Media, Democracy, & Public Discourse

Joan Donavan and Yochai Benkler share insights on the causes and effects of disinformation

Jonas Kaiser and colleague evaluate the impact of deplatforming

The Harvard Law Bulletin showcases work from members of the Berkman Klein community on mis- and disinformation and the Center’s projects and programs that produce it.

evelyn douek shares the limitations of the Facebook Oversight Board's ruling on Donald Trump's account.

evelyn douek and Joan Donovan comment on Facebook’s response to the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Joan Donovan shares findings from her research on vaccine misinformation.

Joan Donovan explores vaccine disinformation and the election.

evelyn douek says simply erasing things from the internet comes at a cost and it might not be worth it.

Sameer Hinduja shares insights on how to address cyberbullying.

Bruce Schneier and colleague Henry Farrell published a new report via the Johns Hopkins Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Chinmayi Arun examines the Oversight Board’s decision in the context of the options before it.

Looking back at topic-based social networks may offer one way forward for social media

Danielle Citron says making social media sites act on content such as nonconsensual porn and violent conspiracies would make the internet more equal and free

Allissa Richardson interviewed by WBUR

evelyn douek says Facebook’s made-up court is filling an enormous legal void.

evelyn douek explains details of Facebook Oversight Board’s recent decision and what they reveal about Facebook’s rules, and the FOB’s role in reviewing them.

evelyn douek weighs in on the Facebook Oversight Board’s upcoming decision

Zenzele Best provides an overview of the 2020-2021 Assembly Student Fellowship

Joan Donovan discusses “post truth,” press manipulation, and right-wing media lies

Susan Benesch says human rights law could guide social media companies to regulate hateful speech

A Q&A with evelyn douek

Allissa Richardson joins Slate’s Amicus podcast

BKC community members weigh in on political misinformation

Allissa Richardson discusses filming police encounters

evelyn douek says that if Facebook can discourage hate speech and incitements to violence on a special occasion, it can do so all the time.

Allissa Richardson argues against sharing videos of violent police encounters in an op-ed for Vox.

Dr. Allissa Richardson spoke with WUSA9 about having Black deaths aired on TV

Preserving records of what user content is taken down—and why—could make platforms more accountable and transparent

Joan Donovan discusses QAnon with CNN.

evelyn douek comments on the Facebook Oversight Board

Joan Donovan discusses disinformation on YouTube with The Washington Post.

evelyn douek speaks with Politico about the Facebook Oversight Board

Members of BKC community share suggestions for building bluesky

Joan Donovan and colleagues publish a whole-of-society approach to countering spam, scams, and hoaxes

evelyn douek and Julie Owono talk with Vox Recode about the Facebook Oversight Board

Jessica Fjeld speaks with New York Times about content moderation on Google Podcasts

Berkman Klein event explores the early years of online platforms, the state of current platforms, and the future

Three community members discuss how young Black people use technology for activism around the world

evelyn douek discusses Amazon profiting from sales of conspiracy theory books

Research from Joan Donovan and colleague shows how right-wing media enabled a disinformation campaign around The 1619 Project

Crystal Lee speaks about her research on COVID skeptics with Slate

Joan Donovan speaks with NPR

Joan Donovan talks to CNN about political disinformation campaigns.

Joan Donovan in The Verge

Jasmine McNealy joins a discussion on tackling misinformation and disinformation

evelyn douek discusses the increasing use of alternative platforms

Oumou Ly and Ethan Zuckerman featured in a publication from All Tech Is Human on Improving Social Media.

Yochai Benkler weighs in on tech's impact on democracy in The New York Times

Jonas Kaiser and colleagues publish in International Journal of Communication

Oumou Ly discusses conspiracy theories on the ‘Things That Go Boom’ podcast.

Jonathan Zittrain speaks to the New York Times

Zeynep Tufekci on why everyone should stop 'doomscrolling'

Yochai Benkler spoke to the New York Times about election disinformation lawsuits

Danielle Citron and colleague argue that Trump should not be allowed back on social media

Joan Donovan discusses QAnon, disinformation, and platform responsibility in Nature.

