Renée DiResta: The Influence of Misinformation

Sinan welcomes guest, Renée DiResta, author, analyst, speaker and the technical research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory.

Renee investigates the spread of narratives across social and media networks, with an interest in understanding how platform algorithms and affordances intersect with user behavior and factional crowd dynamics. She led an investigation into the Russian Internet Research Agency’s multi-year effort to manipulate American society, and presented public testimony. Her work on influence operations and computational propaganda has led her to advising roles for US Congress and The State Department.

Topics Include:

• Parenting, Vaccine Requirements for Kids and Activism (2:18-12:41)
• Misinformation, Disinformation, Political Opinion and Social Media Polarization (12:49-21:24)
• International Operations and Governmental Influence in Social and Broadcast Media (21:32-34:24)
• Election Interference, Russia and Propaganda (34:32-38:28)
• The Rise of Influencers (38:36-50:10)
• Web3 and its Promise and Peril (50:18-58:19)
• Solutions and Pros + Cons of Platform Transparency, Regulations and Policy (58:26-1:10:47)
• How do we Prepare our Kids for The New Information Age - The Good, The Bad and Everything in Between (1:10:55-1:20:48)

Visit ide.mit.edu/podcast for more.

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