Fake News stokes anti-immigrant panic
Seriously, what is wrong with people? A fake news website published a story on April 13 titled Canada’s Prime Minister begs Nigeria President for one million immigrants, and people ate it up. The most insidious aspect of the website’s clickbait post isn’t the headline itself—it’s how much of the information within the article is true or very close to true. Mixing “alternative facts” (thanks, Kellyanne Conway) with facts is particularly treacherous because actual facts can lend credibility to a fake news post in the minds of the targets who read it. For example, this particular fake news story correctly quotes The Honourable Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (more on him in a minute). You can find the headline Canada’s Prime Minister begs Nigeria President for one million immigrants disproven via the home page of the Canadian government’s High Commission of Canada in Nigeria website, which links to their twitter feed and this tweet about the fake news.
Was this lie about Trudeau fabricated in Canada, or in Nigeria? Whatever the case, white nationalists latched onto the lie because of how masterfully it fits into their narrative about black and brown people invading and taking over North America (as white people began doing ~500 years ago while dragging black people with them at gunpoint, which doesn’t fit so well into their narrative). If you can stomach the malicious and malignant ignorance, a simple search will reveal plenty of vitriol posted about this fake news headline: not just the obvious white victimhood posts, but disbelief or indignation about The Honourable Ahmed Hussen—who arrived in Canada as a Somali refugee—serving now as the Minister of the IRCC. To a normal person, Hussen is a logical, if not ideal choice for the position he holds; to a Trumpuppet or other white nationalist, his position in the federal government is just another facet of their “white genocide” victimhood conspiracy.
Why the million immigrants from Nigeria headline is idiotic
If you wish to prove that pigs can fly, you’ll probably find a website to cite for “proof” that pigs can fly. The father of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, knew that in the wrong hands his invention could have disastrous consequences. We are there now. Both misinformation and дезинформация (disinformation) directly contribute to or even catalyze some of the strife we see in technologically advanced Western nations. A fake news headline such as Canada’s Prime Minister begs Nigeria President for one million immigrants only pours gasoline on the fire (white nationalism is a very real fire). But unless you can’t think your way out of a wet paper bag (hey, they’re not deemed “Trumptards” for nuthin), alarm bells should be sounding in your head when reading a headline like that one—but not because you’re terrified of immigrants.
First of all, the entire population of Canada is only a bit over 37 million, so inviting another nation’s leader to send a million of his people to Canada just doesn’t make any sense logistically (although Canada certainly has the space). Secondly, consider that in 2017 the number of new permanent residents to Canada from India and the Philippines—the two nations contributing the most people to Canada that year—was 51,651 and 40,857 people, respectively. You don’t need to be a stable genius to figure out that 1 million Nigerians is radically at odds with these figures. As you can see in the image above, immigration from Nigeria is nearly insignificant compared with other nations. Why then would it suddenly become 1 million? Lastly, why would a Canadian PM “beg” the leader of another nation for immigrants?
Billboard photo by Ian Burt