Joan Donovan draws parallels between Occupy Wall Street and GameStop

Apryl Williams puts memes in historical, cultural context

An interview with james Siguru Wahutu

Joan Donovan and colleague argue that antitrust enforcement will hold platforms accountable

Will Marks discusses the “Great Deplatforming” in Just Security.

Julie Owono says content moderation needs a more global approach

evelyn douek discusses the deplatforming of Donald Trump with The New York Times.

Sarah Sobieraj on online attacks against women, what they mean for America, and what can be done about them.

Joan Donovan describes how disinformation can contribute to radicalization in The New Yorker.

evelyn douek discusses Facebook’s decision to refer Trump’s case to its oversight board with The New York Times

evelyn douek discusses content moderation – and who makes the decisions – with NPR.

Ethan Zuckerman on WNYC

An excerpt of Ethan Zuckerman’s book, “Mistrust”

Crystal Lee and colleagues publish a preprint of their paper ahead of ACM CHI 2021.

Joan Donovan and Rob Faris pen op-ed calling for media accountability

Joan Donovan discusses the Capitol attack and disinformation

Ethan Zuckerman says insurrectionism can be a civically responsible form of social change

Ruth Okediji reflects on the attacks on the U.S. Capitol, the state of democracy, and the role of digital technologies in politics today.

Mutale Nkonde and colleagues publish in HKS Misinformation Review

evelyn douek weighs in on Twitter removing Trump

Shagun Jhaver speaks to Newsweek about his Twitter research

Woodrow Hartzog and colleague argue social media companies should be held accountable

Politico interviews Joan Donovan about misinformation

Jonathan Zittrain joins the Lawfare Podcast

Harvard Law experts Yochai Benkler and evelyn douek weigh in on the suspension of President Trump’s social media accounts

Susan Benesch pens an op-ed about the dangers of Trump’s rhetoric.

Joan Donovan and colleague warn against using facial recognition technology in Slate

Ethan Zuckerman calls for a new vision of social media

evelyn douek pens an op-ed on Facebook’s Oversight Board

Joan Donovan and colleagues say the storm on the Capitol was the culmination of a presidency defined by media manipulation and networked conspiracism

Joan Donovan on what lawmakers and companies need to do to address the weaponization of social media and disinformation

evelyn douek says tech giants must not treat their crackdown on the president’s social accounts as an edge case. The social web should be different now.

Yochai Benkler talks with The Washington Post

Joan Donovan shares four tips for journalists covering pro-Trump rallies and far-right groups for Journalist’s Resource.

evelyn douek speaks with OneZero about content moderation and alternative social media platforms

Joan Donovan joins Marketplace Tech podcast

Rebecca Tushnet in the New York Times

Danielle Citron says Twitter should change their rules for public officials.

Joan Donovan speaks with NBC News

In 2020, the need to contain misinformation about COVID-19 pushed Facebook and Twitter into a role they never wanted—arbiters of the truth.

evelyn douek shares her thoughts on content moderation in 2020

Jonas Kaiser and colleague discuss YouTube's recommendation algorithm

Apryl Williams publishes in Social Media + Society

evelyn douek joins Marketplace Tech podcast to discuss YouTube and disinformation

Jonas Kaiser shares his predictions for journalism in 2021 with NiemanLab.

Yochai Benkler speaks with CNN about media coverage of misinformation

NiemanLab shares takeaways from Joan Donovan’s BKC webinar

Elizabeth Renieris spoke with Good ID about the importance of anonymity online

Trump and fellow Republicans are trying to dismantle beliefs in democracy, argue Bruce Schneier and Henry Farrell

YouTube is a major vector for election and other disinformation. evelyn douek asks why its CEO wasn’t with Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey on Capitol Hill.

evelyn douek discusses content moderation and the 2020 election

Joan Donovan comments on platform approaches to harassment and what it means for researchers

evelyn douek talks with Bloomberg about YouTube’s election response

Platform governance and the 2020 Presidential Election

Tressie McMillan Cottom says the new president will be inclined to do less. He must be pushed to do more.

