Digital Public Square
Digital Public Square is a Toronto-based Canadian not-for-profit that designs interactive digital campaigns and educational tools to combat polarization, misinformation, foreign interference, and health and gender-based harms for governments, community partners, and at-risk populations globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersToronto, Canada
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Digital Public Square does
Digital Public Square is a Canadian not-for-profit organization headquartered in Toronto that designs and operates interactive digital campaigns and educational tools intended to strengthen civic resilience, counter misinformation, and connect at-risk communities to support resources. Founded in 2016 as a spin-out of a 2013 University of Toronto Munk School project, the organization has developed a portfolio of roughly two dozen named products — including Canada is Talking, FIRE (Foreign Interference Resilience & Education), Level Up, Voices, Nandar's Story, Moving at the Speed of Trust, Our Medicine Path, The Coronavirus Quiz, and the Facilitator generative-AI dialogue tool — built on interactive web platforms, gamified learning modules, narrative experiences, and survey/data-collection systems. Reach spans Canada, the United States, the Middle East and North Africa, China, Southeast Asia, and parts of Europe and Africa, with reported engagement milestones such as 45M social-media impressions for Voices from Syria, 2.3M users for Iran's Rouhani Meter, and 7,500+ full engagements for Nandar's Story in Myanmar within a single month.
The organization serves three principal client categories: (1) Canadian and U.S. government departments that fund projects through grants (Public Safety Canada, Health Canada, PHAC, Heritage Canada, Government of Ontario, U.S. National Science Foundation); (2) community organizations and Indigenous-led or equity-focused partners (Federation of Black Canadians, Creative Fire, Vincent Design, Small Media, C-Space, Jack.org, Institute for Canadian Citizenship, Khouri Conversations) that co-design and distribute tools; and (3) end-user beneficiaries — politically alienated Canadians, diaspora communities vulnerable to transnational repression, labour-intensive industry workers affected by the toxic drug supply, Black and Indigenous communities navigating vaccine hesitancy, women and girls facing tech-facilitated gender-based violence, and polarized community groups. All digital tools are provided free to end users; revenue is sourced from government grants and donations, with no commercial pricing model.
Digital Public Square firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Digital Public Square
- Legal name
- Digital Public Square
- Website
- https://digitalpublicsquare.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Digital Public Square is a Toronto-based Canadian not-for-profit that designs interactive digital campaigns and educational tools to combat polarization, misinformation, foreign interference, and health and gender-based harms for governments, community partners, and at-risk populations globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Digital Public Square industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Civic Engagement Software
- NAICS
- Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Human Rights Organizations (813311)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Digital Inclusion & Civic Tech (Connectivity, GovTech for Social Good) (BPAGALAK)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Civic Education & Community Engagement (Voting, Local Government) (EDAAAFAC), Data & Information Literacy (Search, Evaluation, Misinformation) (EDAAAIAI), Media Freedom, Access to Information & Digital Rights (BPADAGAE), Digital Literacy & Media Literacy (Reading/Writing Online) (EDAMAJAN), Public Communications, Transparency & Open Government (BPAIAAAH)
Keywords
Where Digital Public Square is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Toronto
- HQ country
- Canada
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Digital Public Square business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Government Grants and Funding: Primary funding source from government agencies including Public Safety Canada, Health Canada, Heritage Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada, Government of Ontario, and National Science Foundation (US). Funds specific projects and programs.
- Donations and Support: Accepts donations and support from individuals and organizations to further mission of transforming community engagement for the digital era.
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels8 records
Digital Public Square product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Digital Public Square is a Canadian not-for-profit that develops educational digital tools, interactive platforms, and campaign resources addressing civic engagement, polarization, misinformation, public health, and social challenges. Their portfolio spans interactive civic platforms (Canada is Talking), foreign interference awareness tools (FIRE), substance use education platforms (Level Up), gender-based violence awareness narratives (Nandar's Story, Lean Forward), vaccine hesitancy platforms for Black and Indigenous communities, and gamified learning experiences for misinformation, labour rights, and food safety.
Product overview
Digital Public Square is a not-for-profit organization that develops educational digital tools and resources for communities. Their portfolio consists of multiple distinct digital products and platforms addressing various social challenges including civic engagement (Canada is Talking), foreign interference awareness (FIRE), substance use harm prevention (Level Up), polarization dialogue (Voices, Tackling Community Polarization, Facilitator), gender-based violence awareness (Nandar's Story, Lean Forward), health misinformation (The Coronavirus Quiz/It's Contagious), vaccine hesitancy in specific communities (Moving at the Speed of Trust, Our Medicine Path), political accountability (Rouhani Meter, Majlis Monitor), labour rights (The Bad Boss Files), food safety (What's in the Bun?), community collaboration (Collab), empathy generation (The Fix-it Shop), and extremism resilience (Project COMET, Voices from Syria). The company also produces research toolkits and reports.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Canada is Talking: A campaign to build resilience to polarization in Canada, engaging Canadians in the run-up to the Canadian federal election.
