A new study finds that fact-checking often has limited coverage, arrives too late, and reaches too few people to keep up with political misinformation. Corrections can still provide useful information, but they often don't reach enough people in time to have their greatest impact.

Political Fact-Checking Efforts are Constrained by Deficiencies in Coverage, Speed, and Reach

Fact-checking has been promoted as a key method for combating political misinformation. Comparing the spread of election-related misinformation narratives along with their relevant political fact-c...

tandfonline.com

New study from Kenya finds a deepfake's impact depends not just on the video itself, but also on the comments surrounding it. They found that skeptical comments reduced the deepfake's influence, while comments that didn't question its authenticity made it more persuasive.

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Today is the opening day of the #World #Cup. ⚽ I'm super excited to announce our passion project paper (with Thomas Schincariol and @morganwack.bsky.social), "Football Empires: Simulating the Effects of Colonialism on the 2026 World Cup"! Check it out here: doi.org/10.31235/osf... (see more info👇)

I’ve spent the last few months talking to misinfo/disinfo researchers about how generative AI is changing the field. One takeaway: It’s not just changing the scale of the problem but also how researchers are studying it. Story in @science.org is here and 🧵 with some takeaways this weekend: 🧪

To misinformation researchers, AI is a scourge—and a powerful new tool

Surge in generative AI is upending a field that was just finding its feet

science.org

📢 Call for Papers: first Annual Digital Publics Conference 📅 21–23 October 2026 | Digital Society Initiative, University of Zurich 👉 To submit: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/BxVnAMyxNh ❗Deadline for abstract submissions is 31 May 2026❗Acceptance notifications will be sent by early july.

Looking for something to read after the long week? Check out our new preprint "Fact-Checks Can Help Inoculate LLMs Against Disinformation"! osf.io/preprints/so... Read a brief summary below -> /1

📊 New preprint with @evavogel.bsky.social @morganwack.bsky.social @esserfrank.bsky.social: we tested whether you can batch-classify multiple texts in a single LLM prompt without losing coding accuracy. Short answer: yes, up to about 100 items per prompt. Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2604.03684

Researchers waste 80% of LLM annotation costs by classifying one text at a time

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly being used for text classification across the social sciences, yet researchers overwhelmingly classify one text per variable per prompt. Coding 100,000 te...

arxiv.org

Today, we presented the main results of the mental health days study 2025 (N = 8.177). Results > In May 2025, Austria implemented a nationwide smartphone-ban at schools > Compared to 2024, smartphone use went down by 30 mins > Life satisfaction went up (5.36 to 5.52) > Depression sank (15% to 12%)

Interesting unpacking of deepfakes: - darkfakes - glowfakes - foefakes - fanfakes “A blanket approach to “fighting deepfakes” risks treating satirical content the same as malicious attacks” @morganwack.bsky.social & co in @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/scrutinizing...

We've been following deepfakes for the last 7 years. This article aims to shed additional light on the topic by: 1) creating a conceptual typology of deepfakes 2) coining new concepts like 'glowfakes' and 'fanfakes' 3) & analyzing deepfakes from the 2024 elections @grailcenter.bsky.social

Justin Hendrix@justinhendrix.bsky.social · 10mo ago

'Darkfakes,' 'Foefakes,' 'Fanfakes,' and 'Glowfakes': Morgan Wack, Christina Walker, Alena Birrer, Kaylyn Jackson Schiff, Daniel Schiff, and JP Messina systematically analyzed political deepfakes and developed a classification that categorizes them along key dimensions.

'Darkfakes,' 'Foefakes,' 'Fanfakes,' and 'Glowfakes': Morgan Wack, Christina Walker, Alena Birrer, Kaylyn Jackson Schiff, Daniel Schiff, and JP Messina systematically analyzed political deepfakes and developed a classification that categorizes them along key dimensions.

Scrutinizing the Many Faces of Political Deepfakes | TechPolicy.Press

Morgan Wack, Christina Walker, Alena Birrer, Kaylyn Jackson Schiff, Daniel Schiff, and JP Messina systematically analyzed political deepfakes.

techpolicy.press

Recently published work from colleagues Morgan Wack (postdoc at University of Zurich) & Joey Schafer (UW PhD candidate) showing how state election policies that delayed vote counting fueled rumoring and conspiracy theorizing around the 2020 election: blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

The 2020 US election shows how state election policies can fuel conspiracy theories about voting | USAPP

States that allowed pre-Election Day processing saw a reduction of over a third in expected misinformation compared to states with restrictive rules.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

The 2020 US election shows how state election policies can fuel conspiracy theories about voting write @morganwack.bsky.social of @ikmz.bsky.social and @schafer.bsky.social of @uwnews.uw.edu blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...

The 2020 US election shows how state election policies can fuel conspiracy theories about voting | USAPP

States that allowed pre-Election Day processing saw a reduction of over a third in expected misinformation compared to states with restrictive rules.

blogs.lse.ac.uk

How often do you see papers that suggest easy policies that could reduce electoral misinformation? Here's one I worked on with a great team out of UW and led by @morganwack.bsky.social and @schafer.bsky.social

Kate Starbird@katestarbird.bsky.social · last yr.

