https://player.captivate.fm/episode/1d1b285c-2b51-4848-9985-59b42f89ac17
Digital communications platforms—from social networks to instant messaging services—reshape the pathways through which information travels, fundamentally changing how people interact, interpret events and build consensus around shared challenges.
A coalition of more than a dozen researchers across multiple institutions studying technology, behavior and complex systems now contends that understanding communications technology's effects on collective behavior demands recognition as a crisis discipline. The group emphasizes that "the vulnerability of these systems to misinformation and disinformation poses a dire threat to health, peace, global climate and more."
In a paper appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers urge both academic experts and platform executives to adopt a Hippocratic oath, committing themselves to "first to do no harm to humanity."
The research team includes Joseph B. Bak-Coleman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public and lead author; Carl T. Bergstrom, a UW biology professor and Center member; and Rachel Moran, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center who focuses on disinformation and trust dynamics in information systems.
Source: Tech Policy Press
