The Decision-Making and Systems Architecture Laboratory is affiliated with the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics. This research institute at the George Washington University fights the rise of distorted and misleading information online, working to educate national policymakers and journalists on strategies to grapple with the threat to democracy posed by digital propaganda and deception. With a team of researchers spanning political communication, journalism, physics, international affairs, computer science and engineering, the Institute for Data, Democracy, and Politics (IDDP) is a research hub for tracking the spread of distorted information online, sharing research and hosting events on combating disinformation. IDDP is supported by a $5 million investment from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. IDDP researchers produce timely publications about the role of online content related to current events in order to better inform public policy debates, and assist journalists in developing stories that help correct distorted public narratives. The institute uses GW’s expanding data infrastructure to examine the spread of information across the internet, including on platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and the Russian social network VK. IDDP collaborates with the Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism, and its project PolitiFact, the largest political fact-checking news organization in the United States and winner of a Pulitzer Prize. IDDP works with Poynter and PolitiFact to collaborate on fact-checking research and to conduct trainings for journalists and policymakers to better understand the misinformation landscape of the 2020 elections and how to effectively correct false information with fact-checking journalism.
Online Misinformation and Disinformation
Magritte. La Trahison des images. 1929
David A. Broniatowski
Associate Professor of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering
My research interests include social media data analytics, engineering system architecture, decision under risk, and online misinformation.
Posts
Featured in Several News Sources
Our research featured in Washington Post, The Guardian, and IFLScience
Pedram Hosseini Wins 2019 GW R&D Showcase
Best Poster in Computer Science Department
Our Research Featured in GW Today
Government Intervention Needed to Address Vaccination Misinformation
Our Research Featured in GW Today
Research Finds Extreme Elitism, Social Hierarchy among Gab Users
We're Looking for some good Postdocs
The George Washington University Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics (IDDP) anticipates a search for exceptional candidates for …
Mentioned in Time Magazine
Time Magazine mentioned our research.
Mentioned in CBS News
CBS News mentioned our research.
Mentioned in Axios
Axios mentioned our research
Mentioned in Foreign Policy Magazine
Foreign Policy Magazine mentioned our research.
Mentioned in Sacramento Bee 2019
Our research was mentioned in The Sacramento Bee
Continued Media Coverage
Our research has continued to receive media coverage, including on CNN.
Quoted in Radio Free Europe 2019
Dr. Broniatowski was Quoted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Ann E. Nolte Writing Award
Dr. Broniatowski and co-authors have received the 2019 FAHE Ann E. Nolte Writing Award
Publications
Vaccine-related advertising in the Facebook Ad Archive
Background In 2018, Facebook introduced Ad Archive as a platform to improve transparency in advertisements related to politics and …
Identifying Nuances in Fake News vs. Satire: Using Semantic and Linguistic Cues
The blurry line between nefarious fake news and protected-speech satire has been a notorious struggle for social media platforms. …
Health Wars and Beyond: The Rapidly Expanding and Efficient Network Insurgency Interlinking Local and Global Online Crowds of Distrust
We present preliminary results on the online war surrounding distrust of expertise in medical science – specifically, the issue …
Elites and foreign actors among the alt-right: The Gab social media platform
Content regulation and censorship of social media platforms is increasingly discussed by governments and the platforms themselves. To …
To illuminate and motivate: a fuzzy-trace model of the spread of information online
We propose, and test, a model of online media platform users’ decisions to act on, and share, received information. Specifically, …
Does Causal Coherence Predict Online Spread of Social Media?
Online misinformation is primarily spread by humans deciding to do so. We therefore seek to understand the factors making this content …
Malicious Actors on Twitter: A Guide for Public Health Researchers
Social bots and other malicious actors have a significant presence on Twitter. It is increasingly clear that some of their activities …
Characterizing Trends in Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Discourse on Reddit (2007-2015): An Observational Study
Background: Despite the introduction of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination as a preventive measure in 2006 for cervical and …
Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate
Objectives. To understand how Twitter bots and trolls (“bots”) promote online health content.
