Twitter issues manipulation warning over tweet from Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland | CBC News

The French version of Freeland’s tweet shows O’Toole being asked if he would bring private, “for-profit” healthcare to Canada. He responds unequivocally: “yes.” 

However, in the original recording of O’Toole’s remarks on heath care — which can be seen here at about the 12:30 mark — the Conservative leader also noted that universal access remains paramount. 

The shortened clip used in Freeland’s tweet did not include O’Toole’s statement on ensuring universal access.

Trudeau retweeted an English version of the video and referenced during a speech Sunday on the campaign trail in New Brunswick.

The Conservatives on Sunday, accused the Liberals of spreading misinformation.

“It’s disappointing to see the Liberals resort to American-style divisive politics,” said Mathew Clancy, the Conservative’s manager of media relations.

“While Justin Trudeau and the Liberals are focused on spreading misinformation, Erin O’Toole is focused on Canada’s Recovery Plan and securing the future.” 

Twitter flagged the French version of Freeland’s tweet, but not the same tweet in English. CBC News requested an explanation from Twitter on Sunday night, but has not yet received a response. 

Twitter’s website says it puts labels on content which it believes are “significantly and deceptively altered or manipulated” including substantially edited in a way that alters the timing, sequencing, framing, adds subtitles, or if a real person is fabricated or simulated.

Twitter said it may use its own technology or receive a report from partners or third parties, its website said. 

“We also consider whether the context in which media are shared could result in confusion or misunderstanding or suggests a deliberate intent to deceive people about the nature or origin of the content, for example by falsely claiming that it depicts reality,” according to Twitter’s website.

Big health-care promises

Freeland posted the edited video after a week in which both parties made promises on health care.

O’Toole promised to spend nearly $60 billion over the next 10 years to boost the annual growth rate of the Canada Health Transfer to at least six per cent from its current rate, which is tied to annual economic growth with a floor of three per cent.

Meanwhile Trudeau, who hit seven provinces and targeted a series of Conservative seats the Liberals lost in 2019, said he would spend billions of dollars if re-elected to address the shortfalls of Canada’s long-term care sector exposed by the pandemic.

When asked about the Twitter warning label, the Liberals said the Twitter posts included a highlights video, which runs 35 seconds, and noted that another Freeland tweet contains a link to O’Toole’s full-length answer, which runs 2 minutes and 18 seconds.

Liberals disagree with Twitter warning

The party said it disagrees with Twitter’s decision to label it manipulated media.

“The highlights are an accurate reflection of Mr. O’Toole’s statement in its entirety,” wrote a Liberal party spokesperson in a statement to CBC News. “We disagree with the assessment and are seeking an explanation from Twitter.

“We’ll let Canadians judge for themselves what Mr. O’Toole meant by his comments.”

During Trudeau’s speech Sunday he accused O’Toole of taking the wrong approach during the pandemic and trying to hold back help. 

“We just saw today that Erin O’Toole in the pandemic came out clearly in favour of a private, for-profit healthcare system for Canada,” Trudeau said. “Shame on you, in a pandemic, no less.” 

The video Freeland posted shows Kate Harrison, Vice Chair of of Summa Strategies and director at Abacus Data, during a video conference asking Conservative leader Erin O’Toole if he would be “prepared to allow provinces to experiment with real healthcare reform, including the provision of private for-profit and non-profit health care options, inside of universal coverage?”

O’Toole is seen saying “yes,” adding “we can’t have one old model that is increasingly becoming inefficient. We have to find public-private synergies. At that capital will come in to drive efficiencies. I’ve run on this for several years now.”

However, he also adds: “If we want to see that innovation, we have to find public-private synergies and make sure that universal access remains paramount.”

Harrison also tweeted her disapproval of the video on Sunday saying it was edited out of context. 

“There’s a video circulating online of Erin O’Toole responding to a question on healthcare,” wrote Harrison. “As the person who asked the question, I’m disappointed to see the video was manipulated to exclude important context.”