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Cybersecurity & Tech Terrorism & Extremism

Lawfare Daily: Deplatforming Works, with David Lazer and Kevin Esterling

Quinta Jurecic, David Lazer, Kevin Esterling, Jen Patja
Thursday, July 25, 2024, 8:00 AM
Discussing the effects of de-platforming users who had promoted misinformation.
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In the runup to Jan. 6, lies and falsehoods about the supposed theft of the 2020 election ran wild on Twitter. Following the insurrection, the company took action—abruptly banning 70,000 users who had promoted misinformation on the platform. But was this mass deplatforming actually effective in reducing the spread of untruths?

According to a paper recently published in Nature, the answer is yes. Two of the authors, David Lazer of Northeastern University and Kevin Esterling of the University of California, Riverside, joined Lawfare Senior Editor Quinta Jurecic to discuss their findings—and ponder what this means about the influence and responsibility of social media platforms in shaping political discourse.

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Quinta Jurecic

Quinta Jurecic

@qjurecic
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Quinta Jurecic is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare. She previously served as Lawfare's managing editor and as an editorial writer for the Washington Post.
David Lazer

David Lazer

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David Lazer is a political science and computer sciences professor at Northeastern University and co-director of the NULab for Digital Humanities and Computational Social Science.
Kevin Esterling

Kevin Esterling

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Kevin Esterling is a professor of public policy and political science, chair of political science, and the Director of the Laboratory for Technology, Communication and Democracy at the University of California, Riverside.
Jen Patja

Jen Patja

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Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.