Studying the COVID-19 Infodemic at Scale

Presented by Professor Anatoliy Gruzd (Ryerson University) as part of the FIMS Rogers Chair event series. Everyone is welcome.

Abstract:

False narratives about COVID-19 have gone global and are spreading almost as fast as the virus itself. Since January 2020, there have been over 10,000 false and unproven COVID-19 related claims shared via social media and other channels. The presentation will discuss how researchers at Ryerson University’s Social Media Lab, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), are spearheading an international effort to help stem the rise and counter COVID-19 misinformation via the COVID-19 Misinformation Portal.

Speaker Bio:

Anatoliy Gruzd is a professor at the Ted Rogers School of Information Technology Management, Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Privacy-Preserving Digital Technologies, and the Director of Research at the Social Media Lab at Ryerson University. He is also a Member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists, a co-editor of a multidisciplinary journal on Big Data and Society, and a founding co-chair of the International Conference on Social Media and Society. The broad aim of Dr. Gruzd’s various research initiatives is to understand how social media data can be used ethically to tackle a wide variety of societal problems from combating COVID-19 misinformation to helping educators navigate social media for teaching and learning.

Find out more about the FIMS Rogers Chair.