Methods. We compared bots’ to average …
Understanding Controversial Discussions in Twitter: Women's Driving in Saudi Arabia
Twitter has been used extensively to understand user’s opinions towards many cultural issues. In this paper, we analyzed the content of …
Analyzing Perceived Risk of Flu Vaccine on Twitter
To improve influenza vaccination rates, public health officials must understand potential factors in an individual’s decision to get a …
Detecting and Characterizing Bot-Like Behavior on Twitter
Social media is becoming a platform of choice for people to voice their opinion on topics of discussion. To evaluate these opinions, it …
Gab: The Alt-Right Social Media Platform
This study proposes the use of Gab as a vehicle for political science research regarding modern American politics and the Alt-Right …
Measuring Public Perception of Engineered Systems: Opportunities and Challenges of Public Opinion in Vaccination
Neglecting the social aspect of complex sociotechnical systems can prevent system success. For example, nuclear power plants might have …
Monitoring Real-time Spatial Public Health Discussions in the Context of Vaccine Hesitancy
Social media provide the potential to keep up with public discussions more quickly, at lower cost, and at potentially higher …
Characterizing HPV Vaccine Discourse on Reddit
Introduction: Approximately 23,000 women and 15,793 men in the United States are affected by human papilloma virus (HPV) related …
A Scientific Approach to Combating Misinformation and Disinformation Online
We argue for a scientific approach to combating online misinformation and disinformation. Such an …
Effects of demography and social groups on opinion dynamics
We examine here the dynamics of opinion exchange before a democratic decision-making event by using an agent-based model. The agents …
Measuring Perceived Causal Relationships Between Narrative Events with a Crowdsourcing Application on Mturk
The computational study of narrative is important to multiple academic disciplines. However, prior research has been limited by the …
Combating Misinformation and Disinformation Online: The "Battle of the Narrative"
We argue for a scientific approach to online misinformation and disinformation. Such an approach must be grounded in empirically …
Examining Patterns of Influenza Vaccination in Social Media
Traditional data on influenza vaccination has several limitations: high cost, limited coverage of underrepresented groups, and low …
Designing a Crowdsourcing Tool to Measure Perceived Causal Relationships Between Narrative Events
The computational study of narrative is important to multiple academic disciplines. However, prior research has been limited by the …
Effective vaccine communication during the disneyland measles outbreak
Vaccine refusal rates have increased in recent years, highlighting the need for effective risk communication, especially over social …
Talks
Invited Speaker at the London School of Hygeine and Tropical Medicine
Advancing Research on Social Media and Vaccine Confidence
Invited Panelist at the 5th Annual Pandemic Policy Summit
Pandemic & Biosecurity Threats in the 21st Century
Invited Panelist at APHA 2019
Hidden Agendas for Online Vaccination: Trolls, Bots & Misinformation
Invited Panelist at UCLA's Institute for Digital Research and Education Symposium
Addressing the Vaccine Crisis: The Digital World, Big Data, and Public Health
Invited Speaker at the National Academies of Sciences
Malicious Misinformation and Threats to Public Health
Invited Panelist at the CSIS Conference on Global Immunization
Dr. Broniatowski was an invited panelist at the Panel on Restoring Trust in Vaccines at the CSIS Conference on Global Immunization.
Invited Speaker at OBSSR Methodology Seminar
Dr. Broniatowski gave an invited panel presentation at the OBSSR Methodology Seminar at NIH.
Hot Topics Presentation to CDC
This talk will cover the ways in which state-sponsored and profit-seeking entities use health communication about vaccines on social …
Invited Panelist at Health Executive Leadership Summit
Vaccine hesitancy, the reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated or to have one’s children vaccinated, has been identified by the World …
Invited Panelist at eMerge Americas 2019
Dr. Broniatowski spoke on the April 29 panel “The Promise & Peril of Digital Technology” at eMerge Americas.
Invited Panelist at Annual Conference of Vaccinology Research
Dr. Broniatowski gave an invited panel presentation at the Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research in Baltimore, MD.
ASPPH 2019
On March 22, Dr. Broniatowski gave an invited panel talk at ASPPH 2019 in Arlington, VA