How social media impacts politics

A recent study by the Canadian Digital Media Research Network, noted that '[social media] influencers, not parties, or newsrooms, dominated distribution and attention across platforms during [this year's federal election] campaign.' Should all of this scare us? Maybe.

If you want to protest Prime Minister Mark Carney’s policies, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to buy a TV spot; you just use AI to create a video and then upload it to YouTube. And, yes, it seems this sort of social media influencing is having an impact, writes Gerry Nicholls. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY GERRY NICHOLLS

October 23, 2025

OAKVILLE, ONT.—We think of social media as something new and revolutionary.

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