March 09, 2022

There’s an information war going on, too

29 minutes

There are no winners in the war in Ukraine. Civilian casualties are mounting as Ukrainians resist Russian invaders. But on social media, things are playing out differently. Laura Edelson, a misinformation researcher and co-director of the Cybersecurity for Democracy project at NYU, says Ukraine is winning the information war. On today’s show, she makes us smart on why that is, where platforms have fallen short in protecting users and what regular folks can do to protect themselves instead. Plus: rising gas prices, eggcorns and a festive answer to the Make Me Smart question.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

“Fact and Mythmaking Blend in Ukraine’s Information War” from The New York Times

“Ukraine misinformation spreads as users share videos out of context” from Axios

“This is how journalists figure out if all those Ukraine videos are real” from The Washington Post

“Biden announces ban on Russian oil imports, other energy products” from ABC News

“Senate passes anti-lynching bill” from NPR

“Why do we import Russian (and other foreign) oil when we have a lot of it in the U.S.?” from Marketplace

“This Is What ‘Eggcorns’ Are (and Why They’re Jar-Droppingly Good)” from Time

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