Anatoliy Gruzd

A Look at Meta’s ‘Value Rules’ for Specific Ad-Targeting Approaches You may have noticed “Value Rules” appear as a new option in your Meta ads setup.

Meta just gave advertisers wider access to "Meta’s Value Rules," a new tool to let advertiser fine-tune and target nich audience who are likely to buy their products. (Note: product can also be a social issue or policy position.) www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-ad...

This Is What the End of the Liberal World Order Looks Like In a post-American world, greed and nihilism are destroying Sudan.

After Rome came the Dark Ages: "This Is What the End of the Liberal World Order Looks Like. Sudan’s devastating civil war shows what will replace the liberal order: anarchy and greed." www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

PoliDashboard Launches Major Update to Advance Transparency in Political Advertising On Facebook and Instagram - Social Media Lab FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJuly 25, 2025 Toronto, ON — The Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University is pleased to announce a major update to PoliDashboard.org, a free public web app that enhances...

@PoliDashboard.org Launches Major Update to Advance Transparency in Political Advertising on Facebook & Instagram.
- AI-Generated Ad Summaries
- Semantic Ad Search
- Advanced Data Filtering
- Enhanced Demographics Visualization w/ Interactive Demographic Drilldowns
socialmedialab.ca/2025/07/29/p...

a man is standing in front of a door that says restroom ALT: a man is standing in front of a door that says restroom

Most people outside of academia do not know how fragile ecosystems of talent, infrastructure, and momentum really are. Once the funding, people, and institutional memory are gone, it’s incredibly hard to rebuild.

You'll lose a generation of researchers because the rent is due.

The bigger tragedy is that many researchers will be forced to forgo a research career entirely. Think of all the innovations and cures that will be lost to the world.

How Trump’s Cuts to Science Funding Are Derailing Young Scholars’ Careers Budding academics are delaying their graduate studies, continuing them abroad, or forgoing them entirely.

"A Lost Generation of Researchers
Cuts to the nation’s science funding are forcing future scholars to delay graduate study, continue it abroad, or forgo it entirely." www.chronicle.com/article/a-lo...

Resources - Russia-Ukraine ConflictMisinfo External Resources – A curated list of projects and initiatives aimed at investigating and verifying Russian propaganda and disinformation on and offline. Newsguard Newsguard is tracking the leading f...

External Resources – A curated list of projects and initiatives aimed at investigating and verifying Russian propaganda and disinformation on and offline. conflictmisinfo.org/resources-2/

Leading Sources of Pro-Kremlin Narratives on Telegram - Russia-Ukraine ConflictMisinfo Leading Sources of Pro-Kremlin Narratives on Telegram The interactive chart below shows the most referenced Russian Telegram channels involved in discussions about the Russia‑Ukraine war. It shows how...

Most Referenced Russian Telegram Channels (Feb 2022 - Feb 2025)

Always exercise caution when consuming information from Telegram about the Russia-Ukraine war, as it is often rife with mis- and disinformation. conflictmisinfo.org/leading-spre...

[New Report] The State of Social Media in Canada 2025. - Social Media Lab Social media use among Canadians has largely rebounded. X (formerly Twitter) stands out as the lone decliner. TORONTO — May 2025 — After a post‑pandemic dip in 2022, social media account ownership and...

Age remains one of the adoption predictors – Canadians aged 18–24 lead usage on five of the nine major platforms (e.g., 94% on YouTube, 91% on Instagram, 65% on TikTok), underscoring strong generational divides in social‑media habits. socialmedialab.ca/2025/05/05/n...

[New Report] The State of Social Media in Canada 2025. - Social Media Lab Social media use among Canadians has largely rebounded. X (formerly Twitter) stands out as the lone decliner. TORONTO — May 2025 — After a post‑pandemic dip in 2022, social media account ownership and...

Political leanings across social media platforms reveal subtle skews – Self-reported political leaning reveals that right/right-leaning individuals are more prevalent on Platform X (46% vs. 34% left/left-leaning) and TikTok (39% vs. 33%), socialmedialab.ca/2025/05/05/n...

CBP Wants New Tech to Search for Hidden Data on Seized Phones Customs and Border Protection is asking companies to pitch tools for performing deep analysis on the contents of devices seized at the US border.

"CBP Wants New Tech to Search for Hidden Data on Seized Phones. Customs and Border Protection is asking companies to pitch tools for performing deep analysis on the contents of devices seized at the US border." www.wired.com/story/cbp-wa...

The use of chemical weapons is yet another grim reminder of Russia's growing desperation & moral collapse. Resorting to such inhumane tactics shows a complete disregard for intl. law, human life, & basic decency. It reflects a regime willing to cross any line in a failing attempt to assert control.

