Information School Assistant Professor Jevin West appeared on KING-TV on Friday, Feb. 16, to discuss charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies for their alleged disinformation activities during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
West, who teaches “Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data,” discussed the ongoing threats uncovered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
“There are concerted efforts to sow distrust into our institutions, and it doesn’t matter if you’re on the left or the right, it’s happening on both sides. It’s sort of fueling the fire, and that’s not good for collective decision making or democracy,” West said.
West told interviewer Natalie Brand that the scale and sophistication of Russia’s disinformation campaign was unparalleled. The indictment alleges that the campaign involved a lot more than trolling on social media. Russians allegedly used fake personas to send press releases to media outlets and plan rallies.
“The democratic process depends on grassroots conversations, and it’s clear through the indictment and other findings over the last couple of years that those grassroots conversations are being hijacked and they’re being hijacked not just by bots but by real people,” West told Brand. “That shows how much investment is going into trying to sow noise into the system.”
Read more and view West’s interview at KING5.com.