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Modeling Misinformation

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

By Sonia Fernandez

We live in an era of too much information — an endless stream of status updates, memes, reposts, infographics, quotes and hashtags roll daily through our social media feeds, meant to express viewpoints, drum up solidarity, provide information, change minds or cause controversy.

Problem is, the average online browser/social media user doesn’t have the time or wherewithal to investigate the legitimacy or provenance of everything that shows up on their feeds. And it is this vulnerability that less scrupulous content generators exploit to spread misinformation, with results that can range from a little egg-on-face embarrassment to downright life-changing or potentially deadly consequences.

For UC Santa Barbara computer scientist William Wang, this chaotic morass is fertile grounds for exploration.

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Concept illustration of information coming from a keyboard