Dr. Robert W. Gehl, F. Jay Taylor Endowed Research Chair of Communication at Louisiana Tech, and colleague Sean Lawson, Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Utah, recently presented research based on their forthcoming book,
Social Engineering: How Crowdmasters, Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls Created a New Form of Manipulative Communication, to a Department of Defense-sponsored speaker series, the SMA (Strategic Multilayered Assessment) Speaker Series.
Gehl and Lawson presented their concept of “masspersonal social engineering” a mixture of hacking and propaganda practices as a key way to understand recent online manipulation campaigns, including the Russian and Iranian efforts to sow chaos during the 2016 and 2020 US elections.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
Dubbed deplatforming, these actions restrict the ability of individuals and communities to communicate with each other and the public. Deplatforming raises ethical and legal questions, but foremost is the question of whether it s an effective strategy to reduce hate speech and calls for violence on social media.
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The Conversation U.S. asked three experts in online communications whether deplatforming works and what happens when technology companies attempt it.
Sort of, but it s not a long-term solution
Jeremy Blackburn, assistant professor of computer science, Binghamton University
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The question of how effective deplatforming is can be looked at from two different angles: Does it work from a technical standpoint, and does it have an effect on worrisome communities themselves?
I am: the F. Jay Taylor Endowed Research Chair of Communication at Louisiana Tech University, as well as alumnus Fulbright Canada Research Chair of Communication, Media and Film at the University of Calgary.
I teach: critical studies of communication technology, new media theory, software studies, basic Web design, and political economy of communication.
I research: network cultures and technologies, alternative social media, and the Dark Web.
My books: Weaving the Dark Web (2018, MIT Press), offers a history and sociology of Freenet, Tor, and I2P. Reverse Engineering Social Media (2014, Temple University Press), explores the architecture and political economy of social media. Winner of the 2015 Association of Internet Researchers Nancy Baym Award. Socialbots and Their Friends (2016, Routledge), is a co-edited collection on socialbots.