Thank you to everyone who was able to join us earlier this week for our panel “How did we get here? Where do we go next? Information, media, and U.S. Democracy.” For those of you who weren’t able to take part, we’re working to make the event recording available shortly.
Local news, social platforms, & mis- and dis-info
The decline of local news outlets, growth of digital platforms and targeted advertising, and spread of mis- and dis-information online are three widely-discussed phenomena. In November 2019, the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy hosted a workshop to explore the relationships among these three trends and propose policy responses to counter the harms to public debate and American democracy.
Last December, we released a whitepaper summarizing the findings from this workshop. The vicious cycle of shifting advertising revenues, content-creating incentives, and disconnects between communities and local leadership remains a threat today. In fact, research released since the workshop underscores the ongoing growth of hyperpartisan pay-for-play networks mimicking local news and the weaknesses in ad targeting models that represent digital platforms’ assumed advantage over local media advertising.
The policy recommendations made in the report include:
Educating the public to explain the work of journalists and the value of local news.
Empowering journalists to serve the needs of local communities.
Reducing the power of the “data oligarchy” of Google, Facebook, and Amazon
Using antitrust and other competition laws to address the systemic advantages platforms currently possess
Expanding antitrust law to deal with the monopoly power of platforms
Breaking up dominant platforms by imposing structural separations and prohibiting platforms from entering adjacent lines of business
If you’re also thinking about these intersecting challenges, check out the full report. (If you’re thinking about these intersecting challenges and are pressed for time, skim the executive summary.)
Recent publications and appearances
“Simpler schemas are less likely to be gamed by the privileged.” Zeynep Tufekci called for reducing red tape to speed up Covid-19 vaccination rates in the New York Times.
“[Some] apps take some of your data and they will share it with other third-party data repositories, and then those third parties might share your data with other parties, and at that point you don’t necessarily know what is happening to your personal information... that can actually be really dangerous.” Graduate research affiliate Aashka Dave appeared on an Instagram Live session with Al Jazeera English’s The Stream to discuss a report that she coauthored on dating apps and harms to marginalized communities.
“There’s a group of people right now that are very vulnerable to even more extremist belief systems once they’re disillusioned with Q. They might turn to white nationalism, or militias, or doomsday prepping. Those are people who have lost something that was very central to their identity, and they’re going to be looking for something else.” Alice Marwick appeared on the Today Show to discuss the potential future of QAnon.
"The First Amendment provides very few legal remedies for people who lie, unless those lies are privacy-violating or defamatory... so a lot of the regulations here [are] coming from corporate sources.” Deen Freelon discussed Donald Trump’s social media suspensions and the potential impact of deplatforming with The Hill-WCHL.
“While Trump could migrate to Parler, Gab or some other alternative site, doing so will greatly limit his influence.” Shannon McGregor was quoted in the Daily Mail about the shutdown of Parler. She was also quoted by CNN on the same topic and by the Associated Press in an article about Twitter deplatforming Donald Trump.
"You have almost an impermeable bubble for right-wing content... What that leads to is an audience that is overwhelmingly accepting of and believing of mis- and disinformation so it creates a market for new entrants.” Dr. Freelon spoke to the Philadelphia Inquirer about social media companies’ responses to the insurrection at the Capitol and with CBS debunking six conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.
“We’ve seen with the rise of the internet a shift of public discourse occurring in public places, government-owned spaces, on the streets and sidewalks and public parks to these electronic fora that are not publicly owned… As more and more public discourse is happening in these places that are owned and controlled entirely by private entities, we are able to speak only with the permission of those entities.” David Ardia did an interview with The Hill-WCHL about the legal issues surrounding the deplatforming of Donald Trump.
“Politicians are capitalizing on the fact that Americans are much more partisan than they were 20, 30, 40 years ago, so de-legitimizing those independent voices that are working to hold you accountable is to a politician's gain.” Daniel Kreiss addressed the persisting distrust of the media after Donald Trump’s departure from office on WRAL. He was also discussed speech and power with the Columbia Journalism Review following the deplatforming of Donald Trump, and talked Section 230 and tech regulation under the Biden administration with USA Today.
“If you’re really interested in studying people individually, panel studies are great. A lot of the research that I’ve done has looked at how ideas move through social media systems, and panel studies will only give you a particular impression of that.” Dr. Freelon joined a panel discussion hosted by The Markup, on measuring the spread of misinformation and ways to assess tech platform behavior.
“What last week’s event showed is that enforcing policies aimed at supporting democracy must especially be enforced against those with great power and influence like the president.” Dr. McGregor coauthored a piece on what new precedents deplatforming Donald Trump set for content moderation.
Drs. Freelon, Kreiss, and McGregor were featured in a research profile by UNC-Chapel Hill’s The Well.