What You See Below Isn't Fake News. Sorry, Can't Say the Same About What I Can See in My Media Feed Today

Misinformation is hyperlocal. Attempts to counter it should be, too.

Writing in Foreign Policy, I argued that existing efforts to combat misinformation in the United States miss the point. The nature of misinformation is almost always local, and so countering it involves knowing which communities are most vulnerable. The chart above shows the U.S. states most at risk of misinformation campaigns in the upcoming presidential election and beyond. For more on the index behind the chart, read my full argument, here: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/20/the-case-against-big-techs-election-strategies/

Authorities ramp up fight against misinformation and voter suppression

As Election Day nears, those indictments are part of a broad effort across numerous states to combat a range of last-minute tactics that campaigns may try and use to trick or intimidate people who plan to vote. Election officials are especially focused on the unique aspects of the 2020 elections -- as voters may be navigating unfamiliar new ways to cast ballots safely amid the pandemic. Bhaskar Chakravorti, the dean of global business at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, told ABC News that this year has been the "perfect storm" for misinformation.

"We are in the middle of a pandemic which has been accompanied by its own surge of misinformation and now we are in the last stages in the countdown to the election," Chakravorti said. "Those parts of the country that are more important for election outcomes are going to be bombarded by misinformation."

For the rest of my interview with ABC News, see here: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/authorities-ramp-fight-misinformation-voter-suppression/story?id=73886756

Politically, New Hampshire Is Vulnerable To Misinformation, Researchers Say

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive,” said Sir Walter Scott in 1808.

Two centuries later, misinformation threatens to overwhelm our political discourse. “It’s scary,” said Bhaskar Chakravorti, the dean of Global Business at the Tufts Fletcher School who heads a team that has produced a Misinformation Vulnerability Index, ranking the states by how gullible they are to lies and fakery. For the rest of my interview with CBS News Boston, see here: https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/10/28/jon-keller-at-large-tufts-university-political-misinformation-new-hampshire/

Some states more likely to be hit with misinformation during election

As the end of an incredibly contentious and the heated 2020 election season ends, new research suggests that Americans are more susceptible to falling prey to disinformation depending on which state they call home.

For months, Bhaskar Chakravorti and his team at the Global Business School at Tufts University have been analyzing how misinformation has been spreading during this election cycle. Where a person lives often makes them a higher target to everything from fake Facebook accounts to fake Twitter accounts and even fake headlines.

"We are in extremely more dangerous territory now than we were two years ago," Chakravorti explained.

For more on how we took our story to cities and states across the country, see here: https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/election-2020/some-states-more-likely-to-be-hit-with-misinformation-during-election

The Misinformation Maelstrom: A Mapping of Vulnerability Across America

The two major political parties in the United States are in an all-out sprint leading up to the presidential election. Neither has had a shortage of digital mediums to amplify their views to the public. The American public’s increased reliance on social media as a source of news is worrisome because of the propensity of these platforms to spread misinformation. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated this trend, tethering people ever more to their personal electronic devices and fostering a boom of both digital crime and misinformation.

For the rest of our study, part of our Imagining a Digital Economy for All IDEA 2030 research initiative done in collaboration with the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and supported by the Mastercard Impact Fund, see here: https://sites.tufts.edu/digitalplanet/the-misinformation-maelstrom-a-mapping-of-vulnerability-across-america/

A special shout out to our amazing research team: Joseph Dunbar, Heidy Acevedo, Henry Fernandez, Mariam Amini, Christina Filipovic, Joy Zhang and Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi.