Exploring How Disinformation Spreads

From left:  Yu-Ru Lin, Malihe Alikhani

“In this digital age, social media is like a double-edged sword,” says Yu-Ru Lin, associate professor in the School of Computing and Information, and research and academic director for Pitt’s Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security. Lin, who focuses on the spread of disinformation, misinformation, and extremism across social networks, says that social media makes us more connected to others, but also to those disseminating disinformation and misinformation. 

Instead of flagging content and people on social media networks to have them removed, Lin wants to understand why people spread this content. What are the dynamics at play among social media platforms, communications networks, and the social and psychological tendencies of people who spread disinformation and misinformation? 

With funding from Meta, Lin and her team are developing a model to track and analyze the spread of conspiracy theories and how they influence individuals. “We need to know how the information ecosystem facilitates the dissemination of harmful information in order to counter its misuse,” she says. Funding from the U.S. Department of Defense will support her research into extremism and how it spreads in countries around the world.