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News on Defining "Disinformation"
The most visible vaccine-skeptical public figures, the likes of Tucker Carlson or Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin), understand this. They don’t need to spread demonstrable falsehoods. They can simply focus night after night on outlier cases of severe side effects. Or they can selectively present results of scientific studies or government communications in ways that seem […]
By Gilad EdelmanDo you have an idea about how to improve commitment to democratic principles that you would like us to test? Join the challenge! American democracy is under threat. Many Americans are willing to compromise on democratic principles for partisan goals. Some are even willing to resort to violence to help their side win. Extreme dislike […]
By Stanford UniversityVaccine hesitancy is an increasing problem at a time when, with the emergence of the highly contagious delta variant, compliance is more important than ever. As our leaders and public health experts struggle to find the best way to promote compliance, one thing is increasingly clear — condescension or assertion, or a sleeve of numbers […]
By Marc SiegelA discussion on how platform research to address mis/disinformation should be approached through a race-based lens, new platform research solutions and methods being pioneered and utilized by researchers of color, the unique challenges researchers of color face, and how philanthropy can better support and empower Black and Brown tech platform researchers to carry out their […]
Disinformation and misinformation have been broadly recognized among major modern threats. They affect societies and the functioning of democracies all over the world and, with the profusion of communication channels and advances in digital technology, they spread rapidly and threaten public goods, risk increased polarization in societies and limit the fundamental freedom to hold opinions […]
How is social media changing democracy? How are computer algorithms employed to tailor messaging for narrow groups of voters? What are the effects of disinformation campaigns? This session examines ways in which media is manipulated to control public conversation, derail democracy, and disrupt society. […]
I (Devries) recently reached out to someone important in my life whose politics have been slipping further toward harmful, far-right politics. Our conversations had become increasingly strained because of our shared commitment to opposing politics. This person’s unshakable evangelicalism functions in tandem with their faith in Donald Trump’s political and moral virtue, reflective of Trump’s […]
By Melody Devries and Noel BrettIn January 2021, actor Armie Hammer trended on Twitter after a third-party Instagram account posted private direct messages (DMs) allegedly from Hammer that detailed, among other things, cannibalistic fantasies. As media outlets picked up the story, the Instagram account continued to share DMs and texts allegedly from the actor, and ex-girlfriend Paige Lorenze spoke to Vanity Fair about his […]
By Nelanthi HewaIf you want to understand the disinformation trends that will be coming next to US social-media feeds, visit less-developed countries. What you’ll find is a dynamic that New York Times reporter Sheera Frenkel likened to a car thief who perfects a strategy in less-policed areas before taking it to better-patrolled Beverly Hills. “In some ways, [what you see […]
By Nick FouriezosThe difficulty of moderating the ocean of content that gets posted on social networks by billions of users every day was obvious even before former President Donald Trump’s trolling forced Facebook and other platforms to block his accounts earlier this year. Differentiating genuine harassment or abuse from friendly banter, identifying harmful images and videos from […]
By Mathew IngramAs long as politics and elections have existed, there have always been false claims and exaggerations by leaders, candidates, their backers and even commentators. But the explosion of Internet access and social media usage in recent years has turned aberrational misinformation into a global epidemic of disinformation. On the one hand, millions more people have […]