Media
Medium Posts
- Cybersecurity for Democracy
Our theory of change for reducing online harms The NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy project is a research-based effort to expose online threats to our social fabric — and recommend how to counter them. Our focus is on systems, revealing the ways that online platforms leave…
- Platforms: It’s time to show your work
Platforms: it’s time to show your work Transparency for online advertising is essential for holding platforms accountable As a scientist, I’m judged not just by my analysis and findings: my work also must be reproducible by other researchers. They need access to the data and code…
- The political ads Facebook won’t show you
The 2020 elections may be over, but undisclosed content about U.S. political issues flourishes online Even as Michigan’s Democratic governor and a senator offer plans to create incentives for wind, solar, and other renewable sources, when individual wind farms are proposed in the…
- When social trust is the attack
How bad actors exploited social media algorithms to erode users’ confidence in democratic institutions On January 6th, 2021 an armed and angry mob stormed the U.S. Capitol. Poll data gathered shortly after the insurrection indicated that millions of Americans believed that…
- Far right news sources on Facebook more engaging
Far-right news sources on Facebook more engaging Unlike other news across the political spectrum, no “misinformation penalty” for far-right pages by Laura Edelson, Minh-Kha Nguyen, Ian Goldstein, Oana Goga, Tobias Lauinger, and Damon McCoy. Facebook has become a major way people…
- Past posts from Online Political Transparency Project
We are now Cybersecurity for Democracy Before 2021, our project was known as Online Political Transparency Project. Here are links to posts from our former site on Medium. Publishing Facebook ad data (redux), by Laura Edelson, published November 13, 2020. “Independently collected…
In the News
2021
- "Jeremy Merrill joins The Post’s Data team as a data journalist embedded on the Technology team," WashPostPR, The Washington Post, July 13, 2021.
- "Cybersecurity for Democracy," Cybersecurity for Democracy, Medium, June 17, 2021.
- "Platforms: it's time to show your work," Laura Edelson, Medium, June 17, 2021.
- "Privacy Without Monopoly, EU edition," Cory Doctorow, OneZero by Medium, June 11, 2021.
- "Facebook to take action against the sharing of misinformation," Alexis Christoforous and Kristin Myers, Yahoo Finance, May 27, 2021.
- "The political ads Facebook won’t show you," Nancy Watzman, Medium, May 12, 2021.
- "Facebook is ‘not a researchers-friendly space’ say academics encountering roadblocks to analyzing its 2020 election ad data," Kate Kaye, Digiday, May 4, 2021.
- "Republicans in key 2024 states targeted with anti-China ads," Lachlan Markey, Axios, April 27, 2021.
- "The platforms get in a scrape," Casey Newton, Platformer, April 13, 2021.
- "How Facebook’s Ad System Lets Companies Talk Out of Both Sides of Their Mouths," Jeremy B. Merrill, The Markup, April 13, 2021.
- Y
- "We need to know more about political ads. But can transparency be a trap?," Madelyn Webb and Bethan John, NiemanLab, March 30, 2021.
- "Is Cyberwar War?," Steven Cherry, IEEE Security, March 29, 2021.
- "When social trust is the attack," Laura Edelson, Medium, March 26, 2021.
- "Privacy Laws Giving Big Internet Companies A Convenient Excuse To Avoid Academic Scrutiny," Mike Masnick, Techdirt, March 26, 2021.
- "Tech CEOs Face Congressional Grilling," Colm Quinn, Foreign Policy, March 25, 2021.
- "POLITICO Digital Bridge: Tech CEOs — Global free speech — Transatlantic friction," Mark Scott, Politico, March 25, 2021.
- "Platforms vs. PhDs: How tech giants court and crush the people who study them," Issie Lapowsky, Protocol, March 19, 2021.
- "How Facebook got addicted to spreading misinformation," Karen Hao, MIT Technology Review, March 11, 2021.
- "Decoder Newsletter: Voting Rights, Privacy & Antitrust Take Center Stage," Margaret Sessa-Hawkins and Viviana Padelli, MapLight, March 8, 2021.
- "Far-right misinfo is big on Facebook, but it's Facebook that blocks attempts to fix it," Adam Rosenberg, Mashable, March 7, 2021.
- "Far-Right Misinformation Is Thriving On Facebook. A New Study Shows Just How Much," Michel Martin, NPR, March 6, 2021.
- "Talking Tech: If you are TV shopping, you need to know the facts about these buying myths," Mike Snider, USA Today, March 6, 2021.
