Big, If True Webinar: Fighting a Two-Front War: Censorship and Disinformation in Southeast Asia

In this episode of BIG, If True, we’ll reflect on the hybrid battles being waged by journalists, activists, and dissidents against censorship and disinformation in Southeast Asia. The discussion will trace the genesis of the recent attacks on the freedom to expression, from the rise and fall of the Anti-Fake News Act in Malaysia to […]

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Canaries in the Coal Mine: COVID-19 Misinformation and Black Communities

Even as Black people are disproportionately dying from the virus due to systemic racism, harmful inaccuracies about COVID-19 are metastasizing in Black online spaces. Using multi-site digital ethnography, Shorenstein Center Fellow Brandi Collins-Dexter tracked and identified the spread of this disinformation, and makes recommendations on how to combat it.

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America’s Economic Experience

Tuesday, June 23, 2020 – The Shorenstein Center hosted a conversation with Tara Westover, author of the award winning memoir, Educated, Gene Sperling, author of the new book Economic Dignity and Former Director of the National Economic Council For Presidents Clinton and Obama, and Setti Warren, Executive Director of the Shorenstein Center, on what’s really happening economically to people in communities

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Terms of Disservice Book Launch

Monday, June 15, 2020 – The Shorenstein Center hosted an online book launch for Terms of Disservice, authored by senior fellow and co-director of the Digital Platforms & Democracy Project, Dipayan Ghosh. The event featured Shorenstein Center director Nancy Gibbs, former Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign manager and HKS Defending Digital Democracy program director Robby Mook, and Politico chief technology correspondent Mark Scott, discussing

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Big, If True Webinar: Beyond Cyberspace: Security in a Networked World

Friday, June 12, 2020 – In this episode, BIG, If True welcomes Lodrina Cherne, a digital forensics expert and Instructor at the SANS Institute in conversation with Joseph Menn, an investigative reporter on Cybersecurity at Reuters and Josephine Wolff, PhD an assistant professor of cybersecurity policy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. In this moment of

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Terms of Disservice – Book Launch Event

The Shorenstein Center will host an online book launch for Terms of Disservice, authored by senior fellow and co-director of the Digital Platforms & Democracy Project, Dipayan Ghosh. The event will feature Shorenstein Center director Nancy Gibbs, former Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign manager and HKS Defending Digital Democracy program director Robby Mook, and Politico chief

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Access to and belief in accurate COVID-19 information varies, according to new survey

The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States’ latest survey results show decreasing trust in government institutions and the police to handle the COVID-19 outbreak, and increasing partisan divides in opinions about the response. In a new feature of the survey, they found that misperceptions about how COVID-19 spreads and can be

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A Black Lives Matter protest in the wake of George Floyd's killing

This is a Moment of Generational Change for Black People – If We Learn the Lessons of the Past

This commentary by Executive Director Setti Warren was first published in The Telegraph (UK) on June 5, 2020. We are living at a time of generational change and if we embrace principles from previous movements, we can alter the lives of future generations.

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Big, If True Webinar: Beyond Cyberspace: Security in a Networked World

This week, BIG, If True, welcomes Lodrina Cherne, a digital forensics expert and Instructor at the SANS Institute in conversation with Joseph Menn, an investigative reporter on Cybersecurity at Reuters and Josephine Wolff, PhD an assistant professor of cybersecurity policy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. In this moment of unrest,

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Photo of a Black Lives Matter protest in Minneapolis, 2020

George Floyd protests highlight the deep racial disparities in the US

(This article by Shorenstein Center Executive Director Setti Warren first appeared in the UK’s The Telegraph on May 31, 2020.) In February of 1968 the Kerner Commission report was released…to understand the causes of the 1967 race riots in the United States and provide recommendations for the future. The recent killing of George Floyd shines a light on the fact that more than 50 years later, our cities find themselves in much the same circumstances.

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Big, If True Webinar: Science is Politics by Other Means

Friday, May 29, 2020 – In this episode of BIG, If True we’ll discuss the politicization of science and technology, looking closely at controversies about preprints, scientific articles posted to archives before they have been peer reviewed. In recent months, preprints have become a prefered way to get new findings into the hands of other scientists quickly,

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State Results of May Survey Show 60% of Americans Support Expanding Vote by Mail

The second round of a multi-university project to survey people in all 50 states about their opinions on the COVID-19 pandemic response focused on public opinion around increasing access to vote by mail (VBM) for the upcoming Presidential elections. 60% of respondents across all 50 states said they support making it easier to vote by

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Understanding Misinformation on Mobile Instant Messengers (MIMs) in Developing Countries

This mixed-methods research project in Nigeria, India, and Pakistan consisted of surveys, survey experiments, and semi-structured interviews, designed to better understand the spread and impact of misinformation, and in particular of misinformation on mobile messaging apps (MIMs).

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New Round of COVID-19 Survey Shows Continued High Support for Policies, Increasing Partisan Divides

The second round of the multi-university project to survey public opinion on COVID-19 response measures in all 50 states was released today. It shows continued high rates of support for state government responses to the crisis, as well as for continued strong measures to keep the pandemic from spreading. The survey was conducted between May

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Big, If True Webinar: Science is Politics by Other Means

In this episode of BIG, If True we’ll discuss the politicization of science and technology, looking closely at controversies about preprints, scientific articles posted to archives before they have been peer reviewed. In recent months, preprints have become a prefered way to get new findings into the hands of other scientists quickly, allowing researchers around

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Big, If True Webinar: The Trouble with Science

Friday, May 15, 2020 – This week on BIG, If True our host Joan Donovan dives into the promises and perils of communicating science to public audiences. While trust in our politicians and the press has waned in recent years, trust in scientists has remained remarkably steady. However, as we chart out new uncertainties and complex facts

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Big, If True Webinar: Commercial Content Moderation during the Pandemic

Friday, May 8, 2020 – In this week’s episode of BIG, If True, our host Joan Donovan, PhD asks: should we trust our search engines? Have joint industry efforts – led by Facebook, Google, Microsoft, YouTube, Twitter, Reddit and LinkedIn – to limit misinformation been successful? How are new content policies specific to COVID-19 being enforced? And if so, at what

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