News & Commentary

New research finds that Americans’ skepticism about news, which often drives people to use search engines to “do their own research,” could actually make them more misinformed.

The widespread reach and accessibility of AI will undoubtedly change the information landscape ahead of global elections in 2024. But rather than letting overblown fears dominate public discourse, we can draw on previous research to better understand and mitigate risks.

Generative AI has the potential to supercharge the production and spread of disinformation on social media. In an op-ed for The Hill, Joshua A. Tucker breaks down the risks AI poses going into the 2024 election -- and what can be done to mitigate them.

Since taking over at Twitter, Elon Musk's personal beliefs have had an outsized influence on the platform. As its content and user base evolve, it's unclear whether a Musk owned Twitter can maintain the platform's central role in the American political media landscape.

BlueSky is a half-decentralized social network designed to replace Twitter. Will it keep its luster as it scales up?

What we can (and can't) learn from Twitter's partial open-sourcing of its recommendation algorithm.

In the modern digital information era, information wars are always global.

We still don’t know the extent of what Musk has actually changed within Twitter. But without mandated data access for researchers, we risk never knowing their impact on society as well.

As 2022 candidates embrace Trump's Big Lie, social platforms are reducing election integrity efforts. What should they do to safeguard the midterms?

There are three areas — content moderation, transparency, and data access — to watch closely as Musk takes ownership of Twitter.

Will Russia’s propaganda campaign continue to work on its citizens and others? Or will the lies fall apart?

Crowdsourced fact-checking, far from being a panacea to our so-called information disorder, could potentially be one tool in what certainly needs to be a much larger toolkit to discern facts in a complex ecosystem.

With access to these documents, scholars could support the media, public, and policymakers in identifying where Facebook’s internal research is conclusive, what inferences can be drawn, which topics require more evidence and future research, and what that research should be.

As the Facebook Papers revelations continue, it’s critical for the government, through legislation or regulation, to require social media platforms to be more transparent and open up more data to outside researchers.

Coordinated campaigns by sock puppets on social media are likely neither necessary nor sufficient to signify serious foreign threats to electoral integrity.

Here’s how we create a healthy research environment for those studying harmful online content.

Although social media may have given dissidents a temporary advantage over repressive governments, now that Twitter is a mature platform, repressive regimes can and do use social media to solidify their grip on power.

Initial emotional responses on Twitter gave way to a call for more political responses in the wake of Newtown massacre.