- FIRE (Foreign Interference Resilience & Education)
- Level Up
- Nandar's Story
- The Coronavirus Quiz
- Voices
- Moving at the Speed of Trust
- Our Medicine Path
- Voices from Syria and the Middle East
- The Bad Boss Files
- The Fix-it Shop
- Political Process Monitoring in Iran
- What's in the Bun?
- Project COMET
- Lean Forward
- It's Contagious
Products and services
- Canada is Talking A digital civic engagement campaign platform designed to build resilience to polarization in Canada through interactive modules about democracy, elections, and political participation. Features three campaign versions: pre-election, post-election, and polarization.
- Foreign Interference Resilience & Education (FIRE) An online tool and resource hub supporting communities affected by foreign interference and transnational repression, connecting diaspora communities to resources, tip sheets, research reports, and community reporting features.
- Level Up A digital education platform raising awareness about opioid and substance-related harms in labour-intensive industries across Canada, offering interactive learning modules and pathways to recovery support for workers in construction, logistics, transportation, and trades.
- Voices A digital dialogue prototype applying contact theory principles to translate in-person dialogue sessions into brief online interactions, featuring profiles of Canadians with diverse views on Israel-Palestine to reduce prejudice and build empathy.
- Nandar's Story An interactive narrative digital experience designed to increase awareness of tech-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) in Myanmar, following a fictional Burmese character experiencing online harassment and offline harms.
- It's Contagious An expanded Canadian version of The Coronavirus Quiz with new features, rewards, and content built for Canadian audiences to combat COVID-19 misinformation through fact-checked swipe-based gameplay.
- Lean Forward A digital platform providing boys and young men with contextually relevant and data-informed bystander intervention training, allowing users to explore active bystandership in a simulated practical environment to prevent gender-based violence.
- Moving at the Speed of Trust An online engagement platform for learning and sharing about healthcare experiences in Black communities, addressing vaccine hesitancy across the lifecourse through content focusing on Black experiences and perspectives without collecting personally identifiable information.
- Our Medicine Path An online engagement platform exploring Indigenous perspectives and experiences with vaccinations across the life course in Canada, using storytelling through Indigenous voices and trusted sources to address vaccine hesitancy.
- Voices from Syria and the Middle East (Aswat) A documentary series and digital platform sharing untold stories from women who have escaped conflict in Syria and the Middle East, featuring one of the largest anonymous digital surveys of women's voices from the MENA region on issues impacting women.
- The Bad Boss Files A game teaching common and landmark labour dispute cases in China to increase awareness of labour rights violations, accompanied by an anonymous ask-me-anything platform featuring labour rights experts.
- The Fix-it Shop A story-driven game without words following the journey of a young Muslim man grappling with responsibility, young love, and family care, designed to generate empathy for vulnerable communities across Asia, Europe, North America, and beyond.
- Rouhani Meter Iran's first promise-tracking platform enabling citizens to follow and crowdsource information on President Hassan Rouhani's progress on campaign promises through fact-checking and verification.
- What's in the Bun? A viral game in China focused on helping users learn about food safety incidents and debunk false food rumours through intuitive swipe-based gameplay mechanics.
- Collab A prototype built with Sidewalk Labs to help communities collaborate on planning neighbourhood events, allowing residents to propose event selections and explore trade-offs of their decisions.
- Tackling Community Polarization A transformational approach project enabling meaningful conversations about the impact of Middle East conflict on Canadian communities, encouraging honest and brave dialogues to counter dehumanization between Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Arab, and Israeli Canadians.
- Project COMET (Find the Manipulation) A media literacy game platform where users identify patterns of manipulation to increase resilience to manipulative information tactics and dangerous speech online, funded by Public Safety Canada.
- Listening and Dialogue for Countering Polarization Toolkit A practical toolkit for designing and facilitating listening and dialogue sessions with structured steps, ethical safeguards, and adaptable tools for diverse contexts, targeted at facilitators and practitioners countering polarization.
Quantifiable outcome
- 60% of Canada is Talking users became more likely to trust election outcomes after completing modules
- +8 more outcomes
Companies that use Digital Public Square
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments8 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Digital Public Square technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature8 records
Digital Public Square partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Sidewalk LabscoreBuilt Collab prototype together with Digital Public Square to help communities collaborate on planning neighbourhood events. Sidewalk Labs focused on urban innovation technologies.
- C-Space GroupcoreCollaborated with Digital Public Square on Voices dialogue project and Tackling Community Polarization initiative. C-Space provides creative solutions to conflict and facilitates dialogue sessions between Palestinian and Jewish Canadians. Jointly developed research-based digital tools, campaigns, and community dialogue sessions.
- Khouri ConversationscorePartnered with Digital Public Square on Transformational Conversations initiative bringing Palestinian and Jewish Canadians together for dialogue. Founded by Raja Khouri, works with institutions to foster understanding between groups on Israel-Palestine discourse.
- Small MediacoreBuilt platform for Voices from Syria and the Middle East project enabling people across MENA region to share views on women's issues. Small Media specializes in digital tools for civil society and media development.