- "Need to Know: March 4, 2021," American Press Institute, March 4, 2021.
- "Right-wing fake news scores far better engagement on Facebook than left-wing fake news, or real news - study," Daniel Rutledge, Newshub, March 4, 2021.
- "Far-right news and misinformation received the most engagement on Facebook during 2020 US election," James Vincent, The Verge, March 4, 2021.
- "Study: Facebook Users Find Fake News More Engaging Than Facts," Jessibelle Garcia, MakeUseOf, March 4, 2021.
- "Far-right sources on Facebook get more engagement than any other political posts, study finds," Lateshia Beachum, Washington Post, March 4, 2021.
- "Scores of political groups sidestepped Facebook’s ad ban," Mark Scott and Zach Montellaro, Politico, March 4, 2021.
- "Study shows lies perform better on Facebook if they’re right-wing-flavored," Mehreen Kasana, Input, March 4, 2021.
- "Far-right misinformation received highest engagement on Facebook: study," Rebecca Klar, The Hill, March 4, 2021.
- "Right-wing misinformation on Facebook is more engaging than its left-wing counterpart, research finds," Brian Fung, CNN, March 3, 2021
- "POLITICO Playbook PM: NRCC chief to Trump: Please don’t," Eugene Daniels, Rachael Bade, Eli Okun, and Garrett Ross, Politico, March 3, 2021.
- "Fake News Gets More Engagement on Facebook—But Only If It's Right-Wing" Gilad Edelman, Wired, March 3, 2021
- "What's popular on Facebook? Extreme far right political views and lies, study says" Jessica Guynn, USA Today, March 3, 2021
- "Far-right news sources on Facebook more engaging," Laura Edelson, Minh-Kha Nguyen, Ian Goldstein, Oana Goga, Tobias Lauinger, and Damon McCoy, Medium, March 3, 2021.
- "Far-right misinformation on Facebook outranks real news," Shannon Vavra, Cyberscoop, March 3, 2021.
- "Far-right misinformation gets by far the most engagement on Facebook, study finds," Summer Meza, The Week, March 3, 2021.
- "Study: Far-Right Propaganda Gets the Most Engagement on Facebook, Especially When It's Lies," Tom McKay, Gizmodo, March 3, 2021.
- "Google Has Been Allowing Advertisers to Exclude Nonbinary People from Seeing Job Ads," Jeremy B. Merrill, The Markup, February 11, 2021.
- "Facebook will let researchers study its election ad targeting data," Kris Holt, Engadget, January 25, 2021.
- "Facebook to grant access to targeting information about political ads," Rebecca Klar, The Hill, January 25, 2021.
- "Tech Firms Profited from Far-Right Militia Content Despite Ban on “ThreePercenters”," Jeremy B. Merrill, The Markup, January 21, 2021.
- "Opinion: Voluntary, piecemeal actions by online companies to cut down on misinformation are not enough," Nancy Watzman, The Colorado Sun, January 17, 2021.
- "How We Built a Facebook Inspector," Surya Mattu, Leon Yin, Angie Waller, Jon Keegan, The Markup, January 5, 2021.
- "New ‘Centrist’ Georgia Group Tied to Former Trump Lawyer," Lachlan Markay, Daily Beast, January 5, 2021.
- "Cory Doctorow: Neofeudalism and the Digital Manor," Cory Doctorow, Locus, January 4, 2021.
2020
- “Social media companies should permanently ban political advertising,” Eric Goldman and Irina Raicu, San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 2020.(opinion)
- “After public criticism, Facebook will allow Political ad-tracking project to continue,” David Gilbert, Vice, December 4, 2020.
- "Facebook still has a problem with political ads. Now politicians want to solve it.," Mark Scott, Politico, November 30, 2020.
- “Facebook is going after its critics in the name of privacy,” Cory Doctorow, Wired, November 28, 2020. (opinion)
- "Facebook Is Trying To Ban A Browser For Offering Privacy: The Full Story," Manik Berry, Fossbytes, November 23, 2020.
- “Facebook shouldn’t block a journalist tool revealing our political ads are targeted,” Nancy Watzman, The Colorado Sun, November 22, 2020. (opinion)
- "Once Again, Facebook Is Using Privacy As A Sword To Kill Independent Innovation," Mitch Stoltz and Andrew Crocker, EFF, November 20, 2020.
