Does 'deplatforming' work to curb hate speech and calls for violence? 3 experts in online communications weigh in

Banning extremists from social media platforms can reduce hate speech, but the deplatforming process has to be handled with care – and it can have unintended consequences.

Ugochukwu Etudo, Assistant Professor of Operations and Information Management, University of Connecticut • conversation
yesterday • ~10 min
social-media donald-trump twitter disinformation misinformation right-wing-extremism us-capitol-incursion parler

Trump's Twitter ban obscures the real problem: state-backed manipulation is rampant on social media

Social media censorship in the US fails to tackle the rising trend of ‘disinformation-for-hire’ cyber troops.

Hannah Bailey, PhD researcher in Social Data Science, University of Oxford • conversation
Jan. 13, 2021 • ~7 min
social-media donald-trump twitter public-opinion facebook disinformation censorship trump-tweets

Some kindergartners are more likely to be heavy users of online tech later, according to new research

Too much screen time doesn't leave enough time for other important parts of growing up. Predicting which little kids will likely grow into heavy tech users could help target educational campaigns.

Paul L. Morgan, Eberly Fellow, Professor Education and Demography, and Director of the Center for Educational Disparities Research, Penn State • conversation
Jan. 12, 2021 • ~7 min
education children social-media reading parenting child-development quick-reads research-brief screen-time behavior gaming screentime new-research online-technologies

Some kindergartners are more likely later to be heavy users of online tech, according to new research

Too much screen time doesn't leave enough time for other important parts of growing up. Predicting which little kids will likely grow into heavy tech users could help target educational campaigns.

Paul L. Morgan, Eberly Fellow, Professor Education and Demography, and Director of the Center for Educational Disparities Research, Penn State • conversation
Jan. 12, 2021 • ~7 min
education children social-media reading parenting child-development quick-reads research-brief screen-time behavior gaming screentime new-research

Big Tech's rejection of Parler shuts down a site favored by Trump supporters – and used by participants in the US Capitol insurrection

Millions of supporters of Donald Trump flocked to the far-right social media platform, where hate speech and calls for violence thrive. The US Capitol insurrection could be the platform's undoing.

Alex Newhouse, Research Lead, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies • conversation
Jan. 12, 2021 • ~12 min
social-media donald-trump twitter disinformation misinformation hate-speech racism conspiracy-theories free-speech extremism qanon anti-semitism right-wing-extremism political-violence us-capitol-incursion right-wing

Far-right activists on social media telegraphed violence weeks in advance of the attack on the US Capitol

Trump supporters openly discussed forcing Congress and Vice President Pence to overturn the election results.

Alex Newhouse, Research Lead, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies • conversation
Jan. 8, 2021 • ~8 min
social-media donald-trump twitter facebook joe-biden conspiracy-theories qanon protesting political-violence trumpism far-right-extremism biden us-capitol-attack us-capitol-incursion

Instagram's redesign shifts toward shopping – here's how that can be harmful

Instagram's Shop button signals the growing commodification of human interactions on social media.

Nazanin Andalibi, Assistant Professor, School of Information, University of Michigan • conversation
Dec. 28, 2020 • ~9 min
social-media facebook instagram online-shopping e-commerce surveillance-capitalism online-advertising predictive-algorithm personal-data

Parler is bringing together mainstream conservatives, anti-Semites and white supremacists as the social media platform attracts millions of Trump supporters

Millions of supporters of Donald Trump have flocked to the far-right social media platform Parler, where heat speech thrives.

Alex Newhouse, Research Lead, Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, Middlebury Institute of International Studies • conversation
Nov. 27, 2020 • ~11 min
social-media twitter disinformation misinformation hate-speech racism conspiracy-theories free-speech extremism qanon anti-semitism right-wing-extremism

The Matrix is already here: Social media promised to connect us, but left us isolated, scared and tribal

Remember what life was like before social media took over? Now that the election is over, it might be a good time to take back our lives.

Arash Javanbakht, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne State University • conversation
Nov. 12, 2020 • ~9 min

 social-media  artificial-intelligence  covid-19  coronavirus  internet  twitter  facebook  instagram  tribalism

5 types of misinformation to watch out for while ballots are being counted – and after

Election misinformation typically involves false narratives of fraud that include out-of-context or otherwise misleading images and faulty statistics as purported evidence.

Renee DiResta, Research Manager of the Stanford Internet Observatory, Stanford University • conversation
Nov. 6, 2020 • ~11 min
social-media uncertainty disinformation misinformation democracy elections us-elections voting 2020-us-elections us-presidential-election election-results

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