New York Times cites Megan Squire in article on tracking viral misinformation

The Sept. 15 article focused on whether Facebook was sending flawed data to researchers who were tracking misinformation on the site.

A recent examination of how Facebook shared data with researchers tracking misinformation on the social media site included insights from Professor of Computer Science Megan Squire.

Professor of Computer Science Megan Squire
Megan Squire, professor of computer science

The article by reporter Davey Alba details how the information shared by Facebook had a major flaw in that it included interactions of only about half of the platform’s U.S. users, not all. Facebook representatives recently held a call with researchers apologizing for the mistake and among those on the call was Squire, an expert on online extremism.

Experts said that the flaw undermines the trust that those researching online communities and communications have in the social media platform and could negatively impact their research.

“From a human point of view, there were 47 people on that call today and every single one of those projects is at risk, and some are completely destroyed,” Squire told the New York Times in an interview after the call.

Read the entire article here.