Misinformation Watchdogs Keep Failing Upward
Kate Starbird is a University of Washington professor and the main character of a recent 60 Minutes segment about the so-called spread of misinformation online. Starbird previously worked with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to flag purportedly inaccurate social media content for platform moderators, in explicit hopes that the platforms would remove said content. Yet she told CBS News that the real victims of censorship were researchers like herself, who face increasing scrutiny from conservative media and congressional Republicans.
“Are researchers being chilled?” asked 60 Minutes’ Lesley Stahl.
“Absolutely,” Starbird replied.
And yet, she continues to speak up. The National Press Club is hosting an event with her later this month; its purpose is to help equip journalists to counter the spread of “harmful mis- and disinformation, especially during times of crisis.” She will share the spotlight with Tamoa Calzaldilla, the editor in chief of Factchequeado, a group that combats misinformation aimed at Latinos. A PBS writeup of Factchequeado laments that Spanish-speaking immigrants from countries with “recent histories of authoritarianism, socialism, high inflation and election fraud may be more vulnerable to misinformation about those topics.” One wonders why immigrants fleeing inflation and socialist repression would be less informed on these subjects than native-born citizens; perhaps misinformation watchdogs are worried that Hispanic immigrants might simply disagree with the Democratic Party’s position on the extent of these problems?
In any case, the misinformation-fighting industry is growing bigger and bigger. CBS is set to debut a new program, CBS News Confirmed, entirely themed around preventing misinformation. The show will “identify and fight the spread of false stories, conspiracy theories and bad facts,” according to Variety.
Meanwhile, misinformation watchdog groups are pressuring social media companies to do more to combat AI-generated misinformation. Miles Taylor, a former DHS chief of staff—and author of the infamous “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” op-ed—who now works for an anti-misinfo tech group, told Axios that insufficient social media moderation was responsible for Donald Trump’s 2016 win.
Thanks to the Twitter Files, it’s now public knowledge that an army of federal bureaucrats pressured tech platforms to censor so-called misinformation related to elections, Hunter Biden, COVID-19, and other subjects. Whether these efforts violated the First Amendment is currently being sorted out by the
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