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News on Algorithms and Automation
We are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic and motivated post-doctoral researcher as part of a larger project aimed at the quantitative analysis of news audiences across a sample of more than forty countries, with a particular emphasis on digital media, news, and politics. The postholder will take responsibility for and deliver on distinct parts of […]
By Reuters Institute for the Study of JournalismThe proliferation of social media has allowed the antivaccine movement to become more influential than at any point in history. Earlier studies have demonstrated that social media platforms such as Pinterest and Twitter are filled with antivaccine information. The consumption of antivaccine social media content could negatively impact vaccine attitudes and consequently vaccine uptake. Furthermore, […]
By Lu Tang, Kayo Fujimoto, Muhammad Amith, Rachel Cunningham, Rebecca A Constantini, Felicia York, Grace Xiong, Julie A Boom, and Cui TaoPresident Trump and his enablers in government and right-wing media will shoulder the blame for Wednesday’s insurrection at the US Capitol, but internet platforms—Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, in particular—have played a fomenting and facilitating role that no one should overlook. In their relentless pursuit of engagement and profits, these platforms created algorithms that amplify […]
By Roger McNameeAs Georgians head to the polls to vote on their two U.S. Senators — and effectively, partisan control of Congress — on Tuesday, voters face an online landscape far different from what they saw in the weeks surrounding November’s general election. In the fall, Facebook — by far the most popular social network — clamped […]
By Corin FaifeAs Georgia prepares to hold special elections that will determine which party will control the U.S. Senate, the state has become the focus of a misinformation campaign that is aimed at discrediting the results of the November elections and convincing voters that Democrats are trying to steal the upcoming vote. A small group of “superspreaders” […]
By Sheera Frenkel & Davey AlbaSocial media companies like Facebook and YouTube have ramped up their policies against coronavirus misinformation and banned false claims about Covid-19 vaccines. But as distribution of the vaccines begin, online accounts are exploiting loopholes in new policies and successfully sharing misleading claims that attempt to discourage vaccination. Throughout the pandemic, platforms have established and updated […]
By Rebecca HeilweilToday Facebook announced the takedown of three separate networks that targeted communities across Africa. Facebook shared the assets with the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) and Graphika before they were suspended. SIO collaborated with colleagues at Graphika on two reports analyzing these networks, both of which we published today. The first network consisted of 126 Pages, 16 Groups, 211 profiles, […]
By Stanford Internet ObservatoryInternet disinformation, fraud and harassment have emerged as global concerns. While governments, industry, and civil society groups around the world struggle to address these concerns, there is little comparative data on public perception of the risks associated with using social media and the internet. In this memo, we analyze survey data of 154,195 participants living in 142 countries. On average, people […]
By Aleksi Knuutila, Lisa-Maria Neudert, and Philip N. HowardRecently, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on misinformation and the 2020 election. Republicans and Democrats alike grilled the pair for more than four hours, especially on how they moderate what can be shared on their platforms and how they enforce policy violations. Senators especially asked Dorsey about Twitter’s decision to label […]
By Megan A. Brown, Zeve Sanderson, Jonathan Nagler, Richard Bonneau and Joshua TuckerThanks to urging from stakeholders, social media platforms took visible steps to curb mis- and disinformation in 2020. Despite an array of alerts, banners, labels and information hubs, misinformation continued to poison online communities. Voter fraud myths proliferated across the globe, medical professionals reported the deaths of Covid-19 patients who believed the virus was not […]
By Madelyn WebbAlphabet Inc.’s Google said it is planning to lift its ban on political ads on Thursday after a blackout of more than a month because of concerns over election misinformation. Google told advertisers Wednesday it will lift its so-called sensitive event policy and allow ads that mention a current state or federal officeholder or candidate, […]
By Emily Glazer