The debate over the role of Kitimat in the Northern Gateway pipeline debate is being infected by ongoing Twitter spam.
Starting late Saturday and continuing Sunday, Twitter messages frequently appear, with many different identities, but few if any followers and with one message “Kitimat torn by risks, rewards.”
The message refers to a headline in the Vancouver Sun, by Gordon Hoekstra, part of his coverage of the first day of Joint Review hearings on the pipeline, Kitimat torn by risks, rewards, but the spam doesn’t include a link to the original Vancouver Sun story.
References to Kitimat are appearing more frequently as interest grows in the story of the Northern Gateway pipeline. While many of the tweets are informed opinion on all sides of the debate with appropriate links, there are also a growing number of tweets by conservatives, mainly in Alberta and Saskatchewan, that clearly show complete ignorance of the issue.
Clarification One key example from this weekend. There have been tweets from people both in Alberta and Saskatchewan claiming there are no forests in Kitimat. They look at a map and see the boundaries of the Great Bear Rainforest and decide that saying that Kitimat is surrounded by forest is a “green lie.”
Northwest Coast Energy News is asking for Twitter for a comment on the spam.