2025 Social Media Lab - Computational Social Science Summer School - Online [July 14-16, 2025 via Zoom] - Social Media Lab Where: online (via Zoom) When: July 14-16, 2024 Contact Info info@socialmedialab.caBsky @SMLabTO INSTRUCTORS Join us for the Social Media Lab’s 2025 Computational Social Science (CSS) Summer School. E...

Join us for the Social Media Lab’s 2025 Computational Social Science (CSS) Summer School. Explore cutting-edge digital methods in this hands-on workshop series. No coding required — we’ll be using @Communalytic.org, a platform for analyzing social media discourse. socialmedialab.ca/2025/06/28/2...

Are you curious about who is buying Facebook and Instagram ads regarding politics, elections and social issues in your country? We have data for millions of ads for 30+ countries with more to come, PoliDashboard.org

In addition to the new semantic search feature, we also added a new AI-generated summarizer for all advertiser ads. This summarizer helps get a bird's-eye view of the advertiser's overall messaging. PoliDashboard.org

Scam ads are all over Meta’s platforms, but now there’s a way to catch them. Try our new @polidashboard semantic search feature, which is perfect for finding scam ads fast.

Visit: PoliDashboard.org and see what you can find.

Would you be willing to hand over five years' worth of your social media history and make your profiles public just to get a visa to see Mickey Mouse or walk the streets of NYC?

Instead of pouring money into another social media platform, Canada’s real digital priority should be building strategic, sovereign digital & cloud infrastructure.

Think of it as a TrueNorth or Maple Stack—a homegrown alternative to protecting Canadian tech sovereignty.

Here's a sneak peek at the new Semantic Search tool in our @polidashboard.org app. Users can enter a search term & the system will return a list of advertisers w/ads similar in meaning to the search term. It's ideal for finding malicious advertisers and scammers who exploit gaps in Meta ads system.

Communalytic Introduces Civility Analyzer Module - Social Media Lab A New Research Module for Identifying Both Toxic and Prosocial Interactions in Online Discourse Toronto, Ontario – [06/17/2025] – We are pleased to announce the launch of the new Civility Analyzer mod...

We are pleased to announce the launch of the new Civility Analyzer module in @Communalytic.org. The module offers researchers an accessible, data-driven approach to studying both prosocial and harmful behaviours across various social media platforms. socialmedialab.ca/2025/06/17/c...

Researchers, are you looking for a way to spot duplicates posts shared by spammers, bots and other bad actors? Our new @communalytic.org's Topic Analyzer module can help. socialmedialab.ca/2024/11/19/i...

If you're doing research on online civility or lack thereof, get to know the Civility Analyzer module in @communalytic.org. It can automatically identify toxic, insulting, & threatening posts or posts showing compassion, curiosity, & respect in any text-based dataset. Communalytic.org

"Fake Images and Conspiracy Theories Swirl Around L.A. Protests."

And as we have noted, every time there’s a popular protest, the old clickbaity ‘pallets of bricks’ hoax shows up right on cue, which was referenced here in this NYT article. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/10/t...

Exclusive | FTC Seeks Information From Top Advertising Agencies as Part of Ad-Boycott Probe Among firms that received requests are Omnicom, WPP, Dentsu, Interpublic and Publicis.

"The Federal Trade Commission is asking some of the world’s largest ad companies for information as part of an investigation into whether advertising and advocacy groups violated antitrust laws by coordinating boycotts of certain sites, including Elon Musk’s X." www.wsj.com/business/med...

"The technical infrastructure that underpins Telegram is controlled by a man whose companies have collaborated with Russian intelligence services." www.occrp.org/en/investiga...

We analyzed over 300 million posts from more than 30,000 Telegram channels and groups that post content related to the war. The channels are ranked based on how frequently other channels mention or reference them. conflictmisinfo.org/leading-spre...

[New Analysis] Leading Sources of Pro-Kremlin Narratives on Telegram. Our analysis shows how only a handful of Russian-based Telegram accounts (10) dominate this information ecosystem and influence framing around the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. (View via desktop) conflictmisinfo.org/leading-spre...

What a day! We've entered a bizarre new chapter in politics & power, where billionaires, turned digital oligarchs, now trade threats on social media platforms they own. It’s not backroom deals anymore, it’s power games played out in the public feed for the masses. #OligarchWars
#BillionaireBeef

[New Report] Canadians are split on GenAI’s net societal impact (39% positive, 34% negative, 27% neutral) but unite around key concerns—security and privacy (72%), reliability of information (68%), job displacement (68%), and effects on higher education (68%). figshare.com/articles/pre...

Hear us out: with all the research cuts happening in the US, instead of doubling down on resource extraction, why not take a bold step, invest in our universities & research sector, & attract some of that top talent to Canada? Let’s turn this moment into a true #braingain for our country. 🇨🇦 #cdnpoli