-
Oct 17, 2024 | 
cigionline.org | Samuel Woolley
With all of the hype about artificial intelligence (AI) in recent years, it can be difficult to distinguish genuine uses of the technology from wishful marketing. This uncertainty is heightened in the political space, which thrives on its own ecology of spin. While campaigns and candidates might claim they’re making use of state-of-the-art technologies for analysis and outreach to voters, the truth is less clear — and often deliberately obscured.
-
Jun 12, 2024 | 
misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu | Samuel Woolley |Josephine Lukito
Peer Reviewed Article Metrics We applied a mixed-methods approach with the goal of understanding how Latinx and Asian diaspora communities perceive and experience the spread of misinformation through encrypted messaging apps in the United States.
-
Nov 29, 2023 | 
cigionline.org | César Romero |Samuel Woolley
Ecuador is living through its most violent period in recent history. From January to August 2023, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported more than 4,200 violent deaths in the country. That is four times the number recorded in 2019. Just 11 days before the country’s general elections in mid-August, presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio was assassinated as he left a campaign rally.
-
Jul 11, 2023 | 
nytimes.com | Samuel Woolley
Guest EssayBy Samuel WoolleyDr. Woolley is the author of “Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity.”Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. The Cambodian People’s Party created its Cyber War Room about a decade ago. The goal was to support Prime Minister Hun Sen’s regime through social media propagandizing.
-
Mar 28, 2023 | 
democracyparadox.com | Samuel Woolley
Samuel Woolley is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and the project director for propaganda research at the Center for Media Engagement. His most recent book is Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity. Become a Patron!Make a one-time Donation to Democracy Paradox.
-
Mar 15, 2023 | 
democracyjournal.org | Samuel Woolley
Carla is a 20-year-old Mexican-American college student living in San Antonio, Texas, who participated in a study run by my research lab. Like many people in the United States who have roots—and family and friends—in Latin America, WhatsApp is her social media platform of choice. The end-to-end encrypted chat application, first released in 2009 and acquired by Meta in 2014, is hugely popular among the U.S. Latino community.
-
Mar 15, 2023 | 
democracyjournal.org | Claire Wardle |Samuel Woolley
I sat down to write this piece almost six years to the day since Facebook announced its Third Party Fact-Checking Program. While we now take for granted the pop-up labels we regularly see on different platforms that provide more context on content, this Facebook partnership with four U.S.-based fact-checking organizations marked the first time a platform had intervened to warn users about the veracity of content.
-
Mar 7, 2023 | 
portside.org | Jessica Corbett |Chauncey DeVega |Samuel Woolley |Kyle Pope
UN: Digital Space Needs a Feminist RevolutionBanning TikTokIs Fox News Finished? Automated Influencers20 Years of Brasil de FatoDeSantis’s Media DystopiaApple vs ChatGPTAn Ominous Law in UtahIntroducing L!NXIs Software a Means of Production? UN: Digital Space Needs a Feminist RevolutionUN High Commissioner for Human RightsAccording to UN Women, 85 percent of women have witnessed digital violence against other women, while 38 percent of women have personally experienced online violence.
-
Mar 7, 2023 | 
gulfnews.com | Samuel Woolley
Washington: Over the past 11 months, someone created thousands of fake, automated Twitter accounts — perhaps hundreds of thousands of them — to offer a stream of praise for Donald Trump. Besides posting adoring words about the former president, the fake accounts ridiculed Trump's critics from both parties and attacked Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador who is challenging her onetime boss for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
-
Mar 2, 2023 | 
cigionline.org | Samuel Woolley
Social media companies make nearly all their income from advertisements, and by definition, the motivation of an advertisement is to change behaviour. The following is adapted from Manufacturing Consensus: Understanding Propaganda in the Era of Automation and Anonymity, by Samuel Woolley, published on January 31 by Yale University Press. Copyright © 2023 Yale University Press. Reprinted by permission of Yale University Press.