Legislating Uncertainty: New paper about the 2020 election, showing how laws in certain states (specically laws that delayed the counting of mail-in ballots) increased uncertainty about election results and contributed to rumoring about election integrity: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Thrilled to finally see this paper out in print several years after @schafer.bsky.social and I started this project alongside @ikennedy.bsky.social, @beeeeeers.bsky.social, @emmaspiro.bsky.social & @katestarbird.bsky.social! Unfortunately the detrimental policies we discuss remain relevant.

Kate Starbird@katestarbird.bsky.social · last yr.

Legislating Uncertainty: New paper about the 2020 election, showing how laws in certain states (specically laws that delayed the counting of mail-in ballots) increased uncertainty about election results and contributed to rumoring about election integrity: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Legislating Uncertainty: New paper about the 2020 election, showing how laws in certain states (specically laws that delayed the counting of mail-in ballots) increased uncertainty about election results and contributed to rumoring about election integrity: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

<em>Policy Studies Journal</em> | PSO Public Policy Journal | Wiley Online Library

Can state election policies affect the spread of misinformation? This paper studies the role played by ballot processing policies, which determine when ballots can be examined and organized, in the o...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Proud to have co-led this paper with @morganwack.bsky.social (and other coauthors @ikennedy.bsky.social @beeeeeers.bsky.social @emmaspiro.bsky.social @katestarbird.bsky.social) looking at the impacts of state-level election laws on uncertainty and election integrity rumors!

Kate Starbird@katestarbird.bsky.social · last yr.

Legislating Uncertainty: New paper about the 2020 election, showing how laws in certain states (specically laws that delayed the counting of mail-in ballots) increased uncertainty about election results and contributed to rumoring about election integrity: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Russian propaganda campaign used AI to scale output without sacrificing credibility, study finds

Russian propaganda campaign used AI to scale output without sacrificing credibility, study finds

A pro-Kremlin influence campaign used AI to boost disinformation output without undermining credibility, according to new research.

psypost.org

A study of a propaganda site with ties to Russia shows that using AI allows propagandists to dial up the volume of their content without sacrificing persuasiveness. The authors call for action to combat the threat. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

A study of a Russian-backed propaganda outlet finds that AI is already being used to enhance messaging and expand disinformation campaigns, raising concerns about its growing impact on global influence operations. In @sciencex.bsky.social: phys.org/news/2025-04...

🚨 Excited to see our new paper out at @pnasnexus.org w/@pwarren.bsky.social, Darren Linvill, & Carl Ehrett! Using data from a Russia-backed influence operation running puppet website DCWeekly, we show how LLMs are being used to scale global disinfo campaigns: 1/ 🧵 academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

📢 #RwandaClassified : la désinformation des autorités rwandaises persiste. Alors que le conflit en RDC s’intensifie, les réseaux de Kagame restent actifs : la guerre au Nord-Kivu et le trafic de minerais restent des sujets tabous pour le régime rwandais. 🔍 forbiddenstories.org/fr/actualite...

How right wing media is like improv theater. My coauthor @danielletomson.bsky.social and I are really proud of this piece which builds upon ~10 years of research at UW studying the participatory nature of rumors/disinformation and Danielle’s dissertation studying right-wing influencers for 5+ years.

The Conversation U.S.@us.theconversation.com · 2y ago

Right-wing media operates like #improv theater, with influencers as performers and audiences as active participants. #Researchers explain how this dynamic ecosystem shapes reality for many Americans. https://buff.ly/3CSLpm3 Danielle Lee Tomson and @katestarbird.bsky.social @uofwa.bsky.social)

⏰Another opening for a PhD position in our (w @morganwack.bsky.social and @esserfrank.bsky.social ) SNF project on political social media influencers! 🥳 If you are into computational methods, social media, and political communcation, we are looking for you 🔎 All details here: tinyurl.com/44arrawh

Just published a Nature comment highlighting a few of the rumors our UW team expects to see going into the Nov 5 election — from rumors that falsely frame election errors as impactful and intentional to rumors about "non citizen voters" and "suspicious behaviors". www.nature.com/articles/d41...

I’ve been studying misinformation for a decade — here are the rumours to watch out for on US election day

We can anticipate many false claims, including alleged mass voting by non-citizens or ‘suspicious vans’ outside polling booths. We should quickly counter them.

nature.com

In a new article now out in Collabora: Psychology, @rmpillai.bsky.social and I find that the mere repetition of information increases estimates of its consensus, a finding we refer to as an “illusory consensus effect.”

An Illusory Consensus Effect: The Mere Repetition of Information Increases Estimates That Others Would Believe or Already Know It

How do people estimate the prevalence of beliefs and knowledge among others? Here, we examine the hypothesis that mere repetition of information increases such perceptions of consensus — an “illusory ...

online.ucpress.edu