I talk with Renée DiResta, formerly of the Stanford Internet Observatory and author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality.
We talk about the canceling of the Stanford Internet Observatory, why “misinformation” isn’t the right term for the Internet rumor mill, the power of “counterspeech” and why suspending social media accounts doesn’t work, how an “army of Davids” turned into an army of volunteer propagandists—and the curious imaginary life of “CIA Renée.”
You can view the video of this conversation here.
A Culture of Truth
In our conversation, we discuss an article by an intern at The Free Press who used to be an intern at the Stanford Internet Observatory, which makes some dubious and highly inaccurate claims about what goes on there. (The intern did not work at the SIO until 2022 yet claims she was tasked with suppressing the 2020 story about Hunter Biden’s laptop—an issue outside the scope of the program’s focus.)
The Free Press seems to exist for the primary purpose of giving semi-respectable cover to far-right talking points. But this incident (and other things I’ve read at The Free Press) remind me of my final days at The Federalist, when it was already taking on the character of what others have described as an “intern blog,” in which very young and inexperienced right-wing activists pen poorly thought-out hot takes—like denouncing the universally beloved Dolly Parton as a false prophet.
The main thing is that this is done without adult supervision, with minimal and uncritical editing. I see something of the same thing at The Free Press in publishing claims about the Stanford Internet Observatory that fit the preferred right-wing narrative but don’t stand up to fact checking or critical scrutiny.
This underscores a point I bring up at the end of the podcast above. We need a “culture of free speech” that values pluralism and vigorous debate. But the point of a culture of free speech is that it encourages the kind of wide-ranging discussion that allows us to get at the truth. It needs to be paired with a culture of truth—a culture that values factual accuracy and careful reasoning.
That is precisely what is missing from the Internet rumor mill DiResta describes.
A Culture of Truth