iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Max Falkenberg @maxfalken.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Is the world getting more polarized? The polarization of the U.S. is worrying. But is polarization similarly bad elsewhere? What drives polarization globally, what role does social media play, and will AI make things worse? New review in @nature.com communications: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

lnkd.in

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 02/09/2026

🆕 Ahead of the next conferences I've updated the blog with some new journal articles. Just out today is a new massively multiauthored position piece in @natcomms.nature.com, outlining the current state of polarisation research and led by the great Max Falkenberg:

snurb.info

Another Update from the Road: New Journal Articles, and Upcoming Conferences | Snurblog — Axel Bruns

I'm on the road again for a trip that will take me to the ECR

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 11/08/2026

Come work with us! We're hiring a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to analyze the impact of GenAI on the production & consumption of visual content on social media and/or to examine migration narratives & counter-narratives on social media. socialmedialab.ca/2026/07/14/p... #academicsky #comsky #polsky

socialmedialab.ca

Join Our Research Team! @SMLabTO is Hiring a Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Social Media Lab

The Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. The successful candidate will join a vibrant and interdisciplinary research lab l...

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 25/06/2026

Moscow is 🔥 ... So now he is ready ... "Putin ‘ready for peace talks’ after Ukraine strikes key Russian sites" www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/new...

independent.co.uk

Putin ‘ready for peace talks’ after Ukraine strikes key Russian sites

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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 25/06/2026

Researchers, are you starting a new social media research project? We recently updated @Communalytic.org, our no-code computational social science research tool for studying online communities and public discourse. It's chock-full of new data collectors & new data analyzers. communalytic.org

communalytic.org

A computational social science research tool for studying online communities and discourse.

It can collect and analyze social media data.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 09/06/2026

Allowing users to add fresh eggs was a marketing strategy that helped save the boxed cake mix. When 1st launched in the 50s, sales languished b/c "just add water" mixes made housewives feel guilty for not contributing enough effort. Adding fresh 🥚 restored the psychological ownership of baking.

bbc.com

Why cake mix lacks one essential ingredient

The invention of cake mix nearly foundered – but when manufacturers made a counter-intuitive change to their simple recipe, sales boomed.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 09/06/2026

Opinions are rarely formed in isolation; they are influenced by the information sources individuals can access and trust. This is why there's a race to see who can control the new consent machine. "Google’s ‘New Era for AI Search’ May Threaten Democracy" www.techpolicy.press/googles-new-...

techpolicy.press

Google’s ‘New Era for AI Search’ May Threaten Democracy

The rise of AI in search raises pressing questions about its impact on people and democracy, writes Elise Silva.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 09/06/2026

As we have often noted, framing is everything. Here's one of our research projects that brings this fact to life. We analyzed immigration-related ads on FB in real time to see the frames advertisers used to persuade you. (Best viewed on a desktop) migration.polidashboard.org/frames?count...

migration.polidashboard.org

Migration Ad Observatory

Tracking migration-related political advertising on Meta platforms.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

The Samara Centre for Democracy @thesamaracentre.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

We’re pleased to share a speaker update for our Democracy and AI event at Toronto Tech Week! Anatoliy Gruzd (@gruzd.ca), Director of Research @socialmedialab.ca at @torontomet.bsky.social will be a panelist. tinyurl.com/bdfb66bu

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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 17/05/2026

Academic researchers, are you looking for data on X's Community Notes for a future study? We can help; we've a searchable database w/2.1M notes. notetracker.socialmedialab.ca?start=2021-0... We're always looking for new collabs. Here's how to contact us. socialmedialab.ca/web/contact/ #academicsky

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 01/05/2026

Looking for the latest pieces of debunked misinfo re: the Russian Ukraine war? Curious about the types of disinformation & narratives being pushed by Russia and Russia-aligned actors? We got you... datastudio.google.com/reporting/b0...

datastudio.google.com

Russia-Ukraine ConflictMisinfo Dashboard

Looker Studio turns your data into informative dashboards and reports that are easy to read, easy to share, and fully customizable.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Philip Mai @philipmai.com · 23/04/2026

"Moscow is using AI-generated videos of Ukrainian soldiers to portray the country as weak and undermine trust in its central command." www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

euronews.com

Deepfakes of frontline Ukrainian soldiers aim to undermine morale

Moscow is using AI-generated videos of Ukrainian soldiers to portray the country as weak and undermine trust in its central command. #TheCube

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 08/04/2026

Data About Canadians For Canadians. Here's where you can find all of our recent public reports, which provide a snapshot of social media usage trends in Canada and Canadians' attitudes and perceptions towards issues such as AI, misinformation, politics, and privacy. socialmedialab.ca/public-repor...

socialmedialab.ca

Public Reports - Social Media Lab

Data About Canadians For Canadians: An overwhelming majority of online Canadian adults (95%) have at least one social media account, making Canada one of the most connected countries in the world. Our...

