platforms targeted PM Mark Carney
By Sam Howard and Nicole Dirks
As Canada approaches its first federal election since Meta barred the nation's news outlets from sharing content on its platforms, users on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads have filled the void with false claims — mostly targeting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, a NewsGuard analysis found.
Since March 2025, NewsGuard has identified eight false claims related to the Canadian election, seven of them targeting Carney and another conveying false polling results. Collectively, posts advancing these claims have accrued at least one million views and 116,000 likes and other reactions on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
With fewer real news outlets now on these platforms, there is little chance that Canadians — 25 percent of whom told a Reuters Institute survey even after legitimate news was banned from the platforms that they get their news from Facebook — will see any actual news on the platforms that counters these hoaxes.
On Monday, April 28, Canadians will go to polls to elect a new parliament. The two most popular candidates for prime minister are the incumbent prime minister and Liberal Party head Carney and Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre. The most recent polls favor Carney.
Meta started banning mainstream news outlets from its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram in August 2023, soon after the Canadian government passed the Online News Act, which requires digital platforms to compensate news outlets when their content is posted on their platforms. (There have been conflicting reports on the law’s impact on Threads, Meta’s microblogging platform with a user base dwarfed by that of Facebook and Instagram, although more news has been showing up on Threads than on the other Meta platforms, and some Canadian news outlets maintain active accounts there.)
Meta said in an August 2023 statement that “we know the people using our platforms don’t come to us for news.” Yet a June 2024 survey by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that 25 percent of Canadians use Facebook for news, while 13 percent get news from Instagram.
With credible Canadian news organizations no longer providing their news on Facebook and Instagram, misinformation and hyper partisan sources in Canada have been more than willing to jump in. In just the past two months, NewsGuard has identified the following false narratives targeting the Canadian federal elections, listed in descending order of engagement (likes and reactions) on Meta platforms:
That Carney said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s supporters did “generations-long damage to the United States”
That Carney sold off all of Canada’s gold reserves when he led the Bank of Canada
That a photo shows Carney in a swimming pool with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
That Canadian law prevents Carney from serving in parliament
That Canadian law prevents Carney from serving as Liberal Party leader
That a polling firm projected that the far-right People’s Party of Canada would increase its House of Commons representation from 0 of 343 seats to 84
That Carney is related to his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, through Carney’s mother, which is evidence of nepotism
That in response to a question, Carney uttered a Satanic incantation
The false claim with the largest engagement identified by NewsGuard was a Threads post stating that Carney accused Trump voters of doing “generations-long damage to the United States.” The post — by user @moyers.jeff, who typically shares liberal commentary on U.S. politics — featured a video of Carney giving public remarks on March 27, 2025, with a caption stating: “‘They’ll never accept it, but everyone who cast a vote for Donald Trump did real, generations-long damage to the United States and the west in exchange for essentially nothing of value.’”
The post suggested that this quote came from Carney. However, NewsGuard reviewed Carney’s March 27, 2025, speech and found that he never made such a comment. Nevertheless, Moyers’ post received 953,000 views, 79,900 likes, and 9,600 reposts by April 24, 2025.
The claim was quickly picked up by other liberals who were apparently pleased to see such a comment by Carney, whose popularity in Canada has been boosted by his vocal opposition to U.S. President Trump’s tariffs and to Trump’s repeated suggestions that Canada become the 51st U.S. state.
While liberals seized on this false claim, the other Canadian narratives identified by NewsGuard were primarily advanced by conservative critics of Carney — a relative newcomer to Canadian politics and thus, a politician who is particularly vulnerable to false claims about his values and his experience.
The most viral claim identified by NewsGuard on Instagram — that Carney sold all of Canada’s gold supply while he led the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 — was advanced by Mario Zelaya, a Canadian conservative commentator with an Instagram audience of 150,000 followers. Zelaya said in an April 13, 2025, video receiving 10,020 likes, “Did you know that Mark Carney sold all of our gold reserves?”
In fact, the nation’s gold reserves actually grew while Carney was the central bank’s governor, and besides, the gold supply was not part of his purview.
Fact Checks in a Vacuum
Even when Canadian media are quick to debunk false election claims, that information can be barred from Facebook and Instagram users who may have been duped in the absence of journalism debunking the false claim.
For example, on April 10, 2025, the Canadian Press news agency published an article debunking the claim that Carney would be prevented from serving in Parliament due to a Canadian law barring government workers from the legislative body. Those advancing this claim cited the fact that Carney had once led a Liberal Party task force and served as an advisor to Trudeau. The news agency correctly pointed out that Carney is not barred from office because the rule refers to current government posts, not previous ones.
However, the Canadian Press did not post its fact check on Facebook, Instagram, or Threads.
Meta, the Liberal Party of Canada, and the Conservative Party of Canada did not respond to NewsGuard’s requests for comment.
Reality Check members can read NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprints for the eight false claims related to the Canadian election here.
