In “The Digital Maginot Line”, Mozilla fellow and disinformation expert Renée DiResta argues that perpetrators of information warfare have shifted from “targeting infrastructure to targeting the minds of civilians.”

In this week’s episode, Renée joins Heather and Emily to talk about how governments and platforms are not doing enough to address this shift. In light of recent debates about the ethics of covering the Christchurch massacre, we talk about best practices for journalists working in an era of democratized propaganda and rampant misinformation. 

Reading List:

• Joan Donovan and Danah Boyd of Data & Society argue for “strategic silence” to quarantine extremist ideologies
• Watch Renée’s MozFest 2018 talk, “The Internet’s Original Sin“
• We’re Asking the Wrong Questions of YouTube and Facebook After New Zealand—a New York Times op-ed by Charlie Warzel
• Renée recommends Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest (excerpted at the link) by Zeynep Tufekci and Network Propaganda, by Yochai Benkler, Robert Faris, and Hal Roberts