I've had a number of ppl ask for my thoughts re: disinfo policy opps lately, so am re-posting here a longer essay from 2 yrs ago on possible interventions & their pros/cons. Some of my thinking has changed (e.g. re: digital literacy) but this mostly holds. hewlett.org/wp-content/uploa…

Just reading this study re: how out-group animosity drives engagement on social media. References "to the political out-group increased the odds of a social media post being shared by 67%" and emerged as O the strongest predictor of shares and retweets. pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.20…

Kaiser Family Foundation is hiring a Project Manager in DC to join a new program area on countermeasures to combat health mis- and disinfo and build trust in facts, evidence, and science, working with a great team! kff.bamboohr.com/careers/56

Important new research from ⁦⁦@CGUSAOfficial⁩: Hyper-Partisan Politicians Received 4x More Coverage Than Bipartisan Problem Solvers in US Top Media Outlets. Sign petition asking most-watched media to balance coverage and broadcast bipartisanship. prnewswire.com/news-releases…

Excellent post from Ruy Teixeira on the democrats’ Asian and Hispanic voter problems open.substack.com/pub/thelib…

Mount Tamalpais College is hiring a COO. Mission is to provide world class higher ed to students incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison (aka the Prison University Project, which received the National Humanities Medal from President Obama). @danielstid mttamcollege.org/about/caree…

Sobering. Americans Have the Lowest Trust in News in the World (at 26%, just behind Slovakia, Romania, and Taiwan, and far behind the highest rated country - Finland at 69%). open.substack.com/pub/thelib…

BREAKING | NBC News: In what has been described as a "major incident" the United States Marshals Service has suffered a ransomware attack and data exfiltration which includes law enforcement sensitive information about fugitives. Reported w/ @anblanx Mike Kosnar & @jonathan4ny

BREAKING: This morning Governor DeSantis officially signed into law the removal of Walt Disney’s special tax district. This move isn't happening because DeSantis thinks it's best for the state, but instead it's best for his political ambitions after Disney decided to speak out against the bigoted laws that he supports, which harm the LGBTQ community. Now instead of Disney taking care of 25,000-acres of land and 175 miles of roadways in Central Florida, it will be up to the state to do that. What's best for DeSantis isn't what's best for Florida, and what's best for America isn't a Fascist form of government where corporations are penalized for speaking out for what they believe in.   Republicans want "Free Speech" only when it helps their own cause.

Starting now: our talk with the National Academies committee on Understanding and Addressing Misinformation about Science with @theNASEM, where @Sacha_Altay and I will discuss all of the "solutions" on the table, and their pros/cons.

I assume CDA 230 will withstand its challenge before SCOTUS starting today, and in this case it should

New: Meta is launching a subscription service called “Meta Verified” for Facebook/Instagram. It costs $11.99/month ($14.99 on the iOS app) and features include: * verification badge * better account support * “increased visibility and reach”

Well, this is about the weirdest thing I have heard in quite a while… podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…

Great opportunity! Third Plateau hiring Senior Director on their Democracy team to oversee Democracy Communications Fund, a new pooled donor fund investing in research/coms to build public support for U.S. democracy (initial focus on trust in elections). thirdplateau.com/careers/sen…

Was just asked to explain the difference between data portability and interoperability. This is a great, short primer. bipartisanpolicy.org/blog/po…

New study re primaries: Avg vote share of election-denying Republicans in statewide races was 2.3 %pts lower than their co-partisans after accounting for state-level partisanship, but they received 2%pts more vote share than other R candidates in primaries gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-res…

Seeing the city of Oakland declaring state of emergency after a ransomware attack, here in the Bay Area with some of the best tech talent in the world, underscores how much work there is to be done to support and modernize government. So sad to hear this. nbcbayarea.com/news/local/ea…

Looking forward to my talk next week to the National Academies committee on Understanding and Addressing Misinformation about Science @theNASEM @Sacha_Altay, where we'll discuss all of the "solutions" on the table, and their pros/cons. nationalacademies.org/event/…

One of the best articles I’ve seen assessing the efficacy of disinformation inoculation/pre-bunking, including exploration of games like Bad News and Go Viral!, and looking at longitudinal effects (best case seems to be 2 to 3 months, with “booster shots”) journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.…