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2. Conspiracy Theorists Misrepresent Photos to Claim Pope Francis Was Beholden to a Global Jewish Cabal
By Sarah Komar
What happened: Conspiracy theory-oriented social media users are citing video clips and images of Pope Francis kissing the hands of a group of yarmulke-clad men, falsely claiming that the men are the late billionaire investment banker David Rockefeller, the late former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and a “John Rothschild,” an apparent reference to the German Jewish banking family the Rothschilds.
A closer look: Following Pope Francis’ death on April 21, the images and clips spread among conspiracy accounts and antisemitic and anti-Catholic social media users to portray the late Pope as submissive to supposed Jewish global control, a false claim has sporadically spread since at least 2016.
On April 21, far-right and conspiracy theory-oriented X user Liz Churchill posted a video featuring footage of Pope Francis meeting with men wearing Jewish skullcaps and stated: “Here you see the Pope kissing the hands of David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and John Rothschild…the most powerful people on Earth…almost like he’s there for them…instead of his faithful followers.” The post received 1 million views and 13,000 likes in less than two days.
Italian Facebook user Luciano Sturaro posted an image of the Pope kissing the hands of a Jewish man on April 21 alongside the text: “Pope Bergoglio bowing and kissing the hands of the Zionists who wanted to dominate/enslave Humanity. Let’s remember this.”
Actually: The photos and footage depict Francis meeting six Holocaust survivors during a May 26, 2014, visit to Israel’s Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem — an interaction that can be seen in a video of Francis’ full visit on the museum’s YouTube channel.
The video posted by the museum shows that Francis kissed and shook the hand of each survivor as he greeted them.
Other falsehoods mount in mourning: Since Pope Francis’ death, NewsGuard has documented five false claims related to the late Catholic leader, including that he died from complications caused by the COVID-19 vaccine and that a video showed a satanic ritual being performed at his funeral, which is actually scheduled for Saturday, April 26.
This follows a slew of falsehoods about the pope previously reported by NewsGuard in March 2025 amid his battle with pneumonia.
Click here to find out more about NewsGuard Trust Scores and our process for rating websites. You can download NewsGuard’s browser extension, which displays NewsGuard Trust Score icons next to links on search engines, social media feeds, and other platforms by clicking here.
3. Anti-Vaxxers Cite Unverified Study to Claim COVID-19 Vaccines Cause Psychiatric Conditions, Including Homicidal Ideation
By Andie Slomka
What happened: Prominent anti-vaxxers are citing an April 2025 study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, to claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause 86 neuropsychiatric side effects, including dementia, schizophrenia, depression, and suicidal and homicidal ideation.
A closer look: The study was co-authored by Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas-based cardiologist who has repeatedly advanced false or egregiously misleading claims about COVID vaccines.
The study cited reports of various neuropsychiatric conditions following COVID vaccination recorded in the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a government database that collects unverified reports of adverse events following vaccination.
An April 14 article published on McCullough’s Substack summarized the research, stating that the study “identified alarming increases in 86 adverse events related to brain function, behavior, and cognition” following COVID vaccination.
An X post by Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, an Ohio-based physician and anti-vaccine activist, stated on April 14: “The data is undeniable: researchers found alarming associations between mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and cognitive decline, psychiatric disorders, and increased suicidal and homicidal behavior. These experimental injections have gone far enough. It’s time to stop mRNA.” The post garnered 143,400 views and 4,200 likes.
The claim also spread on a slew of websites NewsGuard has found to repeatedly publish false health claims, including an April 15 article from Slay News (NewsGuard Trust Score: 0/100) titled “Covid mRNA ‘Vaccines’ Caused ‘Alarming’ Surge in Violent Behavior, Homicidal Ideation.”
Actually: Reports submitted to VAERS are unverified and can be submitted by anyone, including anti-vaccine activists, making it an unreliable source for drawing conclusions about the safety or side effects of any vaccine or medicine.
VAERS acknowledges on its website that its data “cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness” and “cannot be used to determine rates of adverse events.” (Reality Check members can dive deeper into NewsGuard’s analysis of VAERS data here.)
There is no credible evidence that COVID vaccines cause neuropsychiatric conditions, according to experts.
McCullough did not respond to a contact form submission from NewsGuard seeking comment about the validity of his study.
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4. A Chilling Sign of the Times: Please Don’t Use My Name
By Eric Effron, Editorial Director
NewsGuard often seeks insight and comments from experts including academics and scholars, especially when we are assessing complicated claims that require specialized knowledge. This week, when our health team turned to an expert at a top research university for comment on a health claim that was going viral, the response was a strong sign of the impact of research universities in the U.S. having their federal funding put at risk by the Trump administration:
“We’re under restrictions, understandably, at [an] institutional level over public comments on controversial topics, because the university is on a hit-list for grant cuts on a massive scale,” the researcher said. “So I would appreciate it if what I wrote below is considered to be on background only, no mention of my name or my institution.”
NewsGuard is honoring that request, of course. But we are sharing this comment with our readers because we think it serves as a commentary about the chill that has descended on researchers, including scientists and public health experts.
The challenges faced by news organizations like NewsGuard are compounded when the independent voices to whom we turn for insight are understandably concerned about the consequences of speaking the truth.
Reality Check is produced by Co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
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