- The Federation of Black Canadians (FBC)coreCreated Moving at the Speed of Trust platform in partnership with FBC, a national non-profit driven by Black organizations to advance interests of Canadians of African descent. FBC provided guidance on Black community priorities and health communication needs.
- Evenings and Weekends ConsultingcorePartnership on Moving at the Speed of Trust platform. Consulting firm committed to achieving equity and justice, including combatting anti-Black racism, providing expertise on health communications.
- Creative FirecoreIndigenous-owned consulting agency partnered on Our Medicine Path platform. Conducted in-depth interviews with Indigenous healthcare providers and community leaders to understand vaccine hesitancy drivers.
- Vincent DesigncoreIndigenous-led creative marketing company co-created Our Medicine Path platform, providing culturally relevant and respectful Indigenous visual design and content guidance.
- Institute for Canadian CitizenshipminorPartner organization for launching customized versions of It's Contagious game for vulnerable communities in Canada.
- Jack.orgminorPartner organization for launching customized versions of It's Contagious game for vulnerable communities in Canada.
- China Governance Lab at Munk SchoolcoreResearch partner for foreign interference survey conducted in June 2024. Partnership with University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs to better understand Canadians' perceptions of foreign interference.
- Abacus DatacorePolling partner for foreign interference survey fielded in June 2024. Conducted nationally representative survey on Canadians' perceptions of foreign interference and democracy.
Scale indicators16 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Digital Public Square competitors and assessment
Company assessmentRegional players
- vTaiwan / g0v (gov-zero): Taiwan-based civic tech movement building digital deliberation and participation tools; comparable in digital civic engagement and polarization-reduction focus, though primarily operating in Asia.
Direct peers
- National Democratic Institute (NDI): Nonprofit that works with civic and political actors worldwide to strengthen democratic institutions and citizen participation; comparable in mission around democratic resilience and polarization work.
- News Literacy Project: Nonprofit that equips educators and students with news literacy skills to identify misinformation; directly comparable to DPS's Coronavirus Quiz, Project COMET, and Find the Manipulation media-literacy tools.
- Meedan: Nonprofit technology organization that builds digital platforms for journalism, fact-checking, and civic engagement in the Middle East and globally; directly comparable in digital civic-tools-for-marginalized-communities focus.
- Purpose: Social impact agency that builds campaigns and digital products to advance civic and progressive causes; comparable in campaign-style digital products aimed at social and political outcomes.
- Code for America: U.S. nonprofit that builds digital tools and civic technology to improve government services and civic participation; directly comparable to Digital Public Square's mission of using technology for inclusive community engagement.
- International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES): Nonprofit that supports electoral integrity and civic participation through programming and digital tools globally; comparable in election-related civic engagement and inclusion-of-vulnerable-populations work.
- First Draft (Information Futures Lab, Brown University): Organization historically focused on misinformation verification and media literacy training for journalists and civil society; comparable on the misinformation and information-ecosystem-resilience axis.
- CIVICUS: Global alliance of civil-society organizations measuring civic space and supporting citizen action; comparable mission in defending civic participation and community resilience.
Broad incumbents
- Mozilla Foundation: Foundation working on internet health, trustworthy AI, and media literacy; broader in scope than DPS but overlaps significantly on misinformation resilience and civic engagement online.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Digital Public Square social profiles
Digital presenceDigital Public Square financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Digital Public Square leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles6 records
Digital Public Square funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Digital Public Square M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Digital Public Square
What does Digital Public Square do?
Digital Public Square is a Canadian not-for-profit that develops educational digital tools, interactive platforms, and campaign resources addressing civic engagement, polarization, misinformation, public health, and social challenges. Their portfolio spans interactive civic platforms (Canada is Talking), foreign interference awareness tools (FIRE), substance use education platforms (Level Up), gender-based violence awareness narratives (Nandar's Story, Lean Forward), vaccine hesitancy platforms for Black and Indigenous communities, and gamified learning experiences for misinformation, labour rights, and food safety.
Is Digital Public Square a public or private company?
Digital Public Square is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Digital Public Square founded?
Digital Public Square was founded in 2016. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Digital Public Square based?
Digital Public Square is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, in the North America region.
How does Digital Public Square make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Government Grants and Funding is the primary driver. The others are donations and Support.
Who are Digital Public Square's main competitors?
vTaiwan / g0v (gov-zero) is listed as a regional player. Direct peers are National Democratic Institute (NDI), News Literacy Project, Meedan, Purpose, Code for America, International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), First Draft (Information Futures Lab, Brown University) and CIVICUS. Mozilla Foundation is listed as a broad incumbent.
Does Digital Public Square have an API?
No public API is recorded for Digital Public Square.
What industry is Digital Public Square in?
Digital Public Square's product category is Civic Engagement Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAGALAK, Digital Inclusion & Civic Tech (Connectivity, GovTech for Social Good), with a secondary code of EDAAAFAC, Civic Education & Community Engagement (Voting, Local Government). Its NAICS code is 8133.