Feb 28 Watch 5:11 How online misinformation from local-level Republicans helped fuel the Capitol riot By PBS NewsHour What level of online influence did local and state-level Republican officials have in the lead-up to the Capitol insurrection? An Associated Press investigation delved into the public and private social media accounts of nearly 1,000 Republican officials to look at… Continue watching
Feb 04 Fake accounts gain traction as they praise China, mock U.S. By Amanda Seitz, Associated Press A pro-China network of fake and imposter accounts found a global audience on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to mock the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the deadly riot in Washington that left five dead, new research… Continue reading
Jan 28 Watch 9:47 With Trump out of office, the Republican Party is having an identity crisis The Republican Party is out of power on Capitol Hill and deeply divided on issues from the attack on the Capitol to the impeachment of former President Trump. Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman and chief strategist at the Network… Continue watching
Jan 28 Oversight panel overturns 4 Facebook content takedowns in first ruling By Kelvin Chan, Associated Press In its initial batch of rulings, the board ordered Facebook to restore posts by users that the company said broke standards on adult nudity, hate speech, dangerous individuals and misinformation. Continue reading
Jan 10 Watch 11:48 Dan Rather on the Capitol attack, the state of our nation and 'What Unites Us' By PBS NewsHour The January 6 attack on The U.S. Capitol was the staggering culmination of years of political division and misinformation. Now, as debate rages over if President Trump should be held accountable for inciting the riot, President-elect Biden prepares to take… Continue watching
Nov 12 Watch 6:11 Social media platforms face ongoing struggle to combat disinformation President Trump has repeatedly made misleading and false statements about mail-in ballots, the vote-counting process and more. Some of his supporters and members of the conservative media have, too. Social platforms like Twitter and Facebook have tried to limit the… Continue watching
Nov 05 False claims of Wisconsin voter fraud rely on wrong numbers By Amanda Seitz, Associated Press One tweet that went viral relied on outdated figures from 2018 to wrongly claim that the number of votes cast in the state exceeded the number of registered voters. Continue reading
Nov 04 Post-election vote tallying raises fresh security concerns By Eric Tucker, Ben Fox, Associated Press Election Day came and went without any overt signs of foreign interference affecting the vote, but that doesn’t mean the risk has faded. Continue reading
Nov 04 Did social media actually counter election misinformation? By Matt O'Brien, Mae Anderson, Associated Press Ahead of the election, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube promised to clamp down on election misinformation, up to and including unsubstantiated charges of fraud and premature declarations of victory by candidates. Continue reading
Nov 03 Pennsylvania emerges as online misinformation hot spot By Amanda Seitz, Barbara Ortutay, Associated Press Misleading claims have spread for hours on social media about polling machine outages in Scranton and a poll worker destroying ballots cast for President Donald Trump. Continue reading