Former Harvard disinformation scholar says she was pushed out of her job after college faced pressure from Facebook
Source: CNN
Former Harvard disinformation scholar says she was pushed out of her job after college faced pressure from Facebook
By Donie O'Sullivan and Clare Duffy, CNN
4 minute read
Updated 11:02 AM EST, Mon December 4, 2023
(CNN) — A nationally recognized online disinformation researcher has accused Harvard University of shutting down the project she led to protect its relationship with mega-donor and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The allegations, made by Dr. Joan Donovan, raise questions about the influence the tech giant might have over seemingly independent research. Facebook’s parent company Meta has long sought to defend itself against research that implicates it in harming society: from the proliferation of election disinformation to creating addictive habits in children. Details of the disclosure were first reported by The Washington Post.
Beginning in 2018, Donovan worked for the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and ran its Technology and Social Change Research Project, where she led studies of media manipulation campaigns. But last year Harvard informed Donovan it was shutting the project down, Donovan claims.
In a disclosure sent last week to Harvard leaders and US Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and made public on Monday, Donovan alleges that the University began restricting her research after the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative donated $500 million to fund a new university-wide center on artificial intelligence. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is the philanthropy run by Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, who both attended Harvard.
Harvard is strongly disputing Dr. Donovan’s claims. ...
-snip-
Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/04/tech/facebook-disinformation-whistleblower/index.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
