With the Russian Invasion of Ukraine taking place this past week, Putin has triggered the greatest military crisis on the European continent since the Cold War. Over this time the global stage has …
Your Political Beliefs May Be Programmed
We’ve all seen it – fake social media accounts blasting blatant disinformation and propaganda. Your uncle Bill retweets them and your cousin Sally shares their links on Facebook, but they don’t know …
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Internet Freedom in Democracies: Too Much or Too Little?
Since social media's rise in the early 2000s, the world has witnessed the rise and fall of big tech’s claim to aid democracy through increased freedom of expression. This issue begs the question: is …
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How Misinformation Can Be Utilized to Promote Democratic Erosion
While in the past, authoritarians might have dealt with reality problems by manipulating media into serving their interests—and some still do—today, misinformation is a valuable way for authoritarians …
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From a Covid Crisis to a Vaccine Crisis: The Case in Iran
There is clear cut evidence, both in reports on democracy and through empirical evidence from around the globe, that the trend of the world is in the direction of autocracy, away from the considered …
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Social Media Bans in Iran
On January 15, 2021, a popular messaging app called Signal, crashed globally. After WhatsApp altered its privacy agreement to share its data with Facebook, Signal saw a surge of new users, prompting …
Saudi Government Social Media Manipulation
Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist and Saudi regime critic, was murdered on October 2nd, 2018 by the Saudi Arabian government inside a Turkish Consulate. Fumbling for a secure alibi that did not exist, the …
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Don’t Trust the Mass Media! Don’t Trust Misinformation! Don’t Trust?
The specter of the mainstream media is worrisome and even more so when hearing about the growing concentration of media under a few corporations[1]. There are also issues of misinformation and …
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