the big lie misinformation during election report graphic

Event Info

Virtual 

The long fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 election

Please join us on Wednesday March 3, 2021 from 3:00-4:30 pm EST (12:00-1:30 PST) for The Long Fuse: Misinformation in the 2020 Election, the public launch of a comprehensive report tracking mis- and disinformation in the 2020 election cycle. The report was produced by the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), a coalition of research institutions that worked together to detect and mitigate viral misinformation and to support the real-time information exchange between the research community, election officials, government agencies, civil society organizations, and social media platforms.

The Partnership was set up to monitor false information about the process and results of the 2020 election, in line with the Department of Homeland Security’s designation of elections as critical infrastructure in democracies. In particular, the EIP identified and traced the false “stolen election” narrative which would culminate in the 1/6 attack on the US Capitol. 

The event will begin with a fireside chat with Chris Krebs, the former director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), who led the effort to secure electoral infrastructure and the response to mis- and disinformation during the election period. The conversation will contextualize the role and findings of EIP within the government’s efforts to prevent the spread of malign information. Mr. Krebs will share his lessons learned securing this election and will discuss how to build resilient electoral systems going forward. 

Next, this event will feature a discussion with representatives from each of the EIP Partners: the Stanford Internet ObservatoryGraphika, the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, and the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Panelists will discuss the origins and amplification of voting-related misinformation, charting how these narratives evolved over time. The panel will also discuss the evolution of social media platforms’ civic integrity policies and the effectiveness of their implementation. Finally, the panel will consider how the EIP can serve as a model for future mis- and disinformation monitoring efforts.   

Introductory remarks

Graham Brookie
Director
DFRLab

Alex Stamos
Director
Stanford Internet Observatory

Fireside Chat

Chris Krebs
Founding Partner
Krebs Stamos Group LLC

Moderated by

Isabella Garcia-Camargo
Project Manager
Election Integrity Partnership

Presentation featuring

Emerson Brooking
Resident Senior Fellow
DFRLab

Camille Francois
Chief Innovation Officer
Graphika

Renee DiResta
Research Manager
Stanford Internet Observatory

Kate Starbird
Associate Professor
Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering
University of Washington

Joe Bak-Coleman
Postdoctoral Scholar
Information School
University of Washington

Andrew Beers
Graduate Student
Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE)
University of Washington

Nicole Buckley
Research Analyst
School of Law
University of Washington

Alyssa Kann
Research Assistant
DFRLab

Ian Kennedy
Graduate Student
Sociology
University of Washington

Carly Miller
Research Analyst
Stanford Internet Observatory

Kyle Weiss
Research Analyst
Graphika

Moderated by

Alex Stamos
Director
Stanford Internet Observatory

The Election Integrity Partnership is a coalition of premier research teams focused on supporting real-time monitoring and information exchange between the research community, election officials, government agencies, civil society organizations, and social media platforms. The Partnership, made up of the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), the Stanford Internet Observatory, Graphika, and the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public, was created to detect and mitigate the impact of election and voting related misinformation.

The Election Integrity Partnership coalition