We live in a world of technologies that misdirect our attention, poison our political conversations, and jeopardize our democracies. In his book: ‘Lie Machines: How to Save Democracy from Troll Armies, Deceitful Robots, Junk News Operations, and Political Operatives’, through analysis of social media and public polling data, in-depth interviews with political consultants, bot writers, and journalists, Philip Howard: Professor of Internet Studies at the Oxford Internet Institute, offers ways to take these “lie machines” apart.

In this episode of Between the Lines, IDS Digital and Technology researcher, Tony Roberts, speaks with Philip about how digital technologies are used to produce, distribute and market political lies, how strategies differ in different countries, and how the disinformation landscape is evolving.

Philip Howard is the Director of the Computation Propaganda research project and author of over 120 academic articles and 8 books including The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, and the edited collection on Computational Propaganda.

With thanks to:

• Kelly Shephard introduces the podcast.
• Sarah King produces and edits the podcast series and created the artwork.
• Music credit: Crypt of Insomnia/One Day in Africa (instrumental version)/Getty Images

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