With midterms right around the corner, platforms’ role in securing election integrity has sparked fierce debates. In their new report, graduate affiliate Erik Brooks and principal researcher Daniel Kreiss present a side-by-side comparison of the various ways that social media sites have attempted to enact their policies against election misinformation, as well as some of the significant obstacles they have encountered since 2020.
Here are a few highlights:
The continuation of Twitter’s complete ban on political advertisements
YouTube’s new election integrity policies in the wake of the 2020 election
Analysis of TikTok’s policies as they relate to democratic processes and manipulated media
Publications and appearances
“So-called ‘election integrity’ efforts date back to the post-reconstruction era, when segregationists aimed to take back racially integrated Southern governments by casting doubt on the legitimacy of Black votes.” Francesca Tripodi spoke to The Assembly about the election integrity efforts targeting North Carolina.
“Being a MacArthur fellow validates your work and how you work. That has been as transformative as the cash award. That is why I always scan the list of grantees for its diversity. I want this kind of transformation for people who work a little differently from the norm. I want it for people who bootstrapped their art, their science and themselves.” Tressie McMillan Cottom discusses what being a MacArthur fellow means to her and congratulates this year’s cohort in her latest New York Times piece.
Check out this video demoing Deen Freelon’s Pyktok. If you’re doing TikTok research and haven’t tested it out yet, you should!
Coming soon
October 19, 12pm ET: The Center for Social Media and Politics’ Seminar Series: Using Social Media to Drive the Political Conversation. Shannon McGregor is one of the panelists. More information here.
October 26, 11-12pm ET: Western Piedmont Community College’s Democracy and Dialogue event. Shannon McGregor will join the panel on social media and democracy.
October 27: Francesca Tripodi will join the Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics for a conversation about The Propagandists’ Playbook. Register here.
November 10: The CITAP fall speaker series continues with Tamara K. Nopper delivering a talk on Crime Data and Policing Data as Open Data: Considering Research Ethics, Transparency, and Privacy. Event information here. RSVP is required for livestream access.
Rest of Web
👏 Congratulations to UNC School of Information & Library Science professor Melanie Feinberg, who published her new book Everyday Adventures with Unruly Data this week!
🗳️ We recommend reading affiliate Bridget Barrett’s Twitter thread on why we should care about programmatic advertising this election season.
📖 We’ve all been reading this Washington Post article on the social media censorship culture war.