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# Covert Contact 90: Combatting Misinformation
- URL: https://johnwlittle.com/combatting-misinformation/
- Published: 2018-01-02T01:55:37.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-17T01:01:21.000Z
- Description: Andrew Trabulsi joins me to discuss the response to misinformation: platform policies, technical tools, public education, and the need to understand why manipulation works. We also look at messaging apps and fabricated participation in policy debates.
- Author: John Little
- Tags: Covert Contact, Andrew Trabulsi, Technology, Propaganda, Information Warfare, Misinformation

Andrew Trabulsi returns to discuss what it will take to counter misinformation after the increased public attention surrounding the 2016 election. Awareness has grown, but the next step is much harder: understanding how campaigns operate and developing responses that can work across the wider information environment.

We begin with the relationship between familiar propaganda techniques and the scale made possible by the internet. The underlying methods have a long history, while automation, distribution, and targeting give them a different reach. Andrew argues that responses focused on a single platform can miss much of the activity. Narratives can move through networks of websites, search results, social accounts, and established media, so the connections between them deserve attention.

We discuss several approaches being explored at the time: detecting coordinated behavior, improving transparency around political advertising, addressing fraudulent accounts, and using artificial intelligence and natural language processing to analyze large amounts of content. Changes to platform policies and business practices may help sooner than some automated tools, but neither approach removes the need to understand why particular audiences find a message persuasive. Education, psychology, and the surrounding political conditions all matter.

Andrew uses the FCC’s net-neutrality public comment process to illustrate how the problem reaches beyond misleading news stories. He describes analysis that found signs of automated comments designed to resemble independent public responses. If manufactured participation overwhelms genuine contributions, the integrity of a policy debate is at stake. We also consider how rumors spread through messaging applications, where the challenges differ from those on public social networks.

Looking toward the 2018 and 2020 elections, we discuss reasons for cautious optimism about collaboration among technology companies, researchers, journalists, and government. Effective responses will also need to protect ordinary users’ ability to speak. The goal is sustained improvement in detection and resilience, with the understanding that misinformation is a persistent problem rather than one a single intervention will eliminate.