Vancouver

The title makes it sound like the allegations were brought through official channels

Zhou addressed the audience in Mandarin, asking for his supporters to come to a council meeting today to oppose a motion on social housing scheduled to be heard by the city’s policy and governance standing committee.

The motion [...] would build “drug houses” for “drug users,” Zhou said.

In a translation of the video commissioned by The Tyee, Zhou then said:

“I can also tell everybody that the non-ABC councillor is themself a drug user. Before Christmas, they openly dispensed drugs on the streets.”

Zhou does not name the specific councillor, and The Tyee’s translator noted that it is unclear whether Zhou is referring to one or multiple councillors.

“This video has now been shared thousands of times online. That scale matters. When statements like this spread widely, they shape how people understand city policy and how they view elected officials,” said Bligh, who alleged Zhou labelled her an “extremist” in the video for her motion calling for a staff report on the impact of Vancouver pausing all new social housing projects.

Nearly four hours after Fry, Maloney, Bligh and Orr’s press conference, Zhou issued a written public statement apologizing for the remarks he made about the councillors in the video that were “based on incorrect information.”

“I am retracting my statement, and I’ve taken down the video. I fully support the pause of net new supportive housing, and I do believe that there are significant issues around how many facilities operate,” his statement reads.

Taking down the video limits the spread, but does nothing to undo the damage. The bare minimum for intentionally spreading disinformation should be to release a followup video statement on the same platform and leaving it up, with hope that some of the same viewers will see it. Inflammatory disinformation is much more likely to go viral so even that won't undo the damage of the original action.

Sim declined to comment on the video when he passed reporters on his way into an in-camera council meeting Tuesday afternoon.

But in a statement emailed to The Tyee, Sim thanked Zhou for “acknowledging his mistake and taking responsibility for sharing information that was not accurate.”

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