About this episode
Samantha Bradshaw is a researcher at the Computational Propaganda Project and a doctoral candidate at the Oxford Internet Institute . She’s been tracking the phenomenon of political manipulation through social media. You can find Samantha on Twitter at @sbradshaww . The YC podcast is hosted by Craig Cannon . *** Topics :53 - What is a bot? 2:53 - When computational propaganda began 3:53 - Changes in bot tactics since 2016 5:53 - Using bots for content creation 7:28 - WhatsApp and the upcoming Indian election 9:23 - Trends in computational propaganda 10:53 - How bots integrate into platforms 13:23 - Responsibilities of platforms to remove fake accounts 14:53 - The role of governments in media manipulation 18:18 - Fake news and selecting news that aligns with your beliefs 19:53 - Are platforms getting better or worse? 21:33 - Samantha's personal internet habits 23:03 - Sentiment around tracking in the UK vs the US 24:23 - The Mueller report and US midterms 29:18 - Canadian elections 30:18 - 2020 US elections 30:53 - Deepfakes 31:48 - Optimistic thoughts for the future 33:08 - How to help against computational propaganda