SAMbot Toronto Election

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June 19, 2023

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SAMbot Toronto Election

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

Toronto city card with image of friendly robot SAMbot, a map of the city, and the following SAMbot findings: Total Tweets 91,078 ; Accounts Tracked 131 ; Abusive Tweets 16,120 ; Percentage Abusive 18% ; Insults 10,372 ; Toxic 6,253 ; Threats 6,864 ; Sexually Explicit 2,348 ; Identity Attacks 3,295

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Tracked Accounts: 131 (15 Mayor, 74 Councillor, 42 School Trustee) ; Tracking Period: 65 days: August 20, 2022 at 12:00 a.m. ET to October 24, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. ET

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Incumbent Toronto Mayor Garnered the Most Abuse

John Tory won his bid for re-election in 2022, and was mayor of Toronto from 2014 until his resignation in 2023. Tory received by far the highest volumes of total tweets (31,717) and abusive tweets (8,648).

Gil Penalosa was the second place mayoral candidate and received the second highest volume of abusive tweets (1,076).

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Top 10 Toronto Candidates: Highest Volume of Tweets

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

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Tory Alone Received Over Half of All Abusive Tweets

John Tory received 54% of all abusive tweets tracked among Toronto candidates. Over one in four tweets received by Tory were abusive.

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Toronto Candidates: Abusive Tweets

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Over one in four tweets received by John Tory were abusive

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Some candidates, such as John Tory, Josh Matlow and Brad Bradford, had multiple active Twitter accounts during the election period. Their respective accounts in question are denoted.

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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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