Misinformation flooding some of Alberta’s biggest online communities has become a major problem during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to three volunteer Reddit moderators in Edmonton.

In separate interviews with CBC News, the moderators said the number of posts pushing misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 has surged in their communities on Reddit, a huge social media and news aggregator site that hosts thousands of discussion forums or communities known as subreddits for millions of users. The moderators say the vast majority of these posts come from users who have never participated in their online communities before.

Thousands of Albertans rely on their local Reddit communities, but volunteer