Online platforms aren’t transparent about their decisions—which masks the true costs of misinformation

Joan Donovan comments on Facebook’s takedown efforts during the election

evelyn douek explains YouTube’s content moderation policies

Joan Donovan discusses misinformation in the wake of the 2020 US presidential election.

Rebecca Tushnet talks First Amendment and voter suppression campaigns

Tressie McMillan Cottom joined The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on election night to discuss early election results, American politics, and the electoral college.

Danielle Allen joins the Ask a Harvard Professor podcast to discuss COVID-19 and American democracy.

Yochai Benkler discusses election misinformation with NPR

evelyn douek and Zeynep Tufekci are cited by The New York Times

Joan Donovan joins the Today show to talk about disinformation.

Joan Donovan talks to the New York Times about election misinformation.

Joan Donovan explains recent disinformation campaigns

Quentin Palfrey weighs in on poll workers in the lead-up to the November 3 election

A new resource from Joan Donovan and the Shorenstein Center was featured in a newsletter from The Washington Post.

Joan Donovan asks, “when does a meme become disinformation?”

A Q&A with Mary Gray

Mutale Nkonde joined the No More Normal podcast to discuss misinformation and algorithms.

Joan Donovan profiled by New York Times for her work on disinformation

Kishonna Gray discusses online harassment in gaming with Good Morning America.

Amanda Third and colleagues produce report on online safety in the Pacific.

Yochai Benkler joins Brian Selter on CNN’s Reliable Sources to discuss the US 2020 Election

evelyn douek speaks to The New York Times about Twitter blocking the link to a New York Post article.

Allissa Richardson talks protest journalism on the Start Making Sense podcast

New paper published in Computers in Human Behavior

Journalists should treat systematic disinformation campaigns from President Trump and his party no differently than those from Russian propagandists and Facebook clickbait artists

evelyn douek, Dipayan Ghosh talk with the Centre for International Governance Innovation

Abbey Stemler discusses the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration to secure elections

Yochai Benkler joins the Columbia Journalism Review’s podcast

Allissa Richardson discusses her new book and the myth of objective journalism

Oumou Ly talks with The Hill

Jenny Korn discusses Asian representation in film and TV in 2020

Julie Owono and evelyn douek discuss Facebook Oversight Board

Should tech companies follow human rights law to govern online speech?

Abbey Stemler and colleagues publish paper on disinformation and election insecurity

Allissa Richardson on mental health of Black journalists covering the anti-police brutality and Black Lives Matter protests

Danielle Citron joins Lawfare podcast to discuss manipulated video and audio content.

Smartphone footage of police brutality highlights a dire need to tell more humane stories about Black victims, Allissa Richardson says

Yochai Benkler discusses partisan media with the New York Times

Gizmodo asks experts, including Jonathan Zittrain, for their answers

Zeyenp Tufecki featured in The New York Times

Desmond Patton interviewed by NPR about police monitoring social media

The Verge interviews Taylor Lorenz

Jasmine McNealy discusses the feature and the First Amendment

Ethan Zuckerman uses Media Cloud to explain the narrowing media agenda

Danielle Citron spoke with The New York Times about Facebook’s hate speech policies.

Dipayan Ghosh and Stephen Wicker reflect on Congress’ antitrust hearing

Structural racism can be combatted only if there is political will, not more data.

“We cannot build a healthy democracy on top of an ailing communication system”

Twitter’s QAnon response underlines “how powerful and unaccountable” companies are, evelyn douek says.

evelyn douek discusses Twitter’s recent plans to mitigate QAnon with Slate

Ethan Zuckerman discusses web search before Google with Gizmodo

Jonathan Zittrain, Danielle Citron, and Joan Donovan provide expert commentary

Bruce Schneier explains the recent Twitter hack

Apryl Williams, Mutale Nkonde, and Allissa V. Richardson speak at event

Elizabeth Renieris on social media platforms, their leaders, and democracy

Apryl Williams joins Slate podcast to discuss “The Karen”

Susan Benesch talks to The Guardian

Joan Donovan discusses new article on platform design and disinformation

Jenny Korn discusses the use of #BlackLivesMatter on social media

There’s no clear definition, and that’s worrisome, evelyn douek says.

