• Trumping truth with lies

    Open Forum     |      September 7, 2023

    Conspiratorial content spread on social media platforms during the first Republican presidential debate garnered more than three million views according to QUT researchers who also found that X (formerly Twitter) is a haven for disinformation, especially in spreading the debunked theory that Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

  • People are the answer to the people problem

    Marian-Andrei Rizoiu     |      August 16, 2023

    As social media platforms continue to shape public discourse, addressing the challenges posed by harmful content is crucial and new research on the effectiveness of moderating harmful online content offers valuable insights for policymakers.

  • From A to X

    Kristen Schiele     |      August 14, 2023

    Elon Musk’s recent rebranding of Twitter as X is a step toward the CEO’s goal of developing an “everything app” for Americans to chat with their friends, order groceries, watch videos and manage their finances on one platform.

  • Fighting foreign propaganda on social media

    Sarah Kendall     |      August 8, 2023

    The recent Senate committee on foreign interference through social media highlights the threats posed by Russian, Chinese and other hostile actors to Australian citizens and democracy.

  • We want to believe

    Barry Markovsky     |      July 28, 2023

    Whatever the truth behind the recent rash of UFO videos, their diffusion through social media offers an interesting case study in how beliefs spread and change through the population over time.

  • Brand X

    Cameron Shackell     |      July 27, 2023

    Elon Musk’s rebrand of Twitter to “X” may seem high risk, amateurish, or even capricious but it is also generating enormous global interest, pushing Twitter closer to his other X brands and clearing the way for a profitable merging of technologies.

  • Tackling misinformation through co-regulation

    Andrea Carson     |      July 16, 2023

    Australia’s new approach to tackling fake news on digital platforms involves more stick and less carrot than previously.

  • #Robodebt

    Ehsan Dehghan     |      July 9, 2023

    Twitter activists, rather than the traditional media, pushed the campaign to hold government ministers to account through a royal commission

  • Twitter v Threads

    Lisa Given     |      July 8, 2023

    Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk may or may not take their combat into the ring, but their social media empires are already fighting for supremacy.

  • Social media and political engagement

    Francesco Bailo     |      June 16, 2023

    Social media has undermined democracy in liberal Western states but authoritarian governments also see the political turbulence from uncontrolled information systems as a potential blaze that must be kept under strict control.

  • Don’t feed the beast

    Marc Cheong     |      May 13, 2023

    Don’t let tech giants’ bottom line dictate how you engage with social media. By being aware of how algorithms work, what they’re capable of and what their purpose is, you can make the shift from being a sitting duck for advertisers to an active curator of your own feeds.

  • Threats to press freedom from AI to Z

    Open Forum     |      May 7, 2023

    High quality journalism is vital to the health of every free society, but the traditional press faces ever more threats from Russian propagandists to the threat of junk content churned out by AI.