The Spread of False News on Twitter

Social networks polarize communities and spread misinformation. Professor Sinan Aral, director of MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy and author of The Hype Machine, joins Azeem Azhar to explore what makes these networks so powerful and how we can engineer our way to a healthier online ecosystem.

They also discuss:

• Why powerful “network effects” lead to social media monopolies.
• Why forcing interoperability and “identity porting” is the key to healthy competition.
• Why repealing Section 230 of the (U.S.) Communications Decency Act of 1996 would be a disaster for free expression on the internet.

@sinanaral
@azeem
@ExponentialView

Further resources:

• “Can We Amplify the Good and Contain the Bad of Social Media?” (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2020)
• “Humans, not bots, are to blame for spreading false news on Twitter” (Wired, 2018)
• “How We Can Protect Truth in the Age of Misinformation” (TEDxCERN, 2018)

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