Joan Donovan says social media sites can—and must—take action to control the content on their sites.

Apryl Williams explains that although memes are humorous, Karens and Kens of the world express a dangerous, audacious kind of White supremacy

evelyn douek joins Australian Broadcasting Corporation to discuss backlash over hate speech on social media

Jasmine McNealy says the U.S. Constitution needs to be understood within a power framework

Every plausible configuration of social media in 2020 is unpalatable, Jonathan Zittrain says.

Report features seven recommendations for Internet companies

Julia Reda comments on media literacy to combat disinformation

Apryl Williams discusses the historical context, significance of the ‘Karen Meme’

evelyn douek spoke to Australia’s Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media about misinformation.

Jonas Kaiser talks with German radio station about social media bots, his recent paper

Joan Donovan and Jonas Kaiser discuss challenges with studying automated bots on social media

Sorrow alone doesn’t tell the whole story, Desmond Patton says.

evelyn douek discusses content moderation and different types of speech

Mutale Nkonde joins panel to discuss data privacy, surveillance, sophisticated bots, racially biased tech and misinformation

Kishonna Gray discusses social media during the anti-racism movement

A forthcoming article by Danielle Citron lends insight to this question

Apryl Williams discusses how white allies can express solidarity without centering the conversations on themselves.

Joan Donovan talks to NPR about riot rumors and disinformation

Joan Donovan says misinformation about police brutality protests is being spread by the same sources as covid-19 denial.

Apryl Williams on how to make sense of memes as an act of resistance, and what it means to be a Ken

Joan Donovan talks with NBC News

Joan Donovan explains the power social media has in spreading misinformation

Ethan Zuckerman says evidentiary images on their own don’t bring about change. What’s missing is power.

Elizabeth Renieris spoke with Digital Privacy News about Facebook's small business grants program

Supercuts of police behavior are receiving enormous numbers of views.

Noa Gafni on how citizens are self-organizing during the COVID-19 crisis

Trump, Twitter, and the Public Interest

Though his executive order follows a line of misguided, bipartisan swings at the protections for online platforms, this one is distinctively terrible, John Bowers says.

Apryl Williams examines the Karen meme and what it tells us about criticism of privilege in the pandemic and Jessie Daniels discusses the history of white women in racial dynamics…

When a duly elected president is bent on spreading misinformation, tech companies can rein him in only so much, writes evelyn douek.

Joan Donovan weighs in on Twitter creating a carve-out for public leaders

We're turning to screens more than ever during the coronavirus pandemic. But what are the implications of spending so much time online?

Dipayan Ghosh explains why social media platforms need to be more transparent about their policies on politicians spreading misinformation.

The Harvard Law Professor and BKC director’s "Last Lecture"

Hyunjin Seo leads the research, forthcoming in the journal New Media & Society

Joan Donovan weighs in on targeted ads on social media

How the Adaptive Leadership Framework can help the international health community

Fear is the biggest motivator in spreading 'dangerous speech' in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, says BKC’s Susan Benesch

Zuckerman discusses the history of public broadcasting, and potential alternative models for the future.

evelyn douek interviews Craig Silverman, the media editor for Buzzfeed News, for the Lawfare Podcast.

As long as COVID-19 is a global concern, many aspects of daily life will be mediated by platform companies that see human interactions as content to be moderated, and as sources…

Mindy Seu talks about pursuing independent projects, the internet’s other histories and futures, archives, and spreadsheets with Frontier.

douek speaks with Columbia Journalism Review’s Mathew Ingram

evelyn douek explains Facebook’s Oversight Board

Chinmayi Arun says Oversight Board might be the most interesting development in social media self-regulation in a decade

A new paper co-authored by BKC affiliate Joan Donovan explores tactics of disinformation to show how platform design and decentralized communication contribute to advancing the…

Pandemic conspiracy theorists are using the Wayback Machine to promote “zombie content” that evades moderators and fact-checkers

Listen to the BKC affiliate on "In it Together" from WGBH

Lessons the WHO can take from the BBC messaging app

BKC’s Jenna Sherman discusses the work of the group she co-founded at Harvard, Students against COVID-19. 

