NYU's Center for Social Media and Politics

Congrats to our former PhD student Nejla Asimovic on joining the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy as an assistant professor!

Here's my latest: a review of Renée DiResta's excellent new book on the digital information crisis, Invisible Rulers, courtesy of my friends at Just Security: https://lnkd.in/gsDizZC8

Most social media research focuses on platforms popular in the U.S. But in the rest of the world, information often reaches citizens through social messaging apps, particularly WhatsApp. Our experiment in Brazil found reducing WhatsApp activity reduced exposure to online misinformation, but didn't impact whether false news was believed, or reduce polarization. Read more from Tiago Ventura, Rajeshwari Majumdar, jonathan nagler, and Joshua Tucker at VoxDev.

Meta's decision to shut down CrowdTangle jeopardizes essential pre- and post-election oversight mechanisms and undermines transparency efforts during this critical period, and at a time when social trust and digital democracy are alarmingly fragile.

New! In this four-part series, Whitney Phillips, Alice Marwick, danah boyd, and Sareeta Amrute reflect on their influential work on mis- and disinformation in the context of today’s challenges, and lay out some essential questions and insights to bolster public discourse in fraught times. https://lnkd.in/eNMnCBpw

New in The Washington Post: research on a homegrown, alternative social media platform finds it to be useful, positive, and very valuable for communities. They are able to do this by breaking free of a business model that incentivizes unrestricted growth and engagement. Didn’t think that was possible with social media? You may have never heard of it, but Front Porch Forum is in every town in Vermont. And people really love it. From the new article by Will Oremus: "'I can’t imagine life in rural Vermont without FPF,' said Don Heise of Calais, Vt., (pop. 1,661 according to the 2020 U.S. census), who described it as 'the glue that holds our community together.'" Every post is read and vetted by a local human moderator before being published, which slows things down. There are no reaction buttons or instant comments. Local ads are targeted only by geography, as opposed to a surveillance-based business model. With our partners at the Center for Media Engagement - The University of Texas at Austin, we surveyed more than 13,000 FPF members and asked them about the platform’s performance, using our Civic Signals framework — 14 signals to guide the creation of healthy digital spaces. We found that FPF makes building community easier, from block parties to civic participation. Small interactions, like borrowing a ladder or getting a ride somewhere, build local social capital and cultivate a sense of community that benefits the whole neighborhood. Front Porch Forum proves that social media doesn’t have to be a toxic place that tears us apart. We can design and build digital public spaces that bring us together, if we choose to. 

There's been a groundswell of support for Kamala Harris on social media, and Zoom is even helping power her fundraising efforts. Our Faculty Research Affiliate Maggie Macdonald, PhD spoke to Inc. Magazine and Charlotte Hu about how the Harris campaign's strategy is helping her connect with new voters.

Will Kamala Harris memes translate to votes? Will the nationalization of elections turn off moderates? How will platforms handle election denialism? In part three of our series, jonathan nagler, Maggie Macdonald, and Megan Brown explain what they're watching this year. https://lnkd.in/gphUZrzf

Across platforms and media types, Kamala Harris memes have been taking over the internet. Zeve Sanderson spoke to Bloomberg about how campaigns leverage social media and whether these strategies are effective in influencing voter turnout 🥥 https://lnkd.in/gGgYGzjV