Can Social Media Fix Its Misinformation Problem?
A Q&A with researcher Renee DiResta on how anti-vax campaigners took over Facebook and what government regulators can learn from the “Birds Aren’t Real” fake-conspiracy theory phenomenon.
Facebook has a new name, but the same problems.
Photographer: CHRIS DELMAS/AFP
This is one of a series of interviews by Bloomberg Opinion columnists on how to solve the world’s most pressing policy challenges. It has been edited for length and clarity. This interview was broadcast Dec. 15 on Twitter Spaces.
Parmy Olson: Among the biggest public-policy questions facing the technology industry is whether social-media companies should be held accountable for the spread of harmful content online. You’re the technical director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and have spent years studying how misinformation and conspiracy theories gain traction, including Russia’s influence campaign during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. It would be great to learn a little bit about how you got into this area of research. You previously worked in venture capital and then helped run a logistics startup in San Francisco. Then, almost as a side hobby, you started tracking misinformation online and were advising Congress. How did you develop this obsession?