Apparently there is a conspiracy theory floating around that the government is trying to get people to eat less meat by making us eat bugs, in the form of protein made from crickets. According to the CBC, this all started by an innocent tweet from a London, Ontario company in June. The company has built a plant to farm crickets, which are turned into protein powder that can be used by people or in pet foods.
The conspiracy theory was fueled by a newspaper article in July that revealed that the company received several million dollars in government funding. This is hardly unusual as new industries create jobs, which is a goal of this type of funding. But somehow the idea that the government wants us to eat bugs instead of meat has spread through a network of dubious Facebook groups and alt-news sites.
The CBC article goes right back to the beginning and traces the misinformation as it spread worldwide. It's an outstanding example of tracking disinformation.
The entire thread begins simply enough with a tweet on June 10 from the Toronto-based construction company Ellis Don, announcing it had just completed work on the world's largest cricket production facility.
The information was picked up a week later by Awakening Canada, a Facebook group that posts misinformation about the pandemic and conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum.
The June 17 post was published shortly after midnight, asking: "Are you guys ready to eat some crickets welcome to communist Canada." It got 10 shares among the page's 4,600 followers.
Eight hours later, the false information was repeated by Mike McMullen, a London, Ont., political candidate who ran for the People's Party of Canada in the last federal election, and a candidate for city councillor in this October's municipal elections.
He posts the same Ellis Don tweet on his Facebook page with the caption, "Klaus Schwab and the WEFers must be pleased..." The post gets 29 shares among his 1,900 followers.
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