Facebook and other platforms insisted that they didn’t want to be “arbiters of truth.” The coronavirus changed their mind overnight.

Danielle Citron on why technology’s promise is only as good as those who control it

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered an equally urgent digital rights crisis.

The pandemic lays bare the failure to quarantine online scams, hoaxes and lies amid political battles.

Journalists must cut through rampant disinformation around the pandemic to robustly report on efforts to suppress voting and delegitimize election results writes Joan Donovan

BKC affiliate Patrick Murck on why newly introduced bills creating a U.S. “Digital Dollar” as part of the coronavirus stimulus package would radically upend the banking and…

Joan Donovan on the dozens, if not hundreds of scams that have popped up online as quickly as the coronavirus itself

Danielle Allen describes how the US could use technology to ethically and democratically address both the public health emergency and economic crisis by scaling up "smart testing."

Two years after the assassination of Marielle Franco, BKC fellow and filmmaker Leonard Cortana reflects on the subject of his documentary

That’s a Dangerous Idea

How collaborative society has come to the rescue where late capitalism has failed.

Zeynep Tufekci says that’s not what they’re for

Yochai Benkler discusses why Trump’s loyalists benefited from having told people not to believe what they were hearing.

evelyn douek discusses content moderation and COVID-19

With many offices and schools now closed, people are seeking out human connection using the same online tools that have been widely criticized for fostering digital addiction and…

Rob Faris discusses the “politicization of public health”

evelyn douek on changes to content moderation on social media platforms as a result of the pandemic

Danielle Citron discusses misinformation about COVID-19

Racist incidents are increasing while Trump promotes racism by calling coronavirus ‘the Chinese virus’

BKC affiliate Elettra Bietti and Jennifer Cobbe argue that governments should strengthen the social safety net, not technology companies.

Facing the prospect that hoaxes or misinformation could worsen a global pandemic, tech platforms are taking control of the information ecosystem like never before.

America’s coronavirus response failed because we didn’t understand the complexity of the problem.

In Covid-19’s wake, uncertainty about the emerging outbreak has propagated mis- and disinformation across the internet. BKC's Hal Roberts weighs in.

BKC’s Dariusz Jemielniak on how "we can unite, rise up to the challenge and return stronger" despite the destruction caused by the pandemic

Despite heart-wrenching images in the media of people standing together and political calls for solidarity, the pandemic has laid bare the problems with globalisation and…

To help manage the shortage, the authorities sent a message that made them untrustworthy.

With millions on lockdown, Facebook and Twitter are major sources of Covid-19 news. They’re also where misinformation thrives. How can platforms step up?

Misleading text messages claiming that President Trump was going to announce a national quarantine buzzed into cellphones across the country over the weekend, underscoring how…

evelyn douek speaks with Kate Starbird, an expert in crisis informatics, or the study of how information flows during crisis events.

BKC affiliate Helmi Noman weighs in on a library filled with articles by censored journalists, hosted in the game Minecraft

BKC co-director Terry Fisher put together a must-read collection of resources for transitioning to online teaching, based on his experience teaching CopyrightX and other online…

Fellows Advisory Board member Judith Donath on the privilege of working online

Kathy Pham discusses the shift from in-person to Zoom

A video of Joe Biden that was deceptively edited to make it appear as if he endorsed President Donald Trump for re-election triggered warning labels from Twitter and Facebook

BKC affiliate Ryan Merkley on the importance of reliable access to knowledge when making important choices:

Dozens of public and private Facebook groups totaling hundreds of thousands of members have become a haven for conspiracy theories, medical equipment promotion and unproven cures.

Getting ready for the possibility of major disruptions is not only smart; it’s also our civic duty

The BKC affiliate reveals how social media is encouraging individual expression.

Video of a recent talk by Yochai Benkler at the Shorenstein Center

BKC affiliate Joan Donovan spoke at the Knight Media Forum

Julie Owono explains the concern over the law

BKC faculty associate Danielle Citron joins former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, director of the ACLU’s voting-rights initiative Dale Ho, and election law…

China’s use of surveillance and censorship makes it harder for Xi Jinping to know what’s going on in his own country.

