social media

Taylor Owen on Enforcing the Safe Social Media Act | CBC News

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 18:28:16 +0000

Taylor Owen joined CBC News to break down Canada's newly tabled Safe Social Media Act, calling it "one of the first trials in the world" of using access restrictions as a lever to force compliance from large platforms. Owen pushes back on the idea that the bill is unenforceable on US-based tech giants, pointing to penalties of up to 3% of global revenue and to similar rules already in effect in the UK and EU as evidence that "the idea that this can't be done is a far more difficult argument" today than it once was.

Taylor Owen on Canada's Conditional Approach to Online Safety | The Globe and Mail

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:45:22 +0000

June 11, 2026 | Taylor Owen examines Canada's newly tabled Bill C-34, arguing that the legislation goes beyond Australia's blanket under-16 social media ban by offering platforms a pathway to earn young users back if they can prove their products are safe for children.

Taylor Owen on the Safe Social Media Act and AI Chatbots | CBC Radio

admin — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:57:56 +0000

June 11, 2026 | Taylor Owen joined CBC's Front Burner to walk through Bill C-34, the newly tabled Safe Social Media Act.

Experts: Australia bans social media use for under-16s

katherine.gombay@mcgill.ca — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 20:28:39 +0000

Starting Dec. 10, Australia will become the first country in the world to ban the use of social media platforms by those who are under 16. The goal is to protect the young from cyber-bullying, grooming and exposure to harmful content. The onus will be on the social media companies to enforce the ban.

These �� experts are available to comment:

Sameer Borwankar

aurelie.boucher@mcgill.ca — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 19:26:49 +0000

Expert: Instagram cracks down on teen sextortion

keila.depape@mcgill.ca — Thu, 11 Apr 2024 20:29:40 +0000

Instagram is aiming to make it harder for potential scammers and criminals to coerce teens into sending nude photos and extort them for money. The company announced on Thursday it is testing new features to curb an alarming trend called financial sextortion, which often targets kids and teenagers. (CNN)

Here is an expert from �� who can comment on this issue:

Expert: Whistleblower Frances Haugen says Facebook making online hate worse

frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 14:22:54 +0000

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told British lawmakers that the social media giant stokes online hate and extremism, fails to protect children from harmful content and lacks any incentive to fix the problems, providing strong momentum for efforts by European governments working on stricter regulation of tech giants. While her testimony echoed much of what she told the U.S. Senate earlier this month, her appearance drew intense interest from a British parliamentary committee that is much further along in drawing up legislation to crack down on social platforms.

Expert: Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp back online after global outage

frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 16:04:59 +0000

Facebook and Facebook-owned apps Instagram and WhatsApp were up and running again late Monday after being hit by an outage that affected users around the world. The social media giant said the disruption to network traffic "had a cascading effect on the way our data centres communicate, bringing our services to a halt." It said there is no evidence that user data was comprised. It was the largest such outage ever tracked by the web monitoring group Downdetector, which collates complaints about web outages.

Using artificial intelligence to manage extreme weather events

frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 14:17:59 +0000

Can combining deep learning (DL)— a subfield of artificial intelligence— with social network analysis (SNA), make social media contributions about extreme weather events a useful tool for crisis managers, first responders and government scientists? An interdisciplinary team of �� researchers has brought these tools to the forefront in an effort to understand and manage extreme weather events.

Expert: Facebook board upholds Donald Trump suspension

frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca — Mon, 10 May 2021 19:46:59 +0000

Former U.S. President Donald Trump won't return to Facebook – at least not yet. Four months after Facebook suspended Trump's accounts for inciting violence that led to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the company's quasi-independent oversight board upheld the bans. But it told Facebook to specify how long they would last, saying that its "indefinite" ban on the former president was unreasonable. The ruling, which gives Facebook six months to comply, effectively postpones any possible Trump reinstatement and puts the onus for that decision squarely back on the company.

Americans are super-spreaders of COVID-19 misinformation

shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 02:06:04 +0000

Misinformation about COVID-19 is spreading from the United States into Canada, undermining efforts to mitigate the pandemic. A study led by �� shows that Canadians who use social media are more likely to consume this misinformation, embrace false beliefs about COVID-19, and subsequently spread them.

Luca Maria Pesando

shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 20:47:43 +0000

Emmanuelle Vaast

frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 21:13:18 +0000

Taylor Owen

shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 19:02:16 +0000

COVID-19: Social media users more likely to believe false information

shirley.cardenas@mcgill.ca — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 20:15:35 +0000

A new study led by researchers at �� finds that people who get their news from social media are more likely to have misperceptions about COVID-19. Those that consume more traditional news media have fewer misperceptions and are more likely to follow public health recommendations like social distancing.