Op-Eds & Blog Posts2019-10-08T00:56:03+00:00

Op-eds and Blog Posts

Washington Post

Joshua Tucker

April 23, 2019

Shut down social media if you don’t like terrorism?

In the aftermath of Sunday’s violent terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka, the Sri Lankan government shut down access to social media sites as the investigation into the bombings proceeded. News reports listed Facebook — including its WhatsApp and Instagram platforms — YouTube, Snapchat and Viber…

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2019|Categories: Op-ed|Tags: , |

The Washington Post

Andy Guess, Jonathan Nagler, Joshua A Tucker

January 9, 2019

Who was most likely to share fake news in 2016? Seniors.

This week, the New York Times broke the news that Democratic activists posted misleading Facebook pages and Twitter feeds during the 2017 U.S. Senate race in Alabama. That’s just the latest iteration in the ongoing saga of online disinformation and “fake news” since the 2016 U.S. presidential election…

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2019|Categories: Op-ed|Tags: , |

The Washington Post

Franziska Roescher, Leon Yin, Richard Bonneau, Jonathan Nagler, and Joshua A Tucker

November 19, 2018

What’s the strategy of Russia’s Internet trolls? We analyzed their tweets to find out.

As U.S. citizens cast their ballots in this month’s midterm election, Facebook announced its suspicions that the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) was attempting to interfere. But what, exactly, was the online strategy of this “troll farm” that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III had already indicted in connection…

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2018|Categories: Op-ed|Tags: , , , |

The Washington Post

Jen Leighley and Jonathan Nagler

October 18, 2018

Could anything – even Taylor Swift – boost the youth vote in 2018?

Last week, with a post on Instagram, Taylor Swift urged young people to vote. She specifically endorsed two candidates, explained why she voted for them, and suggested that others should rely on their values in deciding how to vote…

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2018|Categories: Op-ed|Tags: , |

The Washington Post

Jan Zilinsky and Joshua A Tucker

February 1, 2018

Why don't Trump voters feel betrayed? Because they're getting what they wanted.

Why doesn’t President Trump’s base feel betrayed yet, as so many observers think it should? Pundits have argued that they would feel alienated by his State of the Union address…

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2018|Categories: Op-ed|Tags: , , |

Huffington Post

Pablo Barbera and Megan Metzger

December 6, 2017

Tweeting the Revolution: Social Media Use and the #Euromaidan Protests

The past three days have been the most violent in recent Ukrainian history. Over 70 people…

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2017|Categories: Op-ed|Tags: , , |

Washington Post

Alex Siegel and Joshua A Tucker

July 20, 2016

Here’s what 29 million tweets can teach us about Brexit

As Britain’s vote to leave the European Union sent pundits scrambling and the pound plummeting, it also set off a global frenzy on social media. Topping off months of online campaigning…

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2016|Categories: Op-ed|Tags: , |

The Washington Post

Alex Siegel

January 7, 2016

Does Twitter bridge the Sunni-Shiite divide or make it worse?

Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric on Jan. 2 sparked a sectarian firestorm across the Arab world. Protests erupted, a Saudi…

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2016|Categories: Op-ed|Tags: |