Credibility and Trust
Policymakers, scientists, and journalists have worried for years about declining public trust in their institutions. Are new technologies like social media contributing to this decline, or are they convenient scapegoats for broader forces in society? We discuss research on how populist politics and other anti-elite, anti-institutional movements are intersecting with declining public trust and the rise of alternative epistemologies.
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Explore course modules, handouts, teaching tools and syllabi about dis- and misinformation.
Latest News on Credibility and Trust
On Tuesday, a noted Palestinian-American journalist reporting live from protests near Jerusalem was suddenly and mysteriously silenced on Twitter — with every single tweet replaced by the message “@MariamBarghouti’s account is temporarily unavailable because it violates the Twitter Media Policy.” It was a mistake, the company quickly admitted, and her tweets were quickly restored. But […]
By Sean Hollister
President Biden revoked the Trump-era executive order on “preventing online censorship,” which a source told Protocol last summer had been issued in response to Twitter’s decision to apply fact-checking label to several of former President Trump’s tweets. The order asked the FCC to conduct a review of Section 230, but former FCC chair Ajit Pai […]
By Issie Lapowsky
The letter, which was organized by the Stanford University microbiologist David Relman and the University of Washington virologist Jesse Bloom, takes aim at a recent joint study of covid origins undertaken by the World Health Organization and China, which concluded that a bat virus likely reached humans via an intermediate animal and that a lab […]
By Rowan Jacobsen
When an astonishingly realistic deepfake of Tom Cruise spread across the internet in March, many people were quite rightly shocked. Its pinpoint realism suggested artificial intelligence had leapt forward several years. But one important feature was easily missed. By using the social media handle “deeptomcruise,” the creator was transparent about the fact it was a […]
By Tommy Shane, Emily Saltz, and Claire Leibowicz
This study indicates that news users across ten different European countries are quite concerned about misinformation in their information environment. Respondents are most likely to associate politicians, corporations, and foreign actors with misinformation. They perceive misinformation to be most common for topics like immigration, the economy, and the environment. This offers support for the increasingly […]
By Michael Hameleers, Anna Brosius, and Claes H. de Vreese
On Tuesday, a noted Palestinian-American journalist reporting live from protests near Jerusalem was suddenly and mysteriously silenced on Twitter — with every single tweet replaced by the message “@MariamBarghouti’s account is temporarily unavailable because it violates the Twitter Media Policy.” It was a mistake, the company quickly admitted, and her tweets were quickly restored. But […]
By Sean HollisterPresident Biden revoked the Trump-era executive order on “preventing online censorship,” which a source told Protocol last summer had been issued in response to Twitter’s decision to apply fact-checking label to several of former President Trump’s tweets. The order asked the FCC to conduct a review of Section 230, but former FCC chair Ajit Pai […]
By Issie LapowskyThe letter, which was organized by the Stanford University microbiologist David Relman and the University of Washington virologist Jesse Bloom, takes aim at a recent joint study of covid origins undertaken by the World Health Organization and China, which concluded that a bat virus likely reached humans via an intermediate animal and that a lab […]
By Rowan JacobsenWhen an astonishingly realistic deepfake of Tom Cruise spread across the internet in March, many people were quite rightly shocked. Its pinpoint realism suggested artificial intelligence had leapt forward several years. But one important feature was easily missed. By using the social media handle “deeptomcruise,” the creator was transparent about the fact it was a […]
By Tommy Shane, Emily Saltz, and Claire LeibowiczThis study indicates that news users across ten different European countries are quite concerned about misinformation in their information environment. Respondents are most likely to associate politicians, corporations, and foreign actors with misinformation. They perceive misinformation to be most common for topics like immigration, the economy, and the environment. This offers support for the increasingly […]
By Michael Hameleers, Anna Brosius, and Claes H. de Vreese
May 19, 2021