Interview with Renée DiResta: Online Ecosystems, Disinformation, & Censorship Debates

Decoding the Gurus

We are joined by Renée DiResta a writer and researcher at the Stanford Internet Observatory. Renée has done a lot of interesting work on disinformation and influence campaigns. Including leading an investigation into the Russian Internet Research Agency’s multi-year effort to manipulate American society in the lead-up to the 2016 election. More recently she was dubbed by the writer/conspiracy theorist, Michael Shellenberger, as the leader of 'The Censorship Industry'.

In short, Renée stands accused of serving as an agent of the Distributed Idea Suppression Complex defending the Gated Institutional Narrative. So being good DISC soldiers ourselves we had to follow our orders and host our exalted leader.

We discuss all of this with her and a range of other topics including how important algorithms and bots are in disinformation networks, whether contemporary influence campaigns are really anything new, and how to address debates around censorship and free speech.

We enjoyed the discussion a lot and are sure that you will too... or else...

Also covered in this episode: Eric Weinstein's suggestions for Twitter CEO, evidence of Lex Fridman's pilled brain, and a rather confusing review.

Links

• Renee's Website
• Shellenberger's Substack: Why Renee DiResta Leads The Censorship Industry
• Renee's Response to Shellenberger's claims
• Making Sense Episode 310: Social Media & Public Trust (with Renee, Bari Weiss & Michael Shellenberger)
• Chris' old article on Cambridge Analytica on Medium
• David Pakman: Politics of Trump, Biden, Bernie, AOC, Socialism & Wokeism | Lex Fridman Podcast #375
• Report: The Tactics & Tropes of the Internet Research Agency
• Gurwinder- The Perils of Audience Capture