Misleading content surrounding the Israel-Hamas conflict is running rampant online and some social media companies are now stepping up efforts to counter this misinformation. Last week, the European Union warned social media companies, like Tik Tok, Meta and X, that they risked breaching the bloc’s content moderation laws, according to CNN. Recently, both Tik Tok and Meta announced measures to crack down on misinformation.
If you’re looking for more context on the matter, please consider David Broniatowski, an associate professor of engineering management and systems engineering and the associate director for the Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics at the George Washington University. Broniatowski is also GW’s lead principal investigator of a newly launched, NSF-funded institute called TRAILS that explores trustworthy AI. He conducts research in decision making under uncertainty, collective decision making, the design and regulation of complex information flow systems, and how behavior spreads online.
Recently, he published a study in Science Advances surrounding misinformation and effective policies related to the Covid-19 pandemic. The research team analyzed Facebook’s efforts to combat Covid-19 vaccine misinformation during the pandemic and found that not only were Facebook’s policies not effective in combating misinformation, but that Facebook’s efforts were undermined by the core design features of the platform itself.
Broniatowski can discuss a number of topics related to combating misinformation online, including the challenges of tackling misinformation and how messages spread.
If you would like to speak with Prof. Broniatowski, please contact GW Senior Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass at [email protected].
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