Who is Daniel Robson? That’s the question editors, journalists and other observers are asking after several Canadian websites took down articles written by someone using that name — but whose identity they now say cannot be verified and was likely generated by artificial intelligence.
The digital magazine Policy Options said last week that it removed an article published last year under Robson’s name after it was “unable to independently establish that the person who wrote for us is who he represents himself to be or that the biographical information he provided is accurate.”
On Tuesday, the Ottawa Citizen also said opinion columns written by Robson, who was published three times in the newspaper last year, were taken down after an investigation uncovered that he “does not seem to be a real person.”
The announcements came after an editor at Turkiye Today contacted Canadian editors with questions about Robson’s identity after Robson approached the Turkey-based news outlet with a story about a purported drug plot involving people in Turkey and Canada.
So what happened, and what do we know about the Robson persona?
Self-described ‘terrorism and crime’ expert
Les Perreaux, editor in chief of Policy Options, wrote in a statement on Sept. 24 that the magazine published a piece under Robson’s name last year after he had introduced himself as “an independent Canadian journalist from Montreal.”
Robson had been published by other Canadian media and he was co-operative through several rounds of editing, Perreaux told CBC News on Wednesday.
But when he was contacted by the editor in Turkey and started to investigate, Perreaux said he couldn’t confirm Robson’s identity. He acknowledged the vetting process didn’t go far enough.
“Publication history and personal contact aren’t enough anymore,” Perreaux said. “You have to go further to find the breadcrumbs that can reassure you that the person is real, and that they have the expertise they claim.”
Ottawa Citizen editor in chief Nicole Feriancek also said in a written statement on Tuesday that Robson had described himself as a “‘Canadian journalist’ specializing in extremism, terrorism and crime.”
A “Daniel Robson” profile on X, which uses the same image Robson used on author pages on other websites, describes the writer as an “independent journalist” focused on “extremism, terrorism & cybercrime.”
But Feriancek said Robson’s “headshot, based on online analysis tools, appeared to be AI generated, as did the writing he submitted.”
CBC News also put the image used on Robson’s X page through an AI analysis tool, which said it was likely created by AI.
Feriancek said attempts to call or meet Robson were rebuffed.
“When we were up front with our concerns, and said we wanted to verify his identity — in person — he declared he was incensed by our line of questions, and he ended all communication.”
AI news coverage is appearing up in the North. The website WE NEWS has 26 Canadian AI ‘correspondents’, like Kaylee Johns in the Yukon, Warren Lafferty in the N.W.T. and Leah Qammaniq in Nunavut. The website says it uses legitimate sources, but some of the site’s reporting is suspicously close to stories in outlets like CBC North and Nunatsiaq News. The CBC’s Meghan Roberts spoke with the president of the Canadian Association of Journalists to learn more.
Where else did Robson write?
Robson — who largely wrote about domestic issues in Canada, such as hate-crime legislation and national security — had author pages at the Hub, Open Canada and Western Standard. As of Wednesday, they had all been taken down.
“Daniel Robson’s columns were removed from the Western Standard website after multiple media organizations investigated his background, and he was unable to verify his identity,” reads a note on the Western Standard website.
An article was also published under Robson’s name in the Montreal Gazette, which on Wednesday afternoon said the piece had been retracted.
“Following this incident, we have strengthened our contributor verification procedures and implemented additional checks to safeguard against [these] new forms of fraud,” editor in chief Lenie Lucci wrote.
What set off the investigation into Robson’s identity?
In an article published on Tuesday, Turkiye Today’s managing editor Ilker Sezer said the outlet received an email in early September from Robson, pitching a story about a drug ring purportedly involving a Moroccan-Canadian businessman who is an outspoken critic of Morocco.
“I like such stories, like crime thrillers, so I was kind of excited: ‘Oh, Moroccan drug lord laundering money through a Turkish middleman? Wow, yeah,'” Sezer recalled thinking. “He had this sense of urgency; he wants to get [the story] out ASAP.”
But Sezer told CBC News on Wednesday that when he began digging into the allegations from Istanbul and asked Robson for more information, alarm bells began to ring.
“I offered a video call with him just to discuss the details of the case and he refused. This was the first moment that I got [suspicious].”
A review of his emails from Robson, as well as work published on other websites under that name, then made Sezer think the person was using AI.
According to Sezer, when Robson became aware that he was asking questions, he became agitated. In Robson’s last email to him, about two weeks ago, “he said there will be repercussions for what you have done to me,” Sezer said.
Who’s behind the Robson persona?
Sezer said he can’t say for sure, but he thinks there is a link to Morocco.
In his Turkiye Today piece, Sezer wrote that Robson’s work “revealed a coordinated agenda: fiercely defending the Moroccan state while orchestrating targeted information campaigns against its critics.”
CBC News could not independently verify such a link. CBC News also was not able to reach Robson via email on Wednesday afternoon.
The Globe and Mail reported on Wednesday that a digital research tool showed that Robson’s email address was used to register a Moroccan Microsoft account in March. “That account was last active in early September, records show,” it said.
Whoever is behind it, Sezer said the episode underscores that journalism is in “a period of transition” as the use of AI expands globally. “Being cognizant of AI and its dangers is very important right now.”
