Disinformation Can Have Real World Impact

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I think it's been difficult sometimes for the research community to convince people that disinformation can have real world impact. We've seen, of course, that those movements can lead to large scale, organized, violent action. And i think obviously, january sixth is kind of evidence that this build up of people's deep seated beliefs would genuinely be stolen. If you genuinely believed that that your rightful vote and your rightful majority was literally denied its rightful democratic outcome,. I certainly at least to voice myself. It wouldn't be so far to say i would show up at the capital. Now, would i storm at and break into it? Wat yptize? No.

Disinformation researchers have been fighting two battles over the last decade: one to combat and contain harmful information, and one to convince the world that these manipulations have an offline impact that requires complex, nuanced solutions. Camille François, Chief Information Officer at the cybersecurity company Graphika and an affiliate of the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, believes that our common understanding of the problem has recently reached a new level. In this interview, she catalogues the key changes she observed between studying Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and helping convene and operate the Election Integrity Partnership watchdog group before, during and after the 2020 election. “I'm optimistic, because I think that things that have taken quite a long time to land are finally landing, and because I think that we do have a diverse set of expertise at the table,” she says. Camille and Tristan Harris dissect the challenges and talk about the path forward to a healthy information ecosystem.