Findings
Since 2019, we have combined digital trace data with national surveys to help Canadians better understand and navigate their online information environment. We are able to answer questions related to what Canadians are actually seeing across platforms and who is producing that content; whether a claim, a story or a network is growing and how fast; whether activity is authentic or coordinated; and how what circulates online lines up with what people say they believe.
Interactives
Where possible, we build interactive visualizations to allow readers to look at and understand the social media posts and users that lie beneath the published static figures.
Facebook's News Slop Economy
Interactive explorer for the CDMRN information incident: a coordinated network of 340 foreign-run Facebook pages — 89% of those disclosing an administrator location are run from Vietnam — using AI-generated fake news to farm engagement and ad revenue across Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Europe. Explore who the pages are, what they post, and how the content clusters by topic.
Explore the interactive
Slopaganda: The Inauthentic YouTube Network Selling Secession to Albertans
Interactive explorer for the CDMRN information incident: a network of 20 inauthentic YouTube channels — AI avatars and paid voice actors performing an Albertan perspective — normalizing secession and U.S. annexation. Nearly 40 million views in 12 months.
Explore the interactivePublications
election monitoring
We monitor, report on, and assess the information environment during federal and provincial elections and referendums.
ecosystem briefs
We also track what is changing in how Canadians get information and what they believe.
information incidents
When something disrupts that ecosystem, we investigate it and publish an incident report.
academic publications
We publish in peer-reviewed journals and present conference papers on how Canadians encounter political information, on what platforms do to public opinion and participation, and on the methods behind the collection itself.
