Over the past three years, we've tracked how Canadians' information diets have shifted amid Meta's news ban and the rise of political influencers. Our latest brief draws on nearly 9M social media posts and a survey of 1,518 Canadians to see what's replacing journalism online. 🧵

New in @poqjournal.bsky.social, with Holly Ann Garnett & @abridgman.bsky.social: Are Canadians losing trust in their elections? Using data from the Media Ecosystem Observatory and the Canadian Election Study since 2008, we find trust has declined sharply on the right since 2019. 🧵

Our new incident response report exposes a coordinated network of 340 Facebook pages, largely operated from Vietnam, flooding feeds across Canada, the US, the UK, and Europe with AI-fabricated news, and inadvertently funded by Canadian public and private advertisers. 🧵

Unlike a traditional foreign influence operation, Facebook's news slop economy serves no political agenda — the same fabricated stories are recycled across politicians from rival parties. The motive is profit, but when engagement is the goal, inflammatory content wins.

Glad to share that my article "The politicization of attitudes towards misinformation: how ideology shapes epistemic beliefs, normative judgments, and policy support" is out in the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The politicization of attitudes towards misinformation: how ideology shapes epistemic beliefs, normative judgments, and policy support

Misinformation poses an important challenge for democracy, yet political debates appear to have polarized citizens’ perceptions and responses to misinformation. In a first experiment administered d...

tandfonline.com

With a potential Alberta referendum ahead, we're releasing "Slopaganda," an incident response report documenting a network of inauthentic YouTube channels pushing coordinated, fake Albertan political commentary. 🧵#cdnpoli

Dans la cadre des 80 ans d'Élections Québec, j'ai eu la chance de discuter avec @ledevoir.com de l'impact de la désinformation sur les élections et la confiance des électeurs, et de ce qu'il faut surveiller en 2026. www.ledevoir.com/politique/qu...

La désinformation mine-t-elle la confiance des électeurs ?

Au Québec, la confiance démocratique demeure solide, mais certains signes de fragilité apparaissent.

ledevoir.com

100 Canadian social media users, mostly influencers, account for nearly 70 % of anti-institutional conspiracy theory content online, according to a new study from researchers at @mcgill.ca and @utoronto.ca.

Researchers studied who’s spreading the most conspiracy theories in Canada. Here’s what they found

Canadians are becoming more exposed to conspiracy theory content in their social media feeds, but only a certain number of accounts are responsible for promoting the vast majority of it, a new study s...

ctvnews.ca

Une infime minorité occupe une place disproportionnée dans le discours ambiant au pays, démontre un rapport.

Une centaine de comptes sont à l’origine de la majorité des contenus conspirationnistes au Canada

ledevoir.com

Great discussion with @rorywh.bsky.social on our report on conspiratorial claims in Canada’s online ecosystem. Analyzing 14M posts across 4 platforms, we find: 1. Supply is highly concentrated 2. Conspiracy content primarily circulates on X 3. High awareness, limited belief among the public

Rory White@rorywh.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The Media Ecosystem Observatory has found that just 100 accounts in Canada are responsible for 68% of posts promoting conspiracy theories. But they are having an outsized impact on local governments. Read my latest: www.nationalobserver.com/2026/02/25/n...

@mathieulavigne.bsky.social spoke with @rorywh.bsky.social from @nationalobserver.com about our latest brief on online conspiracy theories and institutional distrust in Canada, from the Centre's Media Ecosystem Observatory (MEO).

Rory White@rorywh.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The Media Ecosystem Observatory has found that just 100 accounts in Canada are responsible for 68% of posts promoting conspiracy theories. But they are having an outsized impact on local governments. Read my latest: www.nationalobserver.com/2026/02/25/n...

Our newest brief, “Conspiratorial Claims and Institutional Distrust in Canada’s Online Ecosystem,” examines how anti-institutional conspiracy theories circulate online and how widely they resonate with Canadians.🧵 #cdnpoli

Can feed algorithms shape what people think about politics? Our paper "The Political Effects of X's Feed Algorithm" is out today in Nature and answers "Yes." www.nature.com/articles/s41...

As teens increasingly use AI chatbots in their daily lives and documented harms have begun to surface, we surveyed 1,454 Canadians about their perceptions of risks, attribution of responsibility for harm, and support for specific interventions. @mediatechdemocracy.bsky.social tinyurl.com/p4spweew

Canadians’ Perspectives on Governing AI Chatbots A Policy Brief — Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy

This report adds to an evidence-based mandate for AI chatbot regulation in Canada, drawing on nationally representative survey data from 1,454 Canadians and mapping public preferences onto established...

tinyurl.com

How do Canadians feel about governing AI chatbots? Our new policy brief draws on nationally representative survey data from 1,454 Canadians, demonstrating overwhelming public concern across all surveyed risk categories and clear attribution of risk to AI companies.🧵 #cdnpoli

Glad to have contributed an entry on "Misinformation" with @obboutin.bsky.social to the IPSA Companion to Political Science. Thanks to Daniel Stockemer, Stephen Sawyer, and @audreygagnon.bsky.social for the excellent editorial work! doi.org/10.1007/978-...

