Screen shot of Beto O’Rourke’s Facebook ad, 2018. Facebook Erika Franklin Fowler, Wesleyan University; Michael Franz, Bowdoin College, and Travis N. Ridout, Washington State University The 2018 midterm elections are in the books, the winners have been declared and the 30-second attack ads are – finally – over. As co-directors […] Read more »
Poll asks what makes a ‘real American?’
The trait most important to being a “real American” is to believe in treating people equally, according to a Grinnell College poll released on Monday. Offered a list of traits, 90% of respondents said treating people equally is very important, followed by taking personal responsibility for one’s actions (88% said […] Read more »
Blame Fox, not Facebook, for fake news
Yochai Benkler, Rob Faris and Hal Robert, three scholars affiliated with Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, have a new book, “Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics,” presenting major new research about the political consequences of American media. I asked Benkler, who is the Berkman professor of Entrepreneurial Legal […] Read more »
Fundamentalists Are More Likely to Fall for Fake News
Precisely two years after the election of President Donald Trump—a contest stained by deliberately inaccurate information that was shared and weaponized on social media—America has not yet come to grips with the issue of fake news. How it spreads is a central issue, but an even more basic question is […] Read more »
Trump Campaign Aide Requested Online Manipulation Plans From Israeli Intelligence Firm
A top Trump campaign official requested proposals in 2016 from an Israeli company to create fake online identities, to use social media manipulation and to gather intelligence to help defeat Republican primary race opponents and Hillary Clinton, according to interviews and copies of the proposals. The Trump campaign’s interest in […] Read more »
How Russia Helped Swing the Election for Trump
Donald Trump has adopted many contradictory positions since taking office, but he has been unwavering on one point: that Russia played no role in putting him in the Oval Office. Trump dismisses the idea that Russian interference affected the outcome of the 2016 election, calling it a “made-up story,” “ridiculous,” […] Read more »