The Battle for Truth
When
Anatoliy Gruzd, Phd
Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
Abstract
For a long time, Ukraine and the West have been targets of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns. Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has used various tactics of information warfare, including the deployment of paid internet trolls, to destabilize the Ukrainian government and undermine its legitimacy.
This presentation will introduce the ConflictMisinfo.org portal, developed by the Toronto Metropolitan University’s Social Media Lab. The portal is a valuable resource for analysts and researchers interested in studying the nature and extent of online misinformation and disinformation regarding the Russia-Ukraine war. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the portal has recorded over 2,000 false, misleading, and unverified claims related to the war that have been circulated across various social media platforms.
In the second part of the presentation, we will highlight the findings of the Lab’s recent national survey on the Reach of Russian Propaganda and Disinformation in Canada. Finally, the presentation will conclude by offering practical steps that social media users can take to recognize and minimize the spread of disinformation and misinformation on this and other subjects.
Bio: Anatoliy Gruzd is a Professor of Information Technology Management and holds the Canada Research Chair in Privacy-Preserving Digital Technologies at the Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University. He is also the Director of Research of the Social Media Lab at the university and a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. His research as a computational social scientist focuses on studying the impact of social media platforms on communication, collaboration, information dissemination, and the formation of communities online, and how these changes affect society.