Field Guide to Online Political Conversations

Field Guide to Online Political Conversations: How to Overcome Big Emotions

August 12, 2024

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An illustration. of a robot and a person arguing at two podiums.

An illustration. of a robot and a person arguing at two podiums.

We explore why conversations are so different on social media, and how to move from your gut to your brain.

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Read the full report: Field Guide to Online Political Conversations.

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Field Guide to Online Political Conversations

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With technology bridging communities across borders, global and local politics are connected more than ever.

Episode 5: The Politics of (Back) Home

Taiwan’s former Digital Minister Audrey Tang and economist Glen Weyl share an infectious techno optimism.

Episode 4: Is Technology Democracy’s Saviour or Downfall?

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Episode 3: The Notwithstanding Clause — Hero or Villain?

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Former Green Party leader, Annamie Paul, lets us in on the covert, cross-partisan group chat that helped her survive politics.

Episode 1: This Group Chat Will Surprise You

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Federal Election Report 5: Growing number of politicians on Bluesky, and fewer candidates on X

Searching for content about the Canadian election on YouTube, we discovered that Indian news media appeared at the top of search results - these videos were highly viewed and highly commented on.

Federal Election Report 4: Indian media prominent in Canadian election discussions on YouTube

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For this report, we analyzed 56,136 Reddit comments made on r/Canada between March 24, 2025 at 00:00 ET and March 27, 2025 at 23:59 ET, made on 278 different r/Canada submissions. This period encompasses the first four days of the 2025 federal election period.

Federal Election Report 2: Canada’s Biggest Subreddit Is Talking, And Eyes Are on the US

Federal Election Report 1: Power Users Dominate the Discussion on r/Canada

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Research Director Beatrice Wayne shares solutions from SAMbot Alberta to combat online abuse, fake engagement, and inauthentic activity.

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The Samara Centre for Democracy is frequently asked to provide commentary and analysis on a range of topics related to civic engagement and political participation. We regularly appear in print, broadcast and digital news networks across the country.

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SAMbot has received national media coverage and been presented at meetings across governmental, policy, technology, human rights and academic spaces.

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Humans of the House dominates the podcast charts - this time on Goodpods.

Humans of the House ranked #2 in Goodpods Top 100 Canadian Politics Pods

The Pointer interviewed Research Director Beatrice Wayne on the importance of strengthening communication between candidates and voters.

Beatrice Wayne on Enhancing Candidate-Voter Communication in The Pointer

In today’s Globe and Mail, Research Director Beatrice Wayne and Senior Research Coordinator Alex MacIsaac share insight from our latest report: Astroturfing and Abuse: The 2023 SAMbot General Election Report.

Samara Centre’s Latest Findings Featured in the Globe and Mail

Campaign strategist and community organizer Dave Meslin’s six-part documentary series, Unrigged is now streaming on TVO and on YouTube.

TVO Documentary, Unrigged, Now Streaming

In the 2023 Alberta election, we observed a significant amount of what may be inauthentic or fake, artificially generated engagement on Twitter. This included a very small number of users producing a disproportionate amount of abuse and a high number of potential bot accounts.

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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 received by Canadian political candidates on social media.

Astroturfing and Abuse: The 2023 SAMbot Alberta General Election Report

Party leaders Rachel Notley and Danielle Smith’s Twitter accounts had the most engagement of all tracked accounts.

Abuse across partisan lines, LGBTQ+ issues, and first-time candidates

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Sabreena Delhon, CEO of the Samara Centre for Democracy, offers practical advice for Canadians looking to enhance their civic engagement.

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On Wednesday, January 8, The Samara Centre for Democracy along with the Government of Canada’s Open Government Team co-hosted a discussion about advancing open government in Canada.

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A number of Canadian politicians have resigned from their posts, citing online abuse as a reason. But there is little data to quantify the amount and nature of that abuse.

Samara Centre’s SAMbot Research Featured in The Parliamentarian

The Samara Centre for Democracy's French-language podcast, Les Personnages de la Chambre, has been nominated for Best Podcast in the Consumer category at the 2024 Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPA).

Les Personnages de la Chambre Nominated for Best Podcast (Consumer Category) by the Canadian Online Publishing Awards

On January 6, 2025, Governor General Mary Simon granted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s request to prorogue Parliament until March 24, 2025.

