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.

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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