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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · 28d

September vibes on campus @uottawa.ca

Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · 28d

Anti-science sentiment is everywhere, but Canada is standing firm: #ScienceMatters! Great to see this statement and its signatories. scienceupfirst.com/sciencematte... @caulfieldtim.bsky.social

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Reposted by Marco Zenone

Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 28d

#ScienceMatters.

Important to clearly counter demonstrably false bunk. Broad consensus that:

- Vaccines do NOT cause autism
- Ivermectin NOT effective against cancer, covid, etc
- COVID vaccines do NOT cause "sudden death" or "turbo cancer"

See statement: scienceupfirst.com/sciencematte...

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Reposted by Marco Zenone

Carrie Brown @brizzyc.bsky.social · 28d

News Creator Corps Launches Pilot Program To Train Content Creators To Fight Misinformation. Interesting. Applications are open. newscreatorcorps.org/news/2025/09...

News Creator Corps Launches Pilot Program To Train Content Creators To Fight Misinformation - News Creator Corps

The inaugural class of selected creators will participate in an 8-week program featuring elements of content strategy and fact-checking training led by media professionals and experts.

newscreatorcorps.org

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · 28d

"Misinformation often offers simple, comforting answers, while real medicine is complex, uncertain and sometimes difficult to accept. Fake cancer claims can feel convincing because they seem to eliminate the uncertainty about whether treatment will work..." theconversation.com/how-cancer-m...

How cancer misinformation exploits the way we think

Why false cancer claims feel true and what to do about it.

theconversation.com

Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · 28d

"Meta lawyers intervened to shape internal research that could have flagged risks." www.bbc.com/news/article...

Meta covered up potential child harms, whistleblowers claim

Meta denies the allegations and described the "claims at the heart" of the Senate hearing as "nonsense".

www.bbc.com

Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · 28d

The WHO Foundation’s acceptance of anonymous donations risks losing public trust, as it raises transparency concerns about conflicts of interest and potential undue influence. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s... @spidermaani.bsky.social

Alarm as WHO accepts increasing amount of dark money from corporate donors

Experts say millions in corporate funding and concealment of donors’ identities raises key conflict-of-interest concerns

www.theguardian.com

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Sep 4

Important study in light of recent news on MLMs as therapists: "While AIH could complement less-complex services [in mental health], it could not replace the therapeutic value of human interaction" @skyebarbic.bsky.social jopm.jmir.org/2025/1/e69449/

Perception of AI Use in Youth Mental Health Services: Qualitative Study

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has made significant advancements in healthcare. A key application of AI in mental health is the use of AI-powered chatbots; however, empirical evid...

jopm.jmir.org

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Sep 4

A new @newsguard.bsky.social report finds "false information nearly doubled from 18% to 35% in responses to prompts on news topics." www.axios.com/2025/09/04/p...

Exclusive: Study finds chatbots are amplifying even more misinformation

The rate at which popular AI services amplify or fail to flag falsehoods has doubled in a year, per NewsGuard.

www.axios.com

Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Sep 3

ChatGPT not only failed to intervene but also "offered to help him write a suicide note to his parents." www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Teen killed himself after ‘months of encouragement from ChatGPT’, lawsuit claims

Open AI to change way it responds to users in mental distress as parents of Adam Raine allege bot not safe

www.theguardian.com

Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Sep 3

Over 1,000 current and former HHS call for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s resignation. abcnews.go.com/Health/1000-...

More than 1,000 current, former HHS employees sign letter calling on RFK Jr. to resign

More than 1,000 current and former employees across HHS signed a letter on Wednesday morning calling for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s resignation.

abcnews.go.com

Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Sep 3

AI “safety measures” leave much to be desired. The authors found that chatbots refusing disinformation (ex: “I cannot assist with creating false information") can be tricked simply by wrapping requests in innocent frames like “simulation.” theconversation.com/how-we-trick...

How we tricked AI chatbots into creating misinformation, despite ‘safety’ measures

Research reveals why simple prompts can bypass AI safeguards.

theconversation.com

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Jun 4

People with cancer are already carrying enough. Ending a harmful practice that adds to their burden shouldn’t be up for debate. Thank you to co-authors @srmarcon.bsky.social @spidermaani.bsky.social @maizie333.bsky.social @caulfieldtim.bsky.social @kenworthy.bsky.social Greg Hartwell.

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Jun 4

How Google search ads work: advertisers, like alternative cancer clinics, can choose to show their ads when users search specific phrases. When it comes to cancer, this means sensitive searches ("terminal cancer treatment") can be met with potentially exploitative ads.

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Jun 4

This article is based on our research in @misinforeview.bsky.social, demonstrating how alternative cancer clinics use Google ads to target people searching sensitive cancer-related queries. misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/goog...

Google allows advertisers to target the sensitive informational queries of cancer patients | HKS Misinformation Review

Alternative cancer treatments are associated with earlier time to death when used without evidence-based treatments. Our study suggests alternative cancer clinics providing scientifically unsupported ...

misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Jun 4

New piece with @srmarcon.bsky.social in the @theconversation.com: Google searches for information about cancer lead to targeted ads from alternative clinics.
theconversation.com/google-searc...

Google searches for information about cancer lead to targeted ads from alternative clinics

Alternative cancer clinics spent over an US$15 million on Google ad spaces, generating millions of website visits from people searching for cancer information.

theconversation.com

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Feb 2

🇨🇦❤️

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Reposted by Marco Zenone

UBC Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions @ubcdemocracy.bsky.social · Jan 15

🌍 2024 saw half the world’s population voting. What did we learn about tech’s role in elections?

Our final piece in the CIGI series explores key trends, from AI in campaigns to platform regulations, and what lies ahead for democracy.

📖 Read now: www.cigionline.org/articles/muc...

Much of the World Voted in 2024: What Did We Learn?

In our introduction to CIGI’s The World Votes, 2024 series last February, we wrote: “One year from now, people could inhabit very different political worlds than the ones that currently exist.” We wer...

www.cigionline.org

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Reposted by Marco Zenone

Nason Maani @spidermaani.bsky.social · Jan 6

New paper led by @marcozenone.bsky.social in @misinforeview.bsky.social on how Google allows alternative cancer clinics to target the sensitive information queries of cancer patients so their ads appear with keywords #CDoH misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/goog...

Google allows advertisers to target the sensitive informational queries of cancer patients | HKS Misinformation Review

Alternative cancer treatments are associated with earlier time to death when used without evidence-based treatments. Our study suggests alternative cancer clinics providing scientifically unsupported ...

misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Jan 2

cc @misinforeview.bsky.social @caulfieldtim.bsky.social @maizie333.bsky.social

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Jan 2

This is but one example of a larger issue (this does not happen only for cancer). Google search ads enable advertisers to exploit users’ searches for information. Google should urgently prohibit keywords targeting the sensitive information queries of medically vulnerable groups.

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Jan 2

We find advertisers mimicked the sensitive queries of cancer patients to target them with their marketing using Google’s keyword-matching feature. In 2023, 20,035 unique keywords emulated Google searches seeking information on the themes below.

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Jan 2

Google search ads allow advertisers to select keywords/phrases which are then matched to the searches of Google users. See below an example of a fake ad I set up & how I could theoretically target my ad to Google searches seeking cancer information.

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Jan 2

When anyone searches for information on cancer treatment options - they shouldn't see ads for scientifically unsupported treatment or ads targeting people who have exhausted their treatment options. Our new study (unfortunately) finds this is occurring misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/goog...

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Marco Zenone @marcozenone.bsky.social · Dec 18

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing.

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