Cambridge Disinformation Summit’s Post

After X, Pakistan's Punjab to ban social media platforms for 6 days to control 'hate material' “Soon after blocking X, formerly Twitter, for over four months, the government in Pakistan's Punjab province is now set to ban all social media platforms including YouTube and WhatsApp for six days between July 13 and 18, citing the need to control ‘hate material’ during the Islamic month of Muharram.” https://lnkd.in/eGHF-ewz

New York And Florida Women Arrested For Defrauding Over A Dozen Victims Of More Than $7 Million In Connection With Romance Scams “As part of that scheme, STANLEY and GUY lured the Victims, who were nearly all elderly individuals, into purported romantic or close personal relationships through in-person meetings, phone calls, text messages, and an online dating platform. After earning the Victims’ trust, STANLEY and GUY convinced the Victims to transfer money to STANLEY and GUY under false pretenses, including by, among other things, falsely representing that STANLEY and GUY needed money for fake businesses and organ transplants. Once STANLEY and GUY received the Victims’ money, they moved the money through shell company bank accounts to avoid detection by law enforcement. Ultimately, STANLEY and GUY used the money for their personal benefit, including, for example, for luxury vehicles, a boat, high-end jewelry, and other luxury products.” https://lnkd.in/echwavuJ

She won a Pulitzer for exposing how the country's poorest state spent federal welfare money. Now she might go to jail. NBC News Ken Dilanian Laura Strickler “The case has drawn attention beyond Mississippi as an example of how public figures can make life difficult for news organizations” https://lnkd.in/e-QpxuKz

American academic freedom is in peril Ryan Calo Kate Starbird “Academics researching online misinformation in the US are learning a hard lesson: Academic freedom cannot be taken for granted. They face a concerted effort—including by members of Congress—to undermine or silence their work documenting false and misleading internet content. The claim is that online misinformation researchers are trying to silence conservative voices. The evidence suggests just the opposite.” https://lnkd.in/exgHSe9f

Lying for Image Kai Barron Dr. Agne Kajackaite Silvia Saccardo Abstract The extensive economics literature on lying has focused nearly exclusively on studying experimental settings where individuals can lie for financial rewards. However, in everyday interactions, lying to enhance one’s social- and self-image is ubiquitous and perhaps even more common than lying to gain a financial advantage. In this paper, we introduce three laboratory and online experiments in which individuals can lie about their physical strength, their preferences over everyday items (e.g., color, season, or food), or their favorite American President. We use these experiments to examine how the desire to achieve a desirable social- and self-image, or avoid an undesirable image, affect lying behavior. Our results reveal that such concerns shape the decision to lie: they increase lying rates even in absence of financial incentives to lie and they increase truth-telling rates when lying would be financially beneficial but threatening to one’s image. Our work introduces new paradigms for studying lying behavior and suggests that image concerns could be leveraged when designing interventions to deter dishonesty. https://lnkd.in/e-NMnuNU

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Professor of History and Italian Studies, New York University, presents "Propaganda and Personality Cults from Mussolini to the Present." Recorded: February 2021 Summary of talk: “From Mussolini to the present, authoritarian leaders have used propaganda and personality cults to bind people to them and present themselves as competent and infallible. Based on research for her new book Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present (Norton, 2020), Ben-Ghiat will discuss what has changed and what has stayed the same over a century of illiberal rule. Presented with cosponsorship by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and the Center for Italian Studies.” https://lnkd.in/e3wFi_KM