Misinformation

doi.org

IPSA@ipsa.org · 8mo ago

IPSA Releases New Open-Access Companion to Political Science www.ipsa.org/na/news/ipsa...

Au printemps, l'équipe de Découverte de @info.radio-canada.ca a suivi l'équipe de l'OEM pour mieux comprendre notre projet de surveillance des élections fédérales canadiennes de 2025. Voici le résultat de leur travail : tinyurl.com/n3tvcjn9

Réseaux sociaux et démocratie : bruit, opacité et risques

À moins d'augmenter l'encadrement des plateformes, les tentatives de manipulation politique pourraient avoir le dessus sur notre capacité à les détecter.

tinyurl.com

The #CharlieKirk shooting has sparked widespread debate about political violence. So, we surveyed Canadians to evaluate their perceptions of the event and political violence, comparing our results to U.S. data when available. Here's what we found 🧵 #cdnpoli #uspoli

Glad to have contributed to this report on the information ecosystem during the 2025 Canadian election. It highlights key challenges and potential actions to protect our elections amid GenAI-powered disinformation, political segmentation, and reduced news visibility on social media platforms.

Media Ecosystem Observatory@meo-cdmrn.bsky.social · 10mo ago

🚨Our 2025 Federal Election report is here and it should serve as a warning for Canada to act now to protect future elections. Canada’s 2025 federal election upheld its integrity, but exposed a digital ecosystem under mounting strain. Read on to learn about our key findings 🧵

WEEKLY UPDATE: WEEK 6 OF CANADA’S 45TH FEDERAL ELECTION🚨 We open this final weekly update with 6 key reflections from our research team on the 2025 Canadian federal election. These are preliminary impressions—our full post-election report will offer deeper insight. 🧵

Over 25% of Canadians are being exposed to more sophisticated and more politically polarizing fake content. These ads don’t just defraud individuals—they risk undermining trust in journalism and the democratic process, spreading misleading political content at a critical time ⚠️

WEEKLY UPDATE: WEEK 3 OF CANADA’S 45TH FEDERAL ELECTION🚨 As Canada approaches its federal election, we're witnessing a surge in generative AI (GenAI) content that poses serious challenges to the integrity of our information ecosystem. 🧵⬇️ #GenAI #Deepfakes #CanadaElection2025

WEEKLY UPDATE: WEEK 2 OF CANADA’S 45TH FEDERAL ELECTIONS🚨 From foreign interference narratives to AI-generated conspiracies, here’s what we’re seeing this week. 🧵⬇️ #CdnPoli #Election2025

It’s official: Canada’s 45th federal election is happening on April 28. With rising threats of foreign interference & information manipulation, protecting our democracy has never been more urgent. That’s why the Canadian Digital Media Research Network (CDMRN) is stepping in. 🧵

How have new technologies impacted democratic elections? What should be done to enhance electoral participation and integrity going forward? Submit your abstract by March 31 to join our 1-day pre-APSA workshop in Vancouver! www.electoralintegrityproject.com/vancouver-20...

Mathieu Lavigne@mathieulavigne.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨Call for Papers!🚨 We are organizing a pre-APSA workshop bringing together scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss the threats and opportunities that new technologies pose for elections and democracy. Submit your abstract by March 31: www.electoralintegrityproject.com/vancouver-20...

🚨Call for Papers!🚨 We are organizing a pre-APSA workshop bringing together scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss the threats and opportunities that new technologies pose for elections and democracy. Submit your abstract by March 31: www.electoralintegrityproject.com/vancouver-20...

Day 2 of Information and Misinformation in Elections is about to begin! Join us for an incredible day of research and discussion! #CaltechElectionIntegrityConf2025 www.protectingtheelection.us/conference

Looking forward to presenting my research at the #CaltechElectionIntegrityConf2025! We rely on survey-linked web browsing data to evaluate exposure to election fraud content and the durability of fraud beliefs.

We've got a great program for #CaltechElectionIntegrityConf2025 tomorrow and Friday! Tomorrow: two panels of amazing research presentations, two interesting plenary talks, and two roundtable conversations with election officials and election practitioners. www.protectingtheelection.us/conference

Another thing bothering me about the Zuckerberg statement -- the assertion that fact-checkers have “destroyed more trust than they created." FCers are obviously imperfect and have made mistakes, but most of what people hear about them is ax-grinding by conservative elites, not fair-minded critiques