The BKC faculty associate discusses the importance of meaningful interaction with the people behind data

Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center canvassed technology experts in the summer of 2019 to gain their insights about the potential future…

Leonard Cortana on why France’s entry for the Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards, Les Misérables, should be inscribed in the…

How can putting marginalized people at the very center of design and technology change the world for the better?

BKC faculty associate Jennifer Jenkins on the differences between European and US copyright law when it comes to the rights of musicians

Alex Stamos discusses his experience at Facebook handling 2016 election interference, as well as his work on cybersecurity, disinformation, and end-to-end encryption with evelyn…

evelyn douek urges transparency and accountability in industry-wide content removal decisions

Dariusz Jemielniak on a Chinese app that tracks the spread of the coronavirus.

Jonathan Zittrain argues that while platforms might consider labeling videos like these as manipulated, they should not remove them entirely.

Ethan Zuckerman at Cornell

Danielle Citron devised an eight-point plan for political campaigns to protect against fabricated video and audio

Taylor Lorenz shares her views on “Ok Boomer,” the “flattening” of politics by social media and the internet, and the causes of the United States’ internet regulation vacuum.

For those who want help finding out what’s true when it comes to the coronavirus, BKC affiliate Mary Minow says public libraries are a great resource.

The specificity of both Twitter and Facebook’s rules around disinformation leave room for known disinformation agents to work during elections, said Joan Donovan.

Don’t blame shadowy foreign hackers for the chaos in Iowa. Blame Shadow’s caucus app, says faculty associate Zeynep Tufekci.

Russell Newman joins Jasmine McNealy to dicuss his book, “The Paradoxes of Network Neutralities”

Leonard Cortana on the inadequate response of the French media to racist incidents

We asked members of Berkman Klein’s Misinformation Working Group their thoughts about misinformation and the virus.

Joan Donovan and Natalie Gyenes spoke to NBC News about the coronavirus and misinformation

Zenzele Best, Program Coordinator for Assembly: Disinformation, offers an inside look at the Assembly Student Fellowship.

evelyn douek weighed in on the upsides and shortcomings drawbacks of Facebook‘s new content moderation policy. 

Joan Donovan spoke to The Washington Post about the coronavirus and misinformation.

BKC fellow Mutale Nkonde in conversation about disinformation targeted towards Black communities.

The difference between the protections YouTube offers its advertisers and those it provides consumers is stark.

Ethan Zuckerman argues the case for Digital Public Infrastructure

Joan Donovan participated in a panel of scholars who study media manipulation, digital resources, and the spread of misinformation on how to spot “fake news” in an age of…

Joan Donovan talks with Mathew Ingram of Columbia Journalism Review

Ethan Zuckerman adds to the discussion about whether concerns about “time well spent” are overblown.

They’ll be controlled by foreign actors, domestic political groups, even the candidates themselves, says BKC fellow Bruce Schneier.

An interview with the documentary filmmaker and BKC fellow Leonard Cortana

Judith Donath’s work from 1998 on the effects of trolling on Usenet groups was highlighted in a recent Wired article on disinformation.

The most common concerns among health professionals when it comes to misinformation online is compliance with health treatments or prevention efforts.

Jasmine McNealy on why “context is ever more important in this era of data-driven elections, social media, and emerging technology.”

A Q&A with BKC faculty associate Sasha Costanza-Chock

Jonas Kaiser on what journalists can learn from the late 2000s when it comes to misinformation

Faculty associate james Wahutu on what he hopes media organizations in the U.S. and the UK will do in 2020.

BKC fellow discusses the role race plays in election interference efforts on the City on the Hill podcast.

Ethan Zuckerman imagines a different kind of Internet—one propelled by public concerns instead of the interests of large corporations.

Joan Donovan shares insights on a recently released report on high school students’ views on First Amendment protections

Radio and cable TV are bigger conduits for conspiracy theories.

Social-media giants can’t decide how far is too far, but a panel of regular people can.