Russia Is Having Less Success at Spreading Social Media Disinformation

Days after Russia invaded Ukraine, multiple social media platforms—including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube—announced they had dismantled coordinated networks of accounts spreading disinformation. These networks, which were comprised of fabricated accounts disguised with fake names and AI-generated profile images or hacked accounts, were sharing suspiciously similar anti-Ukraine talking points, suggesting they were being controlled by centralized … Read more

How Targeted Advertising on Social Media Drives People to Extremes

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. Have you had the experience of looking at some product online and then seeing ads for it all over your social media feed? Far from coincidence, these instances of eerily accurate advertising provide glimpses into the behind-the-scenes mechanisms … Read more

What Will 2022 Bring in the Way of Misinformation on Social Media? 3 Experts Weigh In

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. At the end of 2020, it seemed hard to imagine a worse year for misinformation on social media, given the intensity of the presidential election and the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. But 2021 proved up to the … Read more

How to Stop Doomscrolling News and Social Media

Reading through their social media feeds, Americans are likely to encounter anguished accounts of political turmoil, the coronavirus pandemic and continued fallout from cyberattacks, among other less than cheerful topics. And yet many can’t stop scrolling even more, perhaps hoping to distract themselves from thinking too hard about any one of these ongoing problems. The … Read more