- “How fake news aimed at Latinos thrives on social media,” Vox/Recode, November 19, 2020.
- "Why Facebook’s Blocking of New Political Ads May Fall Short," Davey Alba and Sheera Frenkel, The New York Times, November 17, 2020.
- "Targeting Trump Fans, QAnon Ad Slips Through Facebook’s Filters," Jeremy B. Merrill, The Markup, November 17, 2020.
- "Don’t Blame Section 230 for Big Tech’s Failures. Blame Big Tech.," Elliot Harmon, Electronic Frontier Foundation, November 16, 2020.
- “How Facebook ad spend predicted the US 2020 election,” New Statesman, November 12, 2020.
- “Facebook shields itself from scrutiny,” Colorado Journalism Review, November 11, 2020.
- “Facebook demands shutdown of NYU research on political ads targeting,” NYU Local, November 5, 2020.
- “Glitches, loopholes dent Facebook election disinformation efforts,” Agence France-Presse, November 3, 2020.
- "Facebook Takes Aim at NYU Web Scrapers," Schulte Roth & Zabel LLC, Lexology, November 3, 2020.
- Infotagion (podcast), November 2, 2020.
- “Political Groups Elude Facebook’s Election Controls Repost False Ads,” The Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2020.
- “Report suggests political media spending could reach $6.7 billion,” WCSC (South Carolina), October 30, 2020.
- "What it’s like to actually use Facebook’s ad transparency tools," Paul Duke, Medium, October 30, 2020.
- “Facebook glitch blocks certain political ads, raising new questions about transparency,” Vox/Recode, October 30, 2020.
- "Ahead of the Election, New Tools Help NYU Researchers Shed Light on the Internet’s Dark Power," Sarah Binney, NYU News, October 30, 2020.
- "Facebook admits it 'improperly' blocked some political ads due to 'technical issues' as Joe Biden's campaign slams it for being 'wholly unprepared'," Tyler Sonnemaker, Business Insider India, October 30, 2020.
- “Facebook’s threat to the NYU Ad Observatory is an attack on ethical research,” NiemanLab, October 29, 2020 (opinion).
- “Michigan again a target of election disinformation,” Detroit Free Press, October 29, 2020.
- "Facebook Charged Biden a Higher Price Than Trump for Campaign Ads," Jeremy B. Merrill, The Markup, October 29, 2020.
- "How We Analyzed the Cost of Trump’s and Biden’s Campaign Ads on Facebook," Jeremy B. Merrill, The Markup, October 29, 2020.
- “Checking Facebook: Candidates add social media buys to their arsenal ahead of election,” VTDigger, October 29, 2020.
- "Trump campaign has spent over $380K on Facebook ads in New Mexico since July, report shows," Russell Contreras, Las Cruces Sun News, October 29, 2020.
- "Facebook’s Election-Week War on Accountability is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong," Andrew Crocker, Cory Doctorow, and Naomi Gilens, Electronic Freedom Foundation, October 27, 2020.
- “Why aren’t Facebook’s emergency measures in place all the time?” New York, October 27, 2020.
- “Facebook moves to block academic research into micro-targeting of political ads,” Forbes, October 27, 2020.
- "Facebook and the NYU Ad Observatory, Facebook’s FTC Decrees, Tradeoffs and Politics," Ben Thompson, Stratechery Blog, October 26, 2020.
- "Facebook fights a browser extension," Casey Newton, Platformer, October 26, 2020.
- "Reporting Recipe: How is your audience targeted by political ads?,"Jeremy B. Merrill, Medium, October 26, 2020.
- "Watchdog Fights Back as Facebook Attempts to Shut Down Research Exposing 'Political Disinformation' in Ad Practices," Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams, October 26, 2020.
- "Facebook Threatens University To End Research About Its Political Ads," Manik Berry, Fossbytes, October 26, 2020.
- "Facebook Tries to Shut Down NYU Study on Targeted Political Ads," Tom Ciccotta, Brietbart, October 26, 2020.
- "Decoder Newsletter: Facebook Trying to Avoid Scrutiny," Viviana Padelli and Margaret Sessa-Hawkins, MapLight, October 26, 2020.
- “Academics, journalists and lawyers rally behind NYU researchers in showdown with Facebook,” October 26, 2020.
- “Why can't questions be asked of Facebook's ads?” The Guardian, October 25, 2020 (opinion)..
- "Facebook to researchers: Stop using our data," Donie O'Sullivan, News 4 Nashville, October 24, 2020.
