The authoritative guide to ensuring science and technology make life on Earth better, not worse.

social media

The layered, Swiss cheese model for mitigating online misinformation

By Leticia Bode, Emily Vraga | Disruptive Technologies

Meme Warfare: AI countermeasures to disinformation should focus on popular, not perfect, fakes

By Michael Yankoski, Walter Scheirer, Tim Weninger | Disruptive Technologies

Supporters of US President Donald Trump, including member of the QAnon conspiracy group Jake A, aka Yellowstone Wolf (C), enter the US Capitol on Wednesday. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

Instead of reforming Facebook, should we just build something else?

By Matt Field | Disruptive Technologies

CDC director Robert Redfield CNN coronavirus interview Sanjay Gupta

Did former CDC director offer a ham sandwich theory of COVID-19? Maybe. Maybe not.

By Thomas Gaulkin | Biosecurity

Russian opposition leader Alexy Navalny.

YouTube and other foreign tech companies bow to Kremlin pressure amid Navalny protests

By Justin Sherman | Disruptive Technologies

Donald Trump meets with Mark Zuckerberg.

The pandemic, protests, and election are putting social media content policies under a microscope

By Justin Sherman | Technology and Security

Kids are drawing pictures of the new coronavirus. That’s a good thing.

By Thomas Gaulkin | Biosecurity, Multimedia

Computer code on world map.

Online disinformation and emerging tech: Are democracies at risk?

By Brad Allenby | Disruptive Technologies

Cardboard cutouts of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood outside the US Capitol on April 10, 2018, placed there by the advocacy group Avaaz to call attention to fake accounts spreading disinformation on Facebook. Credit: Kevin Wolf/AP images for AVAAZ

Why Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are bad for the climate

By Dawn Stover | Climate Change, Columnists

The Kingsbury was one of the Sri Lankan hotels and churches targeted by suicide bombers on April 21. Credit: AKS.9955 via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped.

Sri Lanka blocked Facebook after the Easter bombings, but was social media really a problem?

By Matt Field | Analysis, Disruptive Technologies

Flowers outside a mosque in New Zealand to commemorate the victims of an attack on two mosques that killed 50 people. Credit: Mike Dickison via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 4.0. (Edited)

Should tech executives do hard time for violent content posted to their platforms?

By Matt Field | Disruptive Technologies, What We’re Reading

Illustration by Matt Field. Based in part on photo by FFCU CC BY-SA 2.0.

Former Israeli spies get involved in US elections as information warriors

By Matt Field | Disruptive Technologies, What We’re Reading