Philip Mai is Co-Director and Senior Researcher of the Social Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University‘s Ted Rogers School of Management, and a co-founder of the International Conference on Social Media and Society. His research examines how people use social media, with a particular focus on disinformation, propaganda, foreign interference, conspiracy theories, AI-generated deepfakes, online toxicity, digital democracy, and political transparency. His work and commentary are widely cited in academic research and featured in national and international media.
In addition to his research, Philip develops social media analysis tools for public-interest research, many of which are used by thousands of students and researchers worldwide to study public discourse and online participation. A unifying thread across his work is a commitment to building tools and platforms that promote greater social transparency.
Professional Background
Philip brings more than two decades of experience in research, communications, marketing, and project management across academia, technology, and politics. He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and a Juris Doctor in International Law from Syracuse University. Before joining Toronto Metropolitan University, he served as Projects and Communications Manager at the Norman Newman Centre for Entrepreneurship at Dalhousie University, and as Research and Communications Manager at Dalhousie University’s Social Media Lab.
Philip lives in bustling downtown Toronto. In his spare time, he is an avid traveller, amateur photographer, foodie, and political junkie. If you are looking to connect with Philip, you can find him on Bluesky @philipmai.com.
On-going Projects
Social Media Research & Knowledge Mobilization Tools
Communalytic is a no-code computational social science research tool for studying online communities and public discourse on social media.
The Social Media Research Toolkit is a curated collection of more than 50 tools compiled by researchers at the Social Media Lab. Updated each year, it includes only tools used in peer-reviewed academic research.
KM Compass is an app designed to help researchers turn ideas into impact. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to improve your Knowledge Mobilization (KM) efforts, KM Compass will guide you through the process every step of the way.
Information Integrity Dashboards
PoliDashboard is an app for tracking ads about politics, elections and social issues on Facebook and Instagram.
The NoteTracker Dashboard is a searchable database of X’s Community Notes with an analytics dashboard that displays live, real-time statistics.
The Deepfakes Tracker research portal is a public-facing research hub that tracks and contextualizes the evolving use of deepfakes and synthetic media online.
The Migration Ad Observatory tracks, analyzes, and visualizes migration-related advertising on Facebook and Instagram to uncover trends, narratives, and patterns. (ETA: Early 2026)
The ConflictMisinfo is a research hub shining a light on how false and misleading information about the Russia-Ukraine war spreads online.
The Telegram War Room is a detailed map of the web of Telegram channels and groups sharing news and updates about the Russia-Ukraine war.
The COVID-19 MisInfo research portalis a rapid response research hub that tracks and analyzes COVID-19-related misinformation. [Archived]
The COVID-19 Twitter Pandemic Archive is a catalogue of datasets containing billions of tweet IDs for COVID-19-related tweets, along with data visualization dashboards that display high-level monthly stats on COVID-19 conversations on Twitter. [Archived]
Open-source Projects
ModSimulator is an open-source research tool designed to test the effectiveness of soft content-moderation measures on social media (a fork of the MockSocialMediaWebsite research tool).
GraphOptima is a framework for optimizing graph layout and readability metrics for large networks. The framework automates parameter selection, layout computation, and the calculation of readability metrics. See the full paper here.
The Tweets Sampling Toolkit lets you randomly sample from massive Tweet ID datasets (100M+) and perform set operations—such as intersections, differences, and unions—making large-scale Twitter data analysis simple and efficient.
he Fact Check Assistant is an AI-powered chatbot for simple fact-checking. It was a prototype designed to demonstrate and test the feasibility of using AI technologies to mitigate the impact of online misinformation. See our 2023 implementation of the Assistant here.
