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submitted 1 year ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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.

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[-] Wooster@startrek.website 184 points 1 year ago

Reminds me of cigarette companies burying research on lung disease.

[-] WashedOver@lemmy.ca 126 points 1 year ago

Or the Oil industry hiding and then discrediting their own research into climate change?

[-] supercritical@lemmy.world 79 points 1 year ago

Or the oil industry hiring economists to refute other economists conclusions when it comes to damages from oil spills (see Exxon Valdez)

[-] Montagge@kbin.social 40 points 1 year ago

Or the sugar industry convincing everyone that fat was the problem

[-] ItsMeSpez@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Not to mention hiding the huge amount of slave labour that goes into sugar production.

[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago

Or the sugar industry burying studies blaming obesity on sugar (and blaming fatty foods instead)

[-] agitatedpotato@lemmy.world 112 points 1 year ago

When the truth makes profit uncomfortable, guess who's gonna overpower who.

[-] elbarto777@lemmy.world 46 points 1 year ago

And just like that, I lost a lot of trust on Harvard.

Harvard is where they got caught taking money from the sugar lobby and put out a paper pointing away from sugar as a leading cause of heart disease and towards saturated fat. This changed health policy in America, killing who knows how many.

Harvard has deserved no credibility for longer than we've been alive.

[-] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 75 points 1 year ago
[-] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Yeah, they're like "sure, we'll happily shit this down for half a billion, just give us time to make it seem legit!"

[-] PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works 48 points 1 year ago

Dr. Donovan is a fucking legend. You fucked up with this move, Harvard.

And if you want to see more about her, there’s tons of her speeches and interviews online.

[-] RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

Of course they shut it down, the problem with disinformation is solved!

(/s)

[-] neptune@dmv.social 14 points 1 year ago

It turns out free speech has been limited on campuses after all!

Seems foolish in the face of AGI around the corner. We will be able to have as many disinformation researchers as we desire, even personal ones.

[-] vrighter@discuss.tchncs.de 36 points 1 year ago

agi is not around the corner. not by a long shot. We have simbly automated bullshit generators

[-] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 year ago

For AGI to be a thing, we first need to have the computer be able to communicate with us.

LLMs are just the first step, an important one at that.

It is like claiming babies learning to talk are bullshit generators, before you know it they surpass you in every way shape and form.

That really has not been my experience with ChatGPT4+. It is getting very good and catches me off guard daily with it level of understanding. Sure it makes mistakes and it laughably off base at times, but so are we all as we learn about a complex world.

this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
752 points (100.0% liked)

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