Alex MacIsaac
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aomacisaac.bsky.social
Alex MacIsaac
@aomacisaac.bsky.social
65 followers 180 following 12 posts
Research coordinator in democracy + tech at The Samara Centre for Democracy. Living in Halifax, NS.
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aomacisaac.bsky.social
We put out the first report from our new project "VERIFIED" yesterday looking at the r/Canada Reddit community and particularly how a very small group of users are able to have an outsized influence over a forum viewed by millions of Canadians.

#cdnpoli #reddit

www.samaracentre.ca/articles/fed...
Federal Election Report 1: Power Users Dominate the Discussion on r/Canada | Samara Centre for Democracy
We explored the political conversation on Reddit, specifically the largest Canadian subreddit, r/Canada, in the days leading up to the federal election being called.
www.samaracentre.ca
April 9, 2025 at 6:37 PM
aomacisaac.bsky.social
From @beathenorth.bsky.social and I for the @theglobeandmail.com today: inauthentic behaviour and 'astroturfing' can work to shift and skew political public opinion in online spaces - and we can't know how common and coercive the practice may be.

www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
Opinion: Is that online outrage you’re seeing really grassroots, or just ‘astroturfing’?
Fake engagement, disinformation and co-ordinated manipulation efforts are skewing our understanding of public opinion – and the problem is bigger than we think
www.theglobeandmail.com
February 11, 2025 at 1:35 PM
aomacisaac.bsky.social
We have a new SAMbot report out today! This time, we've investigated online engagement and abuse on Twitter surrounding the 2023 Alberta election.

www.samaracentre.ca/sambot-alber...
Astroturfing and Abuse: The 2023 SAMbot Alberta General Election Report
The Samara Centre for Democracy monitored activity on Twitter¹ during the 2023 Alberta election as part of our SAMbot project, a multi-year machine learning initiative that measures abusive content re...
www.samaracentre.ca
January 29, 2025 at 3:27 PM