IDI’s David Lazer collaborates with UPenn’s Sandra González-Bailón for Tech Policy Press to discuss “break the glass” content moderation methods. They break down their paper “The Diffusion and Reach of (Mis)Information on Facebook During the U.S. 2020 Election” in the context of Pavel Durov and Elon Musk’s challenges to free speech.

“The opacity surrounding the exercise of this power makes it difficult for the public to evaluate its scope and consequences and impossible for individuals to make informed choices about which platforms to use.”

“Almost every website you visit these days has trackers on it,” David Choffnes says. “If you ever wondered if you’ve been on Facebook or Instagram and you see ads that were very relevant to a website you were just looking at, it’s because Meta, the parent company, has trackers on a bunch of websites. They know who you are and what websites you are visiting. The same is true for TikTok. The same is true for Google, and a number of other companies in that marketplace.” 

The tool developed by IDI’s David Lazer and Hong Qu allows users to select for demographics including gender, race, income, education, age and voting preference in 2020 and 2024.

Try it yourself here. 

In a new survey, John Wihbey notes a news divide — where voters for Republican Donald Trump were more likely to get election information from family and friends compared to Democratic and independent voters who generally relied on traditional media.

The findings come from the latest Civic Health and Institutions Project (CHIP50), a 50-state survey effort that polls Americans on opinions and behaviors. The IDI team of David Lazer and doctoral students Allison Wan, Alexi Quintana Mathé, Ata Uslu and Hong Qu ran the survey project. More than 25,000 adults from all 50 states and the District of Columbia responded to the survey between Aug. 30 and Oct. 8.