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In a period of democratic backsliding, the work of the Samara Centre for Democracy is more urgent and relevant than ever before.

2024 Highlights

In 2024, the Samara Centre team published timely analyses on technology's impact on democracy, political engagement, and civic participation in Canada, sharing insights across mainstream, policy, and peer-reviewed outlets.

2024 Publications

Humans of the House has received national media coverage and has been the #1 show in the Government category for several weeks on Apple Podcasts where it has also been featured as a New & Noteworthy Special Series.

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CEO Sabreena Delhon Featured in CPAC Documentary on Online Harms and Cyberbullying

Our CEO, Sabreena Delhon, received a King Charles III Coronation Medal, presented at a special ceremony hosted at the Samara Centre’s office on November 1st.

CEO Sabreena Delhon receives King Charles III Coronation Medal

On Wednesday, December 4th, more than 400 people attended The Walrus Talks at Home: Polarization.

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Samara Centre for Democracy CEO, Sabreena Delhon and Connie Walker, this year’s In Defence of Democracy feature speaker appeared on CTV’s The Social on November 12th, 2024 to promote our annual event.

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Montreal Event Explores How to Increase Public Participation in Politics

In this special bonus episode, we celebrate and reflect upon the tenth anniversary of the bestseller book, Tragedy in the Commons, written by Samara Centre for Democracy co-founders, Alison Loat and Michael MacMillan. Samara Centre CEO Sabreena Delhon hosts this conversation to ask, what has changed? What has stayed the same? Where are the fault lines in Canadian democracy?

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The eventual mayor and a fringe candidate had similar engagement and levels of abuse — but very different experiences online.

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Nous connaissons les politiciens et politiciennes tels qu’ils se présentent à nous dans l’exercice de leurs fonctions. Mais ce n’est que lorsque leur mandat touche à sa fin qu’ils et elles peuvent réellement s’exprimer sur leur expérience. Animé par Chloë Hill, Les Personnages de la Chambre est un nouveau balado qui présente six anciens et anciennes député.e.s de la Chambre des communes du Canada qui décrivent, dans leur propre voix, la réalité de cette profession.

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SAMbot Charlottetown Election

SAMbot tracked online abuse during Yellowknife's municipal election. Read our report to learn more about our findings.

SAMbot Yellowknife Election

SAMbot tracked online abuse during Winnipeg's municipal election. Read our report to learn more about our findings.

SAMbot Winnipeg Election

SAMbot tracked online abuse during Toronto's municipal election. Read our report to learn more about our findings.

SAMbot Toronto Election

SAMbot Brampton Election

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SAMbot Surrey Election

SAMbot Vancouver Election

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SAMbot Methodology: Municipal Elections

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The Promise and Perils of Digital: A Panel Discussion

We’ve come to the final chapter of an MP’s civic journey. What is it like to leave office?

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What is Parliament Hill like as a workplace?

Humans of the House Episode 3: The Best/Worst Place I Ever Worked

So, you won an election and are officially a Member of Parliament. Now what?

Humans of the House Episode 2: Show Up and Glow Up

Would you ever run for political office? For many of us, “politician” is the last job title we’d ever consider.

Humans of the House Episode 1: You Wanna Run?

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We explain how ending free Twitter API access is a huge blow to research efforts.

Bring back the Bots: How Twitter’s latest change threatens our democracy

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A Look Back on 2022

Our Executive Director, Sabreena Delhon spoke on a panel discussion about race and policy-making in Canada.

Words Left Unsaid: Racial Inequality and Policy-Making in Canada

We provided the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) recommendations for virtual hybrid House and committee proceedings.

Samara Centre for Democracy Advises on Hybrid Proceedings Before the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs

SAMbot tracked toxic tweets in the 2022 Federal election by monitoring the Twitter accounts of incumbent candidates and party leaders.

SAMbot 2021 Federal Election Report

Pandemic school closures not only damages achievement and well-being for students; it also compromises civic learning and engagement.

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SAMbot tracked toxic tweets in the 2022 Ontario election by monitoring the public Twitter accounts candidates and official parties.

SAMbot 2022 Ontario Election Report

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