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 02/04/2026

Welcome to our new Deepfakes Tracker, your hub for tracking and understanding synthetic media. Take a quick video tour. deepfakestracker.org

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 21/03/2026

Other improvements include: - Enhanced sentiment analysis and topic modeling using modern multilingual AI models - Faster network visualization powered by GPU-accelerated algorithms - A new Team / Instructor tier designed for collaborative research and teaching communalytic.org

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 21/03/2026

This past wk, we launched a new version of Communalytic, a platform designed to help you explore how digital conversations shape public opinion & behaviour across social media. Key highlights incl: expanded data collection capabilities, including two new TikTok data collectors.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 19/03/2026

Communalytic, a no-code computational social science research platform for studying online communities and public discourse on social media, includes 20 easy-to-use social media data collectors and a full suite of built-in data analyzers. communalytic.org/about-us/ #medsky #comsky #polsky #phdsky

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Communalytic.Org @communalytic.org · 18/03/2026

The new version of Communalytic.org introduces powerful new analysis tools, new data collectors for TikTok and Bluesky, a redesigned interface, and enhanced collaboration capabilities aimed at researchers, journalists, educators, and civil society organizations studying digital discourse. #phdsky

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 29/01/2026

Mr. Mai said the TikTok saga showed " #digitalsovereignty is increasingly political, not absolute". "For the US, it exposes the limits of enforcing sovereignty in an open internet: national security concerns collide with free speech norms, market realities and electoral incentives."

abc.net.au

What the US TikTok deal means for Australia's 'digital sovereignty'

US politicians — both Republican and Democrat — had worried TikTok's Chinese ownership could mean American user data was vulnerable.

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Anatoliy Gruzd @gruzd.ca · 25/01/2026

Ready to make an impact in Toronto? 🇨🇦 My University @torontomet.bsky.social is inviting international candidates (currently outside Canada) to apply for a Canada Impact+ Research Chair ($1M/yr for 8 years). 📅 Feb 21, 2026. 👇

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Philip Mai @philipmai.com · 03/12/2025

The real problem isn’t rage itself, but the systems we’ve built around it: systems designed to provoke, manipulate, and monetize our anger. Instead of empowering us to right a wrong, they exploit our most powerful instincts for profit.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Philip Mai @philipmai.com · 03/12/2025

Rage farming has turned into an industry, and the irony is that many of its operators don’t even live in the West; it’s just a paycheck to them. thetyee.ca/News/2025/12... The absolute failure is ours: we allowed surveillance capitalism to entrench itself.

thetyee.ca

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 03/12/2025

"Do you find yourself getting increasingly irate while scrolling through your social media feed? If so, you may be falling victim to rage bait, which Oxford University Press has named its word or phrase of the year." www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

Rage bait named word of the year 2025 by Oxford University Press

The phrase - meaning to get angry scrolling through social media - beats aura farming and biohack to the title.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 03/12/2025

The conflict of interest here is off the chart: "Steve Witkoff’s real-estate empire is bankrolled by a former adviser to Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and a key architect of Moscow’s Ukraine negotiations" bylinetimes.com/2025/12/01/t...

bylinetimes.com

Trump Envoy Has Financial Ties With Former Adviser to Putin’s ‘Money Man’ Now Leading Kremlin Peace Talks

Steve Witkoff’s real-estate empire is bankrolled by a former adviser to Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund and a key architect of Moscow’s Ukraine negotiations

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 02/12/2025

There was a time when professors warned students never to cite Wikipedia. Now it has become foundational knowledge for AI systems and a trusted resource for community fact-checkers who use it to make sense of information & settle debates. notetracker.socialmedialab.ca #FactChecking #DigitalLiteracy

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 01/12/2025

Calling all journalists, here's a handy new tool to help you scan not-yet-visible X's Community Notes to uncover early corrections or emerging debates around a post on X on a topic you might be covering. notetracker.socialmedialab.ca#reporter-guide

notetracker.socialmedialab.ca

NoteTracker Dashboard

A Searchable Database of Community Notes on X

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 01/12/2025

"How a Flawed X Feature Sparked False Political Accusations. Charges of foreign influence flew based on X’s location feature. The truth is more complicated." thetyee.ca/News/2025/12...

thetyee.ca

How a Flawed X Feature Sparked False Political Accusations | The Tyee

Charges of foreign influence flew based on X’s location feature. The truth is more complicated.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 30/11/2025

We are not opposed to AI. In fact, we've integrated it into many of the data tools we develop. However, precisely b/c we use & work w/ AI every day, we, like many other experts, also understand its limitations. AI’s Impact on Canadians: A Briefing for the Senate socialmedialab.ca/2025/11/25/a...

socialmedialab.ca

AI’s Impact on Canadians: A Briefing for the Senate - Social Media Lab

Anatoliy Gruzd, co-director of the Social Media Lab addressed the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications on November 25, 2025, as part of its review of the opportunities and challen...

