Booed in Beauceville: False Facebook post highlights Quebec election online misinformation – CBC

It was a simple screen grab of a text message, posted to a popular Facebook group.”Legault was in Beauceville today. He went to a restaurant and everybody was booing and yelling at him!” the text said, in French.”He had to leave before eating.” Shared more than a thousand times, with almost as many comments, the post had many applauding those at the restaurant, repeating the phrase “Dehors la CAQ,” (out with the CAQ).Except it didn’t happen. Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault was indeed in Beauceville at a restaurant on Aug. 29 but there was no booing, and he didn’t leave in a hurry.The post is one of many on social media that are misleading or outright false, with real-world consequences to both those who read it and to those involved in the event.Post shared widely on FacebookThe screen grab was posted on the LibreChoix Facebook group, the day after Legault was in Beauceville for a campaign event.The group, led by Carl Giroux, has so far amassed more than 55,000 followers.Giroux did not reply to numerous interview requests.He is a prolific poster, often going live on his page via his cell phone, to speak out against pandemic-related restrictions like the QR code and mandatory masks. Lately though,…
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