Social media platforms often promise that their main purpose is to connect people from different backgrounds, to help create greater mutual understanding. Unfortunately, what we have seen over the past several years is an increase in the use of disinformation and “algorithmic bubbles” to dramatically exacerbate real or perceived divisions, making it even more challenging to have substantiative discussions between people of opposing points of view. What are social media companies doing to fight disinformation and the weaponization of their platforms, and is it working? More important, is it enough?
Toussaint Nothias, Associate Director of Research at Stanford University’s Digital Civil Society Lab, will moderate this panel where speakers Nate Persily, the James B. Clatchy Professor of Law at Stanford University, Sarah Shirazyan, content policy manager, Misinformation and Algorithm, Meta will come together to talk about the ongoing digital challenges that continue to inflame a divided world.