Information & Ethics committee  There is a huge use of machine learning in AI to deliver content to eyeballs. Related to your point, essentially, it's concerning sometimes, when you get into echo chambers on a particular topic and that's all you see. If it's full of misinformation, driven by a recommended system, that's even more concerning.

Information & Ethics committee  It goes to my point about privacy not just by design, but by default. When I installed the TikTok app on my phone just the other day, I did not even create an account and it already started tracking and sent 102 requests for information like my battery life, my device ID and such.

Information & Ethics committee  The reason I pause is that it goes hand in hand with the type of influencer content that individuals are consuming on these platforms that would trigger or lead them to certain expressions. One concern we've observed over the years when conducting surveys with Canadians is that more of us are turning to social media for information about conflicts like the war in Ukraine or the war in Palestine.

Information & Ethics committee  Unfortunately, WeChat, like many other messaging apps, is invisible to most researchers. The reasons are good in that these are usually private conversations. Social media researchers look at public discourse on public social media platforms. There are ways in which platforms can provide more evidence and data to researchers for public groups within those platforms.

Information & Ethics committee  Yes. Unfortunately, social media tools, as many previous witnesses have reported, have been weaponized by various state actors and other interest groups. They are too accessible to the public in trying to shape public opinion. In some cases we hear reports about large, automated bot networks.

Information & Ethics committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members, for this opportunity to discuss the potential threat of foreign interference and the risks associated with the misuse of social media data. I'm Anatoliy Gruzd, a Canada research chair and professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. I'm also a co-director of the social media lab, where I study social media's impact on society, information privacy and the spread of misinformation around conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war.