Research

UW Center for an Informed Public January 2020-Present

• Combining interventions to reduce the spread of viral misinformation: A study looking at how different combinations of simulated platform interventions impact the levels of misinformation spread on that platform. Published at Nature Human Behavior on June 23, 2022.
• Repeat Spreaders and Election Delegitimization: A Comprehensive Dataset of Misinformation Tweets from the 2020 U.S. Election: A study which examined a novel dataset of millions of misinformation-related tweets about the 2020 U.S. presidential election and analyzed the strikingly important role of repeat spreaders of misinformation within online conversations. Published at the Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media on June 21, 2022.
• “Censorship-free” platforms: Evaluating content moderation policies and practices of alternative social media: A comparative study of platform speech policies across the "Big Tech"-"alt-tech" divide. Published at for(e)dialogue on January 31, 2022.

I completed my undergraduate thesis with the Center for an Informed Public, specifically looking at how Twitter users change their behavior after receiving a spike in attention. An early version of this research, which I plan to continue to pursue, is available here.

Election Integrity Partnership, September 2020 - December 2020

I worked as an analyst helping to rapidly respond to misinformation and disinformation that would undermine the legitimacy of the 2020 US elections. This included helping to write our cumulative report, The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election. Additional articles which I contributed to include:

• Inconsistencies in state-controlled Media Labeling: an examination of to what extent major social media platforms label government-affiliated media outlets
• Vote Data Patterns used to Delegitimize the Election Results: a fact-check of a misleading narrative about statistical evidence of voter fraud.
• Weaponizing projections as tools of election delegitimization: An analysis of how projected election results were being used to delegitimize election outcomes when they were in conflict with the projected results.
• Project Veritas #BallotHarvesting Amplification: An analysis of the spread of a misleading video from Project Veritas alleging ballot harvesting by Democrats in Minnesota.
• Emerging Narratives Around ‘Mail Dumping’ and Election Integrity: An analysis of narratives early in the election cycle of dumped ballots and how these narratives were used to cast doubt on mail-in-voting as a safe voting method.
• Repeat Offenders: Voting Misinformation on Twitter in the 2020 United States Election: An analysis of frequent sources of misleading election-related information on Twitter.

The Virality Project, January 2021 - August 2021

I worked as an analyst to rapidly respond to anti-vaccine misinformation, particularly in the context of the coronavirus vaccines. Articles which I contributed to include:

• Content moderation avoidance strategies: An examination of how anti-vaccine activists use different tactics to avoid moderation by major social media platforms.
• Mark of the Beast meets Vaccine Passports: A fact-check of a misinformation instance which alleged that the vaccines were the "Mark of the Beast," as described by Marjorie Taylor Greene.
• The Vaccine Passport Narrative in Vaccine Hesitant Communities: An early analysis article explaining conspiracy beliefs and disinformation surrounding the concept of 'vaccine passports.'