Subject: Case studies for Tomorrow's Launch
From: "Ken Wollack" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2017 12:49:33 -0400

Given our discussions in Kyiv on disinformation, I thought you would want
to have more information on tomorrow's event at 8:30 am at the NDI offices.

The nine case studies that will be launche at the NDI event with Oxford
Internet Institute's Project on Algorithms, Computational Propaganda, and
Digital Politics
<https://www.ndi.org/disinfoweek-computational-propaganda-worldwide-dc-briefing>
can be found here <http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/>.  The full executive
summary can be found here
<http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/06/Casestudies-ExecutiveSummary.pdf>,
the US case study here
<http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/06/Comprop-USA.pdf>,
and the Russia case study here
<http://comprop.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/89/2017/06/Comprop-Russia.pdf>.

For those that are more inclined to video, Phil Howard, who, along with Sam
Woolley, will be presenting some of the data from the case studies
tomorrow, gave his inaugural lecture at Oxford on June 15th, with the
title:  Is Social Media Killing Democracy? Computational Propaganda,
Algorithms, Automation and Public Life
<https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/videos/is-social-media-killing-democracy-computational-propaganda-algorithms-automation-and-public-life/>.
  It is an Oxford inaugural lecture, replete with a beadle escorting Phil
in white tie --- rather than a TED talk, and doesn't get into bots and the
US elections until almost 20 minutes in, but useful as well.   Abstract of
the Talk:

*The design and implementation of social media platforms has put several
advanced democracies into a kind of democratic deficit. First, social
algorithms allow fake news stories from untrustworthy sources to spread
like wildfire over networks of family and friends. Second, social media
algorithms provide very real structure to what political scientists often
call “elective affinity” or “selective exposure”. We prefer to strengthen
our ties to the people and organizations we already know and like. Third,
technology companies, including Facebook and Twitter, have been given a
moral pass on the normative obligations for democratic discourse that we
hold journalists and civil society groups to. *

Please let me know if you are interested in attending.

With best regards,

Ken

​Kenneth Wollack
President
National Democratic Institute
455 Massachusetts Ave., NW, 8th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
202-728-5500 (Tel)
888-875-2887 (Fax)
email: [email-masked]
website: www.ndi.or