Nearly 340k people are subscribed to r/Canada, with many using it as their primary source of news. This past week, private messages were leaked between two of the subreddit’s moderators, in which one moderator named u/Perma wrote that they were “slowly becoming” a white nationalist.

Freelance journalist and CANADALAND contributor, Evan Balgord joins Jesse to get a sense of how one of Canada’s biggest informal, “non-partisan” news platforms begun skewing (alt)right and how Reddit influences mainstream media (and politics).

Jesse also speaks to the person responsible for leaking the conversation, “Neil” AKA u/UsedToDonateBlood, the founding moderator of r/OnGuardForThee — the breakout subreddit pushing back against the “censorious,” and increasingly “alt-right” editorial slant of r/Canada.

An earlier version of this episode made reference to a Justin Trudeau AMA on r/CanadaPolitics. That was in fact an April Fool’s hoax.

image source: Reddit user legit4u