Kate Starbird
University of Washington, USA.
[Opening] Revealing the “Big Lie”: Collaborative Data Science for Rapid Response to Online Disinformation
In this talk, I’ll present preliminary research results from ongoing efforts to understand the spread of disinformation about the 2020 Election. First, I’ll describe the mission, structure, and everyday work practices of the Election Integrity Partnership — a multi-stakeholder collaboration that addressed mis- and disinformation about the 2020 U.S. election in (near) real-time through rapid response data science. Next, I’ll take you through some of our analyses to show how the “Big Lie” — the sustained effort to sow doubt in the results of the 2020 election — took shape on social media platforms throughout the latter half of 2020, coalesced into the #StopTheSteal movement, and eventually motivated and helped to mobilize the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. I’ll highlight the participatory nature of this disinformation campaign and reveal some of the “super spreader” accounts that helped produce and sustain it. Finally, I’ll note how some of the social media platforms have evolved their strategies to address this kind of disinformation and wrap up by talking about what might come next, both in terms of platform policies and future collaborations for rapid response to disinformation.
Kate Starbird is an Associate Professor at the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) at the University of Washington (UW). Kate’s research is situated within human-computer interaction and the emerging field of crisis informatics—the study of the how social media and other information-communication technologies are used during crisis events. Currently, her work focuses on the production and spread of online rumors, misinformation, and disinformation in the context of crisis events. Professor Starbird received her BS in Computer Science from Stanford (1997) and her PhD in Technology, Media and Society from the University of Colorado (2012). In 2019, she co-founded the UW Center for an Informed Public.
Shalini Kantayya
7th Empire Media
[Closing] Beyond Coded Bias: Data Rights as Human Rights
What happens to human rights when we let machines encroach on our social systems? Is our technology truly designed to be neutral? SHALINI KANTAYYA’s latest film Coded Bias—now streaming on Netflix—explores the intersection of innovation and ethics. Dubbed “the most important film about AI you can watch today,” Coded Bias disrupts the default belief that AI, science, and technology are inherently impartial, and instead, illuminates key questions about racial bias in tech that we’ve never thought to ask before. In this dynamic multi-media presentation, the award-winning director takes us on her journey to make her groundbreaking film, and illuminating a path towards greater inclusion, ethics, and humanity in the AI technologies that will define the future.
Filmmaker Shalini Kantayya’s, Coded Bias, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. Coded Bias was broadcast nationally on Emmy-award winning series Independent Lens and will stream on Netflix globally in Spring 2021. The film won a SIMA Award for Best Director, and has been nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award, and a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Documentary, among others.
Shalini’s debut feature, Catching the Sun, premiered at the LA Film Festival and was named a NY Times Critics’ Pick. Catching the Sun released globally on Netflix on Earth Day 2016 with Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio, and was nominated for the Environmental Media Association Award for Best Documentary. She directed the season finale of the National Geographic television series Breakthrough, Executive Produced by Ron Howard, broadcast globally in June 2017. She has also directed for NOVA and YouTube Originals.
Shalini is a TED Fellow, a William J. Fulbright Scholar, and an Associate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