- "Facebook, NYU researchers tussle over political ads on the social network," Edward Moyer, CNET, October 26, 2020.
- “Facebook demands academics disable ad-targeting data tool,” AP, October 24, 2020
- “Facebook is trying to prevent NYU from examining its political ad-targeting. Researchers say they have no intention of stopping their work,” Business Insider, October 24, 2020.
- Facebook Seeks Shutdown of NYU Research Project Into Political Ad Targeting
- “Facebook wants the NYU Ad Observer to quit collecting data about its ad targeting,” The Verge, October 23, 2020.
- “Facebook tries to block tool aimed at promoting transparency around political ads,” Politico, October 23, 2020.
- “Facebook fights NYU political ad research project, argues it violates the site's data collection policies,” The Hill, October 23, 2020.
- "Facebook Promised To Label Political Ads, But Ads For Biden, The Daily Wire, And Interest Groups Are Slipping Through,” October 22, 2020.
- "Seeing a lot of political ads on Facebook? Here’s who’s putting them there,” NJ.com, October 22, 2020.
- "How to tell who’s behind political messages flooding screens in Colorado ahead of the 2020 election," October 21, 2020.
- “Trumpcare” Does Not Exist. Nevertheless Facebook and Google Cash In on Misleading Ads for “Garbage” Health Insurance,” October 20, 2020.
- Social media ads another battleground to reach voters in Missouri governor’s race,” Missouri Independent, October 20, 2020.
- "Pro-Trump and pro-Biden PACs spread debunked Facebook ads in Wisconsin," Wisconsin Watch, October 17, 2020.
- "We need universal digital ad transparency now" Laura Edelson, Jason Chuang, and Erika Franklin Fowler, TechCrunch, October 16, 2020. (opinion)
- “After recent surge, Trump is outpacing Biden on Facebook ad buys in battleground states,” October 13, 2020.
- “KSL Investigates: Who is behind the millions in Facebook political ads targeting Utah?”October 9, 2020.
- "Since Trump’s COVID-19 Diagnosis, His Campaign Has Spent More Than $500,000 on Facebook Ads About It," Sam Sabin, Morning Consult, October 9, 2020.
- Partisan local websites masquerading as traditional news outlets target Michigan voters, Detroit Free Press, October 7, 2020.
- “As election nears, campaigns spend millions on TV ads, and millions more on Facebook,” ABC11 (North Carolina), September 30 2020.
- “SENATE RACE DATA: Graham, Harrison races spend millions on Facebook ads,” WMBF (South Carolina), September 30, 2020.
- "Website: Trump leads all Facebook ad spending in New Mexico,” AP, September 28, 2020.
- "The technology that powers the 2020 campaigns, explained,” Technology Review, September 28, 2020.
- “Trump's Crime and Carnage Ad Blitz is Going Unanswered on Facebook,” Slate, September 23, 2020.
- "TOOL REVEALS TOP SPENDERS ON FACEBOOK POLITICAL ADS," Karl Greenberg, Futurity, September 23, 2020.
- “Buzz: Ivanka for president, Trump beating Biden on Facebook, another Electoral College win?” Washington Examiner, September 23, 2020.
- “Record-breaking GOP fundraising haul, just in time for final Trump push,” Washington Examiner, September 20, 2020.
- "Election Countdown: RBG's death ups stakes with just 45 days to go,” Palm Beach Post, September 19, 2020.
- “McGrath vs McConnell — who’s spent the most on Facebook?,” Forward Kentucky, September 19, 2021.
- “How much have local congressional candidates spent on Facebook ads?,” Palm Beach Post, September 18, 2020.
- "A new research tool, NYU Ad Observatory, tracks political advertising on Facebook," Karl Greenberg, EurekAlert, September 15, 2020.
- "OpenSecrets unveils new online ads database," Open Secrets, September 3, 2020.
- “Does Facebook still sell discriminatory ads?” August 25, 2020.
- "HOW POLITICAL AD TRANSPARENCY CAN HELP FIX DEMOCRACY’S CYBERSECURITY PROBLEM," Nancy Watzman, Democracy Fund, August 7, 2020.
- “Republicans and Democrats battle over who has better voter data effort,” Roll Call, July 29, 2020.
- “China's hidden targeting of Donald Trump one reason Facebook needs new cybersecurity approach,” Laura Edelson and Sheila Krumholz, USA Today, May 27, 2020. (opinion)