Kate Starbird

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...

Check out this recent @nature.com paper reporting a field experiment on X. It shows X's algorithm boosts conservative content and downranks traditional media—shifting users’ views on key issues. Switching to chronological doesn’t reverse the effect. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The real story is that foreign governments try to interfere with elections in the U.S. all the time. In 2020 and 2024, the U.S. had private and public infrastructure in place to catch them, call them out, and mitigate the damage. Now, those mechanisms are gone, intentionally undermined and dismantled by the Trump administration. Instead of securing our elections, it seems that the current administration would prefer to exploit the spectre of “foreign interference” to justify its own *federal interference* in the upcoming midterm election.

Yesterday, Trump tried to justify the attack on Iran with rehashed claims of "election interference" from 2020 and 2024. Here's my 2 cents on what that was all about:
katestarbird.substack.com/p/the-electi...

AI poem and committee swapping: How Utah Republicans helped an anti-vote-by-mail bill get traction Republican lawmakers manipulated Utah’s legislative process to ensure a bill that would impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots would gain traction in the Legislature.

GOP Rep. Jefferson Burton’s bill targeting mail-in voting would disproportionately impact vulnerable communities in Utah that have historically struggled to have their voices heard, including those living in rural areas, disabled Utahns and Native Americans.

Women’s Rights Are Democratic Rights The global authoritarian backlash to gender equality.

"authoritarians have co-opted #technology... The Filipino #journalist @mariaressa.bsky.social, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, has spent years raising the alarm about the dangerous ways the online landscape is being weaponized to silence and intimidate #women, particularly #journalists...

And a graphic that can be easily remixed… is going to get more interaction and lift.

If you don’t have a big platform… the trick would be to get it amplified by those who do. I’d recommend trying to find something visual. A simple graphic that drives the point home.

The general idea is right, but people aren't great at percentages of big numbers... so they may not understand that the numbers are too small to have any impact. But it's worth trying out some possibly refrains along this vein...

The Election Interference Hypocrisy How Trump is using Iran’s “interference” in U.S. elections to justify his own

Here's a link to the Medium post for those who would prefer to read it there: medium.com/@katestarbir...

Also, I've seen some comments alleging that these operations were meant to help Trump, not hurt him. That's a misread of a more complicated story. Renee explains that here: bsky.app/profile/noup...

Tapping into his favorite "rigged election" frame, yesterday Trump repeated allegations of Iranian intereference in U.S. elections to justify US/Israeli strikes on Iran. The hypocrisy of those allegations is telling — and hints towards his own interference plans. I wrote this thread into a blog:

The Election Interference Hypocrisy How Trump is using Iran's past election interference to justify his own

This live now: open.substack.com/pub/katestar...

Hashtag MIGA.

I promise to properly post and provide an alternative Medium link in the morning.

The Election Interference Hypocrisy How Trump is using Iran's past election interference to justify his own

I put this thread on Trump's hypocritical and duplicious claims of Iran's 2020 election interference into a longer form article this evening.

Plus, the Trump admin attacked, defuned, and destroyed the groups charged with protecting elections from those kinds of operations... and are now trying to hypocritically exploit those operations to justify war against Iran and (just wait, it's coming next) federal interference in U.S. elections.

No one is surprised by this.

I was literally pulling up the FBI indictments of the Iranian hackers two days ago for a forthcoming article ab this 🫠

Trump dismantled the entire infrastructure that disrupted this op! Kate and Stamos and I were sued by America First Legal — case is entering its 3rd year. These fucking hacks.

John Arrillaga’s son in law suggested we should be jailed for our work, so that context that might be relevant as well.

Good question. One might look beyond a few lost grants to the more impactful political pressure that (perhaps, if one might speculate) led to the university (and the center that housed the Stanford Internet Observatory) to choose to close SIO.

Also, just the news was the first or second group to run a hit piece on us… they played an early and integral role in disparaging researchers and dismantling the efforts to address foreign interference and now they’re trying to play this from the other side.

Also, me. The source is me. My team was collaborating with the Stanford team, and we saw their research unfold in real time. Then we were all attacked & defunded. And now, we're watching the Trump admin use our work to justify their wars and their own federal election interference in the midterms.

bsky.app/profile/kate...

* and to attempt to justify an unconsitutional war against Iran.

* and to attempt to justify an unconstitutional war with Iran.

The real story is that foreign govts try to "interfere" all the time. In 2020 and 2024 we had mechanisms to catch them, call them out, & mitigate damage. Now, those mechanims are gone & the Trump admin would prefer to exploit "foreign interference" to justify a federal take-over of elections.

Sure. See (just added) thread from here: bsky.app/profile/kate...

The real story is that foreign govts try to "interfere" all the time. In 2020 and 2024 we had mechanisms to catch them, call them out, & mitigate damage. Now, those mechanims are gone & the Trump admin would prefer to exploit "foreign interference" to justify a federal take-over of elections.

The CISA office (which released the above report and mitigated the damage) has, since 2024, been decimated, particulary the groups who worked on protecting U.S. elections. My understanding is academic researchers at Stanford made the original discovery. That lab is gone, defunded and dismantled.

Here's the background on that operation: Iranian agents obtained voter registration data, impersonated Proud Boys and sent intimidating letters to Dem voters. It was discovered (1st by academic researchers, I believe), voters informed, & likely had no effect on election. www.cisa.gov/news-events/...

Here's detail on the operation. The CISA office has, since 2024, been decimated, particulary the groups who worked on protecting U.S. elections. My understanding is academic researchers at Stanford made the original discovery. That lab is gone, defunded and dismantled. www.cisa.gov/news-events/...