Playing whack-a-troll with our democracy
Disinformation is a growing business that brings up a lot of questions. Is that fake news story getting to your timeline from a troll farm in Russia? Or a teenage contractor a few states over? More importantly, who is actually making money off this?
On today’s show, we’re joined by Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation fellow at the Wilson Center and the author of the book “How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News and the Future of Conflict.” She’ll help us dive into this ever-evolving ecosystem and explain its ripple effects. Hint: We might want to be concerned about our democracy.
Later, we’ll talk about vaccines and the disinformation around them, plus more of your ideas for a term to use when people get misled by the internet. Finally, roboticist Ayanna Howard answers the Make Me Smart question.
Here’s everything we talked about today:
- “Facebook Groups Are Destroying America,” which Jankowicz wrote for Wired
- “Facebook bans marketing firm running ‘troll farm’ for pro-Trump youth group” from The Washington Post
- “Disinformation For Hire: How A New Breed Of PR Firms Is Selling Lies Online” from BuzzFeed News
- “Facebook, Twitter dismantle global array of disinformation networks” from Reuters
- “A Dose of Optimism, as the Pandemic Rages On” from The New York Times
- “Facebook says it will finally ban anti-vaccination ads” from CNBC
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