SAMbot Surrey Election

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June 19, 2023

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SAMbot Surrey Election

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This material is part of the Online Abuse in Local Elections: The SAMbot Municipal Report.

Surrey city card with image of friendly robot SAMbot, a map of the city, and the following SAMbot findings: Total Tweets 7,626 ; Accounts Tracked 54 ; Abusive Tweets 980 ; Percentage Abusive 13% ; Insults 645; Toxic 273 ; Threats 296 ; Sexually Explicit 75 ; Identity Attacks 175

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Tracked Accounts: 54 (6 Mayor, 32 Councillor, 10 School Trustee, 6 Political Party) ; Tracking Period: 35 days: September 10, 2022 at 12:00 a.m. PT to October 15, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. PT

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Surrey Mayoral Candidates Received the Most Abuse

Former MP and current British Columbia MLA Jinny Sims of the Surrey Forward party placed fourth in the mayoral election while receiving the highest volumes of total tweets (1,381) and abusive tweets (199).

Brenda Locke of the Surrey Connect party was elected mayor of Surrey in 2022 and received the second most abusive tweets (169) of any candidate in the election.

Incumbent mayoral candidate Doug McCallum of the Safe Surrey Coalition wasn't tracked by SAMbot, as he did not have a Twitter account. He placed second in the mayoral race, losing by less than 1%.

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Top 10 Surrey Candidates: Highest Volume of Tweets

Candidates are ranked based on the volume of total tweets they received.

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Surrey Forward Candidates Received the Most Abusive Tweets

Surrey is one of the few municipalities in Canada where most candidates are part of local political parties.

Surrey Forward candidates received the highest volume of abusive tweets (395). Zero Surrey Forward candidates were elected in 2022.

Surrey Connect candidates received the second highest volume of abusive tweets (358). Four council Surrey Connect candidates and their mayoral candidate were elected in 2022.

Even though they received over 470 tweets, Surrey First Education candidates collectively received only one abusive tweet during the entire election period. All six Surrey First Education candidates were elected, five of which were monitored by SAMbot.

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Surrey Political Party Tweet Breakdown

Data includes total tweets received by candidates and official party accounts.

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This material is part of the Online Abuse in Local Elections: The SAMbot Municipal Report.

‍How to cite: The Samara Centre for Democracy, Online Abuse in Local Elections: The SAMbot Municipal Report, (Toronto: The Samara Centre for Democracy, 2023), http://www.samaracentre.ca/project/online-abuse-in-local-elections-sambot-municipal-report.

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