News coverage from September 2022 about the Center for an Informed Public and CIP-affiliated research and researchers.
- The Seattle Times (Sept. 2): “Facebook parent company repeatedly violated WA campaign finance law”
In an article about a King County Superior Court ruling that found that Meta’s Facebook had repeatedly violated long-standing Washington state’s political ad transparency law, The Seattle Times notes that reporting by Eli Sanders, a long-time Seattle journalist and current CIP legal fellow, had led to the state’s original litigation against Meta which had sought to have the state’s political ad transparency law invalidated.
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- KUOW (Sept. 12): “Washington judge finds Facebook violated campaign disclosure law”
CIP legal fellow Eli Sanders was interviewed in a KUOW’s Soundside segment about a King County Superior Court judge’s ruling that found that Meta’s Facebook had repeatedly violated Washington state’s long-standing political ad transparency law.
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- Agence France Press (Sept. 14): “Memes share fake Queen Elizabeth II quote about Hillary Clinton”
CIP research scientist Mike Caulfield was interviewed in a APF factcheck article examining memes that share a fake quote from the late Queen Elizabeth II about Hillary Clinton. “The ‘Clinton Body Count’ is one of the simplest misinformation games out there, which gives it high participatory potential and a lot of engagement,” Caulfield said.
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- The Washington Post (Sept. 20): “Trump’s ‘big lie’ fueled a new generation of social media influencers”
CIP director Kate Starbird, a UW Human Centered Design & Engineering associate professor, was interviewed by The Washington Post in an investigation into how the “Big Lie” has fueled a new generation of social media influencers. “Once they’ve gained a level of influence, they can continue to leverage that influence going forward,” Starbird said. “Manipulation becomes embedded in the network.”
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- Grid News (Sept. 21) “A federal court’s ruling on Texas social media law could upend the internet as we know it”
CIP co-founder Ryan Calo, a UW School of Law professor, was interviewed about a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding a Texas state law that would prevent social media companies from removing content due to political viewpoint. “If you’re trying to clean up your platform of misinformation or toxic language or just incivility or whatever it is you’re trying to do, even if you make a mistake, you’re immunized under Section 230,” Calo told Grid. “So I cannot imagine why Texas believes that it could apply this law consistent with Section 230.”
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- Tech Policy Press (Sept. 22): “Video headlines served by Google a ‘notable pathway’ to content that may undermine trust in elections, say researchers”
Tech Policy Press featured a paper co-authored by a team of CIP-affiliated researchers co-led by UW HCDE doctoral student Himanshu Zade and UW Political Science doctoral student Morgan Wack, and published in the Journal of Online Trust & Safety, where they investigated “whether and potentially how Google served as a gateway to content that may have undermined trust in election processes, institutions, and results.”
