The intersection of content management, misinformation, aggregated data about human behavior and crowdsourcing shows how fragile Twitter is and what would be lost with the platform’s demise.
How do you feel about Facebook?
Enes Evren/E+ via Getty Images
Facebook users no longer see the site as a confidant. They’re struggling with how to deal with a messy codependence – and whether to just break up and move on with healthier friends.
Burmese students protesting the military coup with the three-fingered salute from The Hunger Games.
EPA-EFE/ Nyein Chan Naing
Emilio Ferrara, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Twitter bots amplify conspiracy theories, including the so-called ‘collective delusion’ that is QAnon, making them appear more popular and able to reach more real humans.
Facebook benefits financially from misinformation spreading on its platform. As long as it puts profits ahead of public good, the tilting of the political landscape will persist.
‘Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family,’ Swabian artist, c. 1470, and a picture showing a fly on U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence during the Oct. 7 debate at University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
(Wikimedia Commons/AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Flies have long held symbolic meaning in the history of art. In portraits made in Renaissance Europe, the presence of a fly symbolizes the transience of human life.
Imagery and talk of guns can often be thinly veiled forms of threats.
Zach Gibson/Getty Images
For many years, political operatives have been perfecting their use of the internet’s vast array of social media platforms, websites and digital tools.
When you share information online, do it responsibly.
Sitthiphong/Getty Images
Here’s what to watch out for, so you can protect yourself – and your social circles – from lies, half-truths and misleading spins on current events.
On the internet, anyone can express their views, like they can in Speakers’ Corner in London – it’s up to the audience to guard against disinformation.
J. A. Hampton/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images
A scholar who has reviewed the efforts of nations around the world to protect their citizens from foreign interference says there is no magic solution, but there’s plenty to learn and do.
How can you tell the news from the noise?
pathdoc/Shutterstock.com
As the 2020 elections near and disinformation campaigns ramp up, an expert on media literacy offers advice you can use to develop habits to exert more conscious control over your news intake.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama uses social media as a way to reach constituents directly.
Zhang Liyun/Xinhua via Getty
New laws in Albania show one approach to dealing with disinformation – and highlight some pitfalls of selective regulation.
Cyclists take over the Sydney Harbour Bridge during a Critical Mass protest event in 2000.
City of Sydney Archives: Tim Cole 'Circular Quay' Collection: 87824
In 1999, ahead of World Trade Organisation protests, a group of Australian activists created the first open internet publishing platform. This technology is the basis of the internet we know today.
Members of the research team that wrote the software that unmasked thousands of Twitter bots explain the next phase of their work: getting the public involved in the fight against disinformation.
What people read online could really disrupt society and politics.
igorstevanovic/Shutterstock.com
The Russians won’t be alone in spreading disinformation in 2020. Their most likely imitator will be Iran. Also, Instagram could get even more infected with intentional misinformation than it has been.
People know about Facebook’s problems, but assume they are largely immune – even while they imagine that everyone else is very susceptible to influence.