Data & Society

Data & Society is amongst the top research institutes focused on the social and cultural issues arising from data-centric and automated technologies. The Institute’s Media Manipulation Initiative (MMI) examines how different groups use the participatory culture of the internet to turn the strengths of a free society into vulnerabilities. Efforts to exploit media can catalyze social change, sow dissent, and challenge the stability of social institutions. This Initiative explores the social, political, and economic incentives to game online platforms—especially in cases where attackers intend to destabilize democratic, social, or economic institutions. Through empirical research, MMI tracks the unintended consequences of these systems, with an eye towards increasing capacity across fields to take action.