Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) launched an extended attack on the United States by using computational propaganda to misinform and polarize US voters. This report provides the first major analysis of this attack based on data provided by social media firms to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). This […]
Read more...
In Brazil, there are rising concerns over computational propaganda and the political polarization it may cause. In this data memo, we analyze data about political news and information shared over Twitter in the period leading up to the 2018 Brazilian presidential election. We find that: (1) Brazil’s political discourse on […]
Read more...
A new article co-authored with ComProp post-doc Gillian Bolsover was published in Information, Communication, and Society. ABSTRACT A 2016 review of literature about automation, algorithms and politics identified China as the foremost area in which further research was needed because of the size of its population, the potential for Chinese […]
Read more...
I was in Washington this week providing testimony for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The submitted written testimony, Foreign Influence on Social Media Platforms: Perspectives from Third Party Social Media Experts can be viewed online, along with a recording of the accompanying verbal testimony. The testimony was covered in […]
Read more...
This article originally appeared in the July 2018 issue of Foreign Policy magazine. Concentrated in a few hands, big data is a threat to democracy. Social media companies and political data-mining firms such as Cambridge Analytica have built their businesses by manipulating public life using personal data. Their work has helped heighten […]
Ideas from the Pax Technica used in this review essay by Roger Cohen in the New York Times: One stab at defining such an invisible force that I find persuasive has been offered by Philip Howard, a professor of Internet Studies at Oxford University. He has coined the term “Pax […]
A new article co-authored with ComProp post-doc Gillian Bolsover was published in Information, Communication, and Society. ABSTRACT A 2016 review of literature about automation, algorithms and politics identified China as the foremost area in which further research was needed because of the size of its population, the potential for Chinese […]
Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) launched an extended attack on the United States by using computational propaganda to misinform and polarize US voters. This report provides the first major analysis of this attack based on data provided by social media firms to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). This […]
I was interviewed by the BBC World Service for their Global News Podcast, Report says millions of American voters were exposed to Russian social media propaganda, which aired on 17 December 2018. The interview concerned the Computational Propaganda Project’s latest report on the impact of Russia’s IRA on American political […]
In Sweden, concerns over misinformation and computational propaganda and their effect on the democratic process are on the rise. In this data memo, we analyse political news and information shared over Twitter in the period leading up to the 2018 Swedish General Election. We find that (1) Swedish political discourse […]
McClatchy covered the latest ComProp work: the 2018 inventory of social media manipulation, authored by Samantha Bradshaw and I. Russia’s social media blitz to influence the 2016 U.S. election was part of a global “phenomenon” in which a broad spectrum of governments and political parties used Internet platforms to spread […]
The manipulation of public opinion over social media platforms has emerged as a critical threat to public life. Around the world, a range of government agencies and political parties are exploiting social media platforms to spread junk news and disinformation, exercise censorship and control, and undermine trust in the media, […]
