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How does social change happen? When do social movements take off? Sexual harassment was once something that women had to endure; now a movement has risen up against it. White nationalist sentiments, on the other hand, were largely kept out of mainstream discourse; now there is no shortage of media outlets for them. In this book, with the help of behavioral economics, psych...

Cybersecurity is increasingly a major concern of modern life, coloring everything from the way we vote to the way we drive to the way our health care records are stored. Yet online security is beset by threats from nation-states and terrorists and organized crime, and our favorite social media sites are drowning in conspiracy theories and disinformation. How do we reset th...

The public optimism that came with the launch of social media a decade ago has settled into a wariness that we might instead face a long, grueling daily fight for truth and facts in the face of unrelenting, automated disinformation online. As the 2020 elections gear up, how should our country face the threat from Twitter bots and Facebook trolls? What responsibility should...

Fake news. Extremist propaganda. Religious intolerance. Trolling. Sexual harassment. Bullying. And we haven’t even talked about grumpy cat emojis. Social media is being successfully used and abused by hate groups to promote a toxic agenda that often marginalizes and targets religious and ethnic minorities and women. Every day, it seems that a handful of bad guys have the u...

Out on bail after a conviction for “cyber libel” by the Philippines government, journalist and freedom of the press crusader Maria Ressa checks in with NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro. How does Ressa feel in this moment, facing years in prison? Is she hopeful for her appeal with famed human rights attorney Amal Clooney fighting on her behalf? What are the origins of President Du...

What is trust? “A firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.” (We googled it). How much, not to mention who, we should trust is more complex now, given the technological tools we have at our disposal and the crafty creatives who might push the world’s next great product, or the next fake story, or — far worse — the hackers who can...