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 30/11/2025

"Fact File: How Canadian accounts got swept up in X's location feature accuracy issues" www.msn.com/en-ca/news/c...

msn.com

MSN

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 30/11/2025

"Elon Musk Drove ~1/3 of Women Off Twitter... Topline data shows that use of the big three platforms has pretty much plateaued, and that TikTok continues to grow at roughly the same rate as Instagram did during its expansion." kevinmunger.substack.com/p/elon-musk-...

kevinmunger.substack.com

Elon Musk Drove ~1/3 of Women Off Twitter

X? More like XY lmao gotem

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 30/11/2025

The power of near-realtime data: Our NoteTracker Dashboard currently shows that only a small fraction [10.9%] of Community Notes are visible on X. In comparison, an overwhelming majority [89.1%] of proposed Community Notes are not yet visible (based on 1741011 notes). notetracker.socialmedialab.ca

notetracker.socialmedialab.ca

NoteTracker Dashboard

A Searchable Database of Community Notes on X

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 28/11/2025

"In our new study, The State of Generative AI Use in Canada, about two-thirds of Canadians said they had tried generative AI. But, only 38% felt confident using it effectively, and only 36% understood the rules and ethics behind responsible use." socialmedialab.ca/2025/11/25/a...

socialmedialab.ca

AI’s Impact on Canadians: A Briefing for the Senate - Social Media Lab

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 28/11/2025

This is huge: under new EU law, "social media companies will have to compensate banks if it’s clear that they failed to remove an online scam that had been reported." www.politico.eu/article/soci...

politico.eu

Social media giants liable for financial scams under new EU law

The new rules set a dangerous precedent, big tech companies say.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 22/11/2025

This is not a peace plan. It is a proposal that weakens Ukraine and divides America from Europe, preparing the way for a larger war in the future. In the meantime, it benefits unnamed Russian and American investors, at the expense of everyone else. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

theatlantic.com

Trump Has a Recipe for War and Corruption, Not Peace

Who would benefit from the White House’s 28-point proposal for Ukraine?

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 22/11/2025

Allowing this so-called "peace" plan to move forward would simply postpone the danger. It would be the children growing up right now, eight-year-olds who will be eighteen by then, who would be exposed to the next wave of Russian violence, suffering the consequences of choices made today.

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Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 17/11/2025

Most middle managers aren’t yet equipped to recognize the hidden or long-term costs of relying on AI, including integration overhead, quality-control gaps, and the erosion of early-career talent pipelines.

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 17/11/2025

AI is taking entry-level jobs. "Managers at Shopify must now justify hiring a human by first explaining why AI can’t do the job." Companies that adopt this mindset are ultimately undermining themselves. nymag.com/intelligence...

nymag.com

‘There’s Just No Reason to Deal With Young Employees’

AI is taking entry-level jobs. What happens when Gen-Z-ers can’t start their careers?

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 16/11/2025

As part of our research on competing narratives about international migration on social media, we reviewed existing scholarship to develop a typology of 11 frames that capture the dominant ways these debates are structured. These 11 frames underpin the Migration Ads Observatory.

en.wikipedia.org

Framing (social sciences) - Wikipedia

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 16/11/2025

If you are conducting research on migration and the politics of migration, here's a sneak peek at a new dashboard we're developing as part of the @bridgdivides.bsky.social initiative at @torontomet.bsky.social. The dashboard will track/analyze migration-related ads in near real time. (ETA Feb. 2026)

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 14/11/2025

As a researcher, your insights shape public understanding, so protect the person behind the expertise. These resources offer guidance on safeguarding your privacy, managing your online presence, and navigating potential risks. km.socialmedialab.ca/resources #academicsky #sciencesky #PhDsky

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Reposted by Anatoliy Gruzd

Social Media Lab @socialmedialab.ca · 12/11/2025

This is why Content moderation is difficult. When do you take a post at face value, & when do you consider its cultural context? Should mods be blamed for not knowing re: reference to an obscure line from Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues? "But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die."

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