Making Sense of a Networked World since 2010

The Social Media Lab is an interdisciplinary research center at the Ted Rogers School of Management, part of Toronto Metropolitan University. The Lab examines how social media and other technologies, such as AI, are transforming the way people and organizations communicate, disseminate information, conduct business and form communities, and how these changes impact society.

The broad aim of the Lab’s various research initiatives and digital tools is to advance the public’s understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of adopting new technologies with a focus on addressing the erosion of information integrity online.

Recent Posts

Hiring: Research Assistant (Full-Stack Web Dev & Data Analysis)

Announcements Social Media Lab -
The Social Media Lab is looking for a motivated and technically proficient Research Assistant to join our team for the Summer 2026 term. This...
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Join Our Research Team! @SMLabTO is Hiring a Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Announcements Social Media Lab -
Research Unit: Social Media Lab, Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University (Toronto, Canada) Position Supervisors: Anatoliy Gruzd and Philip Mai Contract Length: 1 year...
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[New Paper Alert] Same Platform, Different Stories: TikTok and the Battle Over Immigration Narratives

Announcements Social Media Lab -
“What happens when the digital town square becomes a digital battleground?” In an era defined by overlapping global crises and hardening borders, immigration is no...
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Call for International Doctoral Students: Short-Term Research Visit at the Social Media Lab

Announcements Anatoliy Gruzd -
The Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University welcomes expressions of interest from international PhD students interested in applying for a short-term research visit...
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Research Talk: How does the social media based attention economy contribute to dehumanization and division? A case study of the Joe Rogan Experience

Announcements Social Media Lab -
2026 TRSM - Social Media Lab Guest Speaker Series Title: How does the social media based attention economy contribute to dehumanization and division? A case...
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Public Reports

Fractured Facts: How Generative AI Fuels Anti-Immigrant Misinformation

Social Media Lab -
Most conversations about AI focus on convenience, like how it drafts emails or speeds up everyday tasks, but the real story runs deeper. As...
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[New Report] The State of Social Media in Canada 2025.

Social Media Lab -
Social media use among Canadians has largely rebounded. X (formerly Twitter) stands out as the lone decliner. TORONTO — May 2025 — After a post‑pandemic dip in 2022,...
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[New Report] The State of Generative AI Use in Canada 2025: Exploring Public Attitudes and Adoption Trends

Social Media Lab -
TORONTO — April 2025 — A majority of Canadians (66%) have experimented with Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools less than three years after ChatGPT’s public debut, according...
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“I Have Read and Agreed to the Terms…” A New Look at the Readability of Social Media ToS and Privacy Policies

Social Media Lab -
It’s often said that one of the biggest lies on the web is "I have read and agree to the Terms". According to a 2019...
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Research Tools

A list of 50+ social media research tools curated by researchers at the Social Media Lab. Only tools that have been used in peer-reviewed academic studies are included.

Communalytic is a no-code computational social science research tool for studying online communities and public discourse on social media.

PoliDashboard is an App For Tracking Targeted Political Ads, elections and social issues ads on Facebook and Instagram.

The Deepfakes Tracker research portal is a public-facing research hub that tracks and contextualizes the evolving use of deepfakes and synthetic media online.

Additional Tools