Election
By Steven Rosenfeld
Int
Will Take Many Forms This
A decade ago , when Kate Starbird dove into studying how rumors spread online and how people use social media to make sense of what is happening during crises , the future co-founder of the University of Washington ’ s Center for an Informed Public had no idea that she would become a target of the darker dynamics and behavior she was studying .
Starbird , a Stanford University computer science graduate who turned professional basketball player , had returned to academia as an expert in “ crisis informatics .” That emerging field looks at how people use online information and communication to respond to uncertain and chaotic events . Starbird initially looked at how social media could be helpful in crises . But she and her colleagues increasingly were drawn to how false rumors emerge and spread . They confirmed what many of us have long suspected . Mistaken online information tends to travel farther and faster than facts and corrections . “[ B ] reaking news ” accounts often magnify rumors . People who fall for bogus storylines might correct themselves , but not before spreading them .
Those insights were jarring enough . But as Starbird and her colleagues turned to tracking the post-2020 attacks on America ’ s elections by Donald Trump , copycat Republicans , and right-wing media , they were no longer looking at the dynamics of misinformation and disinformation from the safety of academia . By scrutinizing millions of tweets , Facebook posts , YouTube videos , and Instagram pages for misleading and unsubstantiated claims , and alerting the platforms and federal cybersecurity officials about the most troubling examples , Starbird and her peers soon found themselves in the crosshairs of arch Trump loyalists . They were targeted and harassed much like election officials across the country .
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