Decoding the Gurus

Interview with Renée DiResta: Online Ecosystems, Disinformation, & Censorship Debates

May 20, 2023

02:20:43

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Episode guests

Renée DiResta

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Introduction

3min

Elon Musk's Change in Twitter Algorithm

4min

Lex Friedman's Uncharacteristically Young Mindset

6min

The Narrative and Premises of Elon Musk

2min

The Real Anthony Fauci

3min

Lex's Worldview on the 2020 Election

4min

Lex Friedman: A Pledged Partisan

2min

The Best Interview Ever Happened on a Podcast

4min

How Did Russian Interference Manifest?

5min

10.

The Persuasion Dynamic of Twitter

4min

11.

The IRA's Dislike of Hillary Clinton

3min

12.

The Black, White, and Gray Propaganda Dynamic

4min

13.

The Unheard Voice Takedown

4min

14.

The Role of Automated Bots in Amplifying Messages

4min

15.

The Influence of Twitter on GPT Chat Clients

3min

16.

Twitter's API Access to Metrics

5min

17.

The Importance of Moderation in the Internet

4min

18.

How Facebook and Twitter Created a Moderation Framework to Promote Content

4min

19.

The Motor and the Motivations of Bad Actors

3min

20.

The Problem With Counter-Speech

4min

21.

The Foundation for Freedom Online's Rogan Report on the 2020 Election

5min

22.

The Rise of Censorship in Elections

3min

23.

The Heterodox Politics of Moderation

5min

24.

The Importance of Institutionalism in Debate

5min

25.

The Demand for Content Moderation

4min

26.

The Value of a Smaller Network

5min

27.

The Cascade of Influencers

2min

28.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Influencers

3min

29.

The Ecosystem of Propaganda

4min

30.

The Controversy Over Algebra

4min

31.

The Future of Twitter

4min

32.

The Importance of Values in Content Moderation

3min

33.

The Importance of Center Left Mom Identity

2min

34.

The Importance of Moderation in the 21st Century

2min

35.

How to Correct Your Pronunciation of the Metrics

2min

36.

The Unseen Truth About Mikdrop

2min

37.

The Right Word Drift in the American English Working Class Left

3min

38.

The Polite Conversations With Sam Harris

2min

39.

How to Be a Center Left Liberal

2min

40.

How to Be a Conspiracy Hypothesizer

4min

41.

How to Be a Guru Analyst

2min

We are joined by Renée DiResta a writer and researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory. Renée has done a lot of interesting work on disinformation and influence campaigns. Including leading an investigation into the Russian Internet Research Agency’s multi-year effort to manipulate American society in the lead-up to the 2016 election. More recently she was dubbed by the writer/conspiracy theorist, Michael Shellenberger, as the leader of 'The Censorship Industry'.

In short, Renée stands accused of serving as an agent of the Distributed Idea Suppression Complex defending the Gated Institutional Narrative. So being good DISC soldiers ourselves we had to follow our orders and host our exalted leader.

We discuss all of this with her and a range of other topics including how important algorithms and bots are in disinformation networks, whether contemporary influence campaigns are really anything new, and how to address debates around censorship and free speech.

We enjoyed the discussion a lot and are sure that you will too... or else...

Also covered in this episode: Eric Weinstein's suggestions for Twitter CEO, evidence of Lex Fridman's pilled brain, and a rather confusing review.

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