News

Citizen Lab's latest news and announcements.

Avoiding the kitchen sink: A guide to mixed methods approaches within digital rights governance

The Citizen Lab’s Gabrielle Lim, Noura Aljizawi, Shaila Baran, and Nicola Lawford recently published an article in Internet Policy Review on the methodology of digital rights governance research. Through a  scoping review of 141 articles, the authors assess the relationship between interdisciplinary scholarship and single-, multi-, and mixed methods research. They find that interdisciplinary work… Read more »

Citizen Lab Researchers Sign Open Letter on Canada’s AI Strategy

Citizen Lab researchers and director Ron Deibert have signed an open letter to the Canadian Minister of AI and Minister of Industry rejecting the “National Sprint” on AI strategy. The letter calls upon the ministers to extend the consultation deadline, rewrite the public survey, and create a more representative AI task force. Signatories of the… Read more »

Ron Deibert Awarded SFU’s 2025 Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy

Citizen Lab director Ron Deibert is the recipient of the 2025 Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy by Simon Fraser University (SFU). The award recognizes his ongoing work at the intersection of global security, digital technologies, and human rights.   SFU professor David Zandvliet says, “As chair of the Sterling Prize committee, I find his… Read more »

Prison Break – Israeli Disinfo Operations: New Episode on the Iran Podcast

Citizen Lab senior researcher Alberto Fittarelli speaks with Negar Mortazavi, host of The Iran Podcast, about Israel-linked influence operations pushing for regime change in Iran. Fittarelli explains how an artificial network of users on X amplified calls for unrest, sometimes with the aid of AI-generated images and videos. The perpetrators of the operation were “trying… Read more »

How Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism: Columbia Journalism Review

In many countries, laws against cybercrime are being weaponized to repress journalism. Speaking to the Columbia Journalism Review, Citizen Lab doctoral fellow Gabrielle Lim warns that democratic countries passing similar laws could provide cover to repressive authoritarian regimes.  “Unfortunately, most of the laws being passed will have little effect in actually curbing misinformation, but instead… Read more »

Submission to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security of Bill C-8

Canada’s Bill C-8 (formerly Bill C-26) is proposed cybersecurity legislation that would introduce broad information collection and sharing powers, including the warrantless collection of information from telecommunication providers, and could also undermine encryption and communications security. In a brief submitted by the Citizen Lab to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security (SECU)… Read more »