The organization Debunk Inc. — which spent about $800 on two Facebook ads — describes itself as a "group of people that believe in supporting the issues that matter most to Canadians" and says it pushes back at disinformation about the oil sector in mainstream media.

Debunk Inc.'s website denies it is an oil industry-funded group, claiming it has received contributions from Canadian citizens and from various industries.

Debunk Inc was incorporated in 2017 by two marketers, Anastasia Columbos and Britni Weston. According to her LinkedIn profile, in 2013 Columbos founded the marketing agency ANPORT Communications, which lists oil and gas companies as clients. The lawyer who signed the incorporation documents, James L. Kidd, has a long history of working with oil and gas and pipeline clients, and is himself on the board of at least two energy sector companies.

CAPP, Canada Action and Debunk Inc. were all incorporated at the same law firm in Calgary — Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer.

Debunk Inc. and ANPORT Communications did not respond to CBC requests for comment.

The practice of funnelling corporate messaging through apparently grassroots organizations — known as "astroturfing" — is nothing new, said Fenwick McKelvey, associate professor of communication studies at Concordia University. But social media platforms' lack of clear policies makes it easy for companies to "mimic" the work of grassroots movements, he said.

"These campaigns come out of nowhere [and] are playing up their supposed legitimacy, when it's really industrial funding," he said.

McKelvey said that while the ads purchased by Canada's Energy Citizens run under the label "paid for by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers," many advertisers aren't so transparent.

"What you see here is an example of monied interests being able to exploit simple loopholes and basically being able to buy seeming public legitimacy for a time, at least until people call them out on it," he said.