SAMbot Winnipeg Election

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June 19, 2023

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SAMbot Winnipeg Election

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

Winnipeg city card with image of friendly robot SAMbot, a map of the city, and the following SAMbot findings: Total Tweets 20,832 ; Accounts Tracked 71 ; Abusive Tweets 3,046 ; Percentage Abusive 15% ; Insults 1,944 ; Toxic 1,187 ; Threats 957 ; Sexually Explicit 406 ; Identity Attacks 743

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Tracked Accounts: 71 (11 Mayor, 32 Councillor, 28 School Trustee) ; Tracking Period: 35 days: September 21, 2022 at 12:00 a.m. CT to October 26, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. CT

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Winnipeg Mayor-Elect Faced Low Rates of Abuse

Scott Gillingham was elected mayor of Winnipeg in 2022. Candidates who are successful in securing leadership positions typically receive some of the highest volumes and proportions of abuse. Gillingham only received the eighth highest volume of abusive tweets (119).

Glen Murray, who was a close second in the mayoral race (losing by a margin of 3%), received the second highest volume of abusive tweets (432).

Sixth place mayoral candidate Jenny Motkaluk received the highest volume of abusive tweets (1,076), largely in response to controversial comments she made about the changes to Winnipeg’s Canada Day celebrations, enacted to further reconciliation with Indigenous communities.

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Top 10 Winnipeg Candidates: Highest Volume of Tweets

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

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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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