To try and better understand how the Kirkland Lake bot incident might have happened, we investigated whether free generative AI tools like ChatGPT or Co-Pilot could be used to deliver this type of attack. We wanted to see if there are any safeguards in place to prevent commercial AI tools from being used in cases like this. We show almost all large free commercial AIs are not prepared to mitigate this kind of election interference.

• Canadians care equally about US news and politics

• More than one third of Canadians believe that the United States covertly influences Canadian politics

• Significant increase of attention paid to news and politics

• One third of Canadians report using print for news weekly

• Mounting awareness of and concern over foreign influence (FI)

• Lower appetite for news and politics in June

• Top Canadian news outlets are moderate and have broad appeal

• Small right-wing outlets punch above their weight on social media

July 2024 — In Spring 2024, DisinfoWatch and Canadian Digital Media Research Network conducted a survey of 2,127 Canadians to assess their exposure to several leading Kremlin narratives about Russia’s war against Ukraine and to understand the vulnerability of Canadians to these narratives.

• Ecosystem influence is highly concentrated in a small number of voices

• Canadians have extremely low trust in information providers

• Misinformation-producing websites receive significant attention

• Conservative voices dominate Canadian social media conversations

April 2024 — This document presents preliminary findings of an ongoing research project on the effects of Meta’s decision to end news availability on its platforms for Canadian users. It examines the impact of this “news ban” on Facebook, specifically focusing on how it affected engagement with Canadian news outlets on Facebook and behaviour within politically-oriented Canadian Facebook Groups.

August 2023 — The launch of ChatGPT and the explosion of interest and concern about generative artificial intelligence (AI) has again reinforced that rapid advancements in technology outpace policy and regulatory responses. There is a growing need for scholarship, engagement, and capacity‐ building around technology governance in Canada to unpack and demystify emerging digital innovations and equip decision‐makers in government, industry, academia and civil society to advance responsible, accountable, and trustworthy technology. To help bridge this gap, this note contextualizes today's challenges of governing the design, deployment and use of digital technologies, and describes a new set of secure and responsible technology policy movements and initiatives that can inform and support effective, public interest‐oriented technology policymaking in Canada. We conclude by outlining a potential research agenda, with multi‐ sector mobilization opportunities, to accelerate this critical work.