Commentary: How Amazon provides a marketplace for worthless stem cell supplements Supplement promoters claim their products can enhance your stem cells. Don't believe them

A great analysis of the study by @hiltzikm.bsky.social in the LA Times. www.latimes.com/business/sto...

New in @stemcellreports.bsky.social: our study led by @srmarcon.bsky.social w/ @caulfieldtim.bsky.social looks at how “stem cell” supplements are sold on Amazon and whether the marketing aligns with U.S. & Canadian regulations. Conclusion: Amazon can do better to not enable bunk.
cc @uottawa.ca

September vibes on campus @uottawa.ca

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

#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...

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.

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

How cancer misinformation exploits the way we think Why false cancer claims feel true and what to do about it.

"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...

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".

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

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

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

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...

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/

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.

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...

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

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

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.

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

How we tricked AI chatbots into creating misinformation, despite ‘safety’ measures Research reveals why simple prompts can bypass AI safeguards.

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...

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.

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.

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 ...

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 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.

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...

🇨🇦❤️

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...

🌍 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...

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 ...

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...

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

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.

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.

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.

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...

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing.

Deliberate disinformation campaigns are a public health risk – but NZ has no effective strategy to deal with it Studies have repeatedly shown false claims spread on social media and influence public perceptions, to the detriment of public health. But strategies to combat disinformation remain elusive.

I love this framing. Deliberate disinformation campaigns are a public health risk, by @helenp-h.bsky.social. Power imbalances, conflicts of interests, and digital platform inaction compound the growing problem confronting public health.
theconversation.com/deliberate-d...

Spain introduces bill to combat online fake news Minister calls bill demanding digital platforms publicly correct false information ‘good news for democracy’

Spain to take action on fake news & disinformation.

"These outlets and the platforms that host them must have a mechanism to facilitate citizens’ right to ask that false or inaccurate information that harms them be corrected publicly"

www.theguardian.com/world/2024/d...

A good overview of strategies to study TikTok.

Important caveat for the API: TikTok asks to see results prior to publication, may audit API use without notice).

Many indirect ways to scrape data, too, that don’t require coding skills or disclosing your research objectives (example, Apify).