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Detection methodsSpread & networks
Fake News in the 2016 and 2018 Campaigns: Prevalence, Detection, and EffectsNyhan presents empirical findings on fake news consumption in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. campaigns, drawing from survey data with browser tracking to measure actual article visits. While mainstream media reported on fake news as a widespread crisis, his research shows that only ~25% of Americans visited fake news websites, and consumption…
Platforms, policy & societyPsychology & interventions
Inside the bizarre world of internet trolls and propagandistsJournalist Andrew Marantz spent three years investigating propagandists and online extremists, tracing how fringe conspiracy theories and hate speech go viral on social media platforms. He exposes how social media algorithms optimized for engagement enable propagandists to leverage emotion over truth, and documents the pipeline through…
Deepfakes & multimodalPlatforms, policy & society
How deepfakes undermine truth and threaten democracyDeepfakes use machine-learning technology to create fabricated audio and video of people doing or saying things they never did. Law professor Danielle Citron explores the dual threats: individual harm (non-consensual sexual deepfakes targeting women, especially minorities and journalists) and societal damage (eroding trust in…
Platforms, policy & societyBots & coordinated campaigns
Facebook's role in Brexit — and the threat to democracyInvestigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr exposes the systematic abuse of Facebook as an instrument for election interference during the 2016 Brexit referendum. She documents illegal campaign spending, microtargeted disinformation, Cambridge Analytica's harvesting of 87 million user profiles, and traces connections between Brexit and…
Platforms, policy & societySpread & networks
How You Can Help Transform the Internet into a Place of TrustWardle examines the systemic challenges of moderating harmful content at internet scale while preserving freedom of expression. She argues that the core problem is not technical (AI could theoretically detect violations) but structural: platforms and governments lack clear authority to decide what constitutes harmful speech, face…
Spread & networksBots & coordinated campaigns
5 Reasons Why Social Networks Make Us Vulnerable to MisinformationMenczer presents five fundamental factors that make social networks inherently vulnerable to misinformation spread. Information and misinformation propagate through networks at equivalent rates due to structural properties of scale-free networks combined with human cognitive limitations.
Psychology & interventionsDetection methods
How technology can fight extremism and online harassmentYasmin Green, head of Jigsaw, presents two technological interventions addressing online harms rooted in human psychology. For radicalization: the "Redirect Method" (piloted 2016) uses online advertising to intercept users searching for extremist content (e.g., "How do I join ISIS?") and show them counter-propaganda videos from credible…
Psychology & interventionsFact-checking & verification
Why People Believe Fake News, Myths & Conspiracy TheoriesBrendan Nyhan surveys research on why people hold false beliefs about politics, health, and conspiracy theories despite exposure to corrective information. He identifies two core mechanisms: selective exposure (people seek out information matching their worldview) and selective acceptance (people dismiss contradictory information through…
Spread & networksDeepfakes & multimodal
Don't Blame Bots, Fake News Is Spread by HumansA comprehensive talk covering the scale of misinformation campaigns on social media (ranging from Syrian hackers compromising the AP's Twitter account to Russian interference in the 2016 US election), empirical findings on how false news spreads faster than truth, and emerging threats from synthetic media (deepfakes) created via…
Bots & coordinated campaignsSpread & networks
Social Bots and the Spread of Fake NewsA presentation on how social bots amplify misinformation spread on Twitter and other social platforms. The speaker discusses bot detection techniques (network structure, user behavior, temporal patterns), case studies of coordinated bot campaigns (2010–2016 elections, vaccine debates, Brexit), findings showing bots act as "igniters" in…
Spread & networksBots & coordinated campaigns
The Truth About False NewsA presentation discussing findings from a large-scale longitudinal study of false and true news spread on Twitter (2006–2017). The research found that false news spreads further, faster, and more broadly than truth by orders of magnitude—not primarily due to bots, but because humans are more susceptible to sharing novel information, and…
Fact-checking & verificationPsychology & interventions
How to separate fact and fiction onlineMarkham Nolan, editor of Storyful, explains how journalists use open-source intelligence tools to verify content in the age of information overload. Through real-world case studies—including fake Hurricane Sandy photos and identifying locations in Syrian conflict videos—he demonstrates that truth-seeking requires human judgment combined…
Spread & networksPlatforms, policy & society
Beware online filter bubblesAlgorithmic personalization on major platforms like Facebook and Google has created "filter bubbles" — personalized information universes that show us what we're predicted to like rather than what we need to see. This invisible algorithmic gatekeeping threatens democracy and information diversity by isolating us in narrow perspectives,…