We just launched the final report of The Commission on Democratic Expression. I thought now might be a good time to reflect on the state of the online harms policy debate in Canada, and outline our recommended approach (long thread). nationalnewswatch.com/2022/05/09/reg… Before getting into the details of the report, we need to acknowledge that the way this issue has been too often framed in our public and policy debate – as one of individual bad actors and the subsequent takedown/censorship of content – is erroneous.

According to this @MartinPatriquin @the_logic article the head of policy for Facebook Canada, who sits on the advisory board of my department, has maligned my work at board meetings and suggested the school not promote it. I have things to say about this. financialpost.com/technology/thi… Although framed as a profile, I didn't read the article as being about a single person. I think it's about a growing structural problem in our journalistic, civil society and research institutions. One that I think more people, including myself, should be talking about publicly.

In this week's Big Tech (we are now weekly!) I spoke to @chafkin about his new book on Peter Thiel. Here is the conversation: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/how… A few additional thoughts: I have been interested in Thiel since doing some work on Palantir years ago. A summary of some of this work is here: foreignaffairs.com/articles/2015-…

VERY excited to share something I have been working on... The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy @mediatechdem @MaxBellSchool @mcgillu will examine how our media and technology infrastructure shape democracy and public life. mediatechdemocracy.com [Thread] Our aim is to create public-facing work that informs urgent public and policy debates organized around three core research streams:
1⃣Tech Governance
2⃣ Information Ecosystems
3⃣ Media & Journalism

If you are lucky in life, you get to meet someone as powerful, smart, generous and urgently important as @mariaressa. In a new ep. of the #BigTechPodcast @dskok spoke to her a few days before her grossly unjust conviction. She is awe inspiring. (thread) cigionline.org/big-tech/maria… Since the interview I have been reflecting on her message, which i have had the chance to watch evolve and build over the past few years. Maria is rightly being championed as a symbol of the free press in face of the autocratic state. And she is unambiguously this.

We have just launched our report about the media ecosystem and mis/disinformation in the 2019 Canadian Federal election. What follows is a mega thread detailing our methods, findings and some broader reflections. @mcgillu @munkschool @MaxBellSchool @ppforumca
1/n There is a big worry about the influence of mis/disinformation and other forms of online media manipulation on democratic institutions, elections and political life. We set out to build and produce a robust and reproducible Canadian study. And we are heartened by what we found.

Yesterday we released our first report from the Digital Democracy Project. Over the course of the upcoming Canadian election we will be publishing weekly results of our analysis of the media ecosystem and the role of mis/disinformation in voter behaviour. Some details (thread): Our goal is to merge large scale media ecosystem analysis with survey research. The online data analysis team is led by @derekruths and will study a wide range of online data, including Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, some public-facing Facebook, Blogs, and all Canadian news websites.

A few comments on the debate over fake twitter handles of public figures, on the rise in Canada (thread): 1. There is a difference between parody and deception. The line actually isn’t all that grey - you know each when you see them. And the intent and impact of each are different.

THREAD The premise of Facebooks Election Integrity Initiative invites the Q: does FB threaten democracy? My thoughts beta.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/is-fac… I don’t say this lightly, but I think something has shifted in the role platforms play, & it is increasingly apparent that the answer is yes