Author archives

Robert W. Gehl, Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice, York University, Canada I am: Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice at York University, and an alumnus of the Fulbright Canada Research Chair program. I'm also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Media, and Film at the University of Calgary. I teach: critical studies of communication technology, new media theory, software studies, basic Web design, and political economy of communication. I research: network cultures and technologies, manipulative communication, alternative social media, and the Dark Web. My books: Social Engineering (2022, MIT Press), co-authored with Sean Lawson, takes up hacker social engineering as a tool to pick apart the past century of manipulative communication, from the early days of public relations to our current time of trolling and misinformation. Weaving the Dark Web (2018, MIT Press), offers a history and sociology of Freenet, Tor, and I2P. Reverse Engineering Social Media (2014, Temple University Press), explores the architecture and political economy of social media. Winner of the 2015 Association of Internet Researchers Nancy Baym Award. Socialbots and Their Friends (2016, Routledge), is a co-edited collection on socialbots.

Citizens’ social media can provide an antidote to propaganda and disinformation

Robert W. Gehl, Ontario Research Chair of Digital Governance for Social Justice, York University, Canada raises an important issue about a recent Pew report on current state of digital media, news and right-wing propaganda. Gehl states the report misses a large number of alternative social media sites that actively and effectively oppose the right-wing propaganda. This distracts us from real-world solutions to the problems of online hate speech, disinformation and surveillance capitalism.

Subjects: Communication Skills, KM, Legal Research, Social Media, Technology Trends