Cybersecurity for Democracy

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Cybersecurity for Democracy

Testimony of Laura Edelson, NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy

Before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee

14 min readOct 1, 2021

Screen grab of a tweet from Cybersecurity for Democracy that reads: “Every day that my team cannot access the data needed to do their research puts us further behind in the race to find answers.”

Cybersecurity for Democracy
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Cybersecurity for Democracy

Too little, too late

By the time harmful content posted to Facebook during the Capitol riot period came down, millions had already engaged

4 min readJan 6, 2023

Cybersecurity for Democracy
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Cybersecurity for Democracy

Spending on 2020 Spanish-language political ads on Meta lagged behind English-language ads

Five things you can learn from Ad Observatory about digital political advertising

Getting started with insights on political messaging across Facebook and Instagram

4 min readAug 3, 2022

Five things you can learn from Ad Observatory about digital political advertising

Cybersecurity for Democracy
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Cybersecurity for Democracy

New, enhanced AdObservatory.org provides transparency & insights on digital political spending

Free, public research tool, available in English & Spanish, features data viz on paid messaging across Facebook & Instagram.

3 min readAug 3, 2022

New, enhanced AdObservatory.org provides transparency & insights on digital political spending

Cybersecurity for Democracy
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Cybersecurity for Democracy

YouTube channels with conspiracy content are fertile ground for predatory advertisers

Study reviewed ad traffic on YouTube to learn how conspiracy content is monetized

4 min readJul 13, 2022

YouTube channels with conspiracy content are fertile ground for predatory advertisers

Cybersecurity for Democracy
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Cybersecurity for Democracy

Pursuing platform Transparency in 2022

Mozilla, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and Cybersecurity for Democracy are co-hosting a discussion about what’s…

2 min readJan 10, 2022

Cybersecurity for Democracy
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Cybersecurity for Democracy

Researchers’ audit reveals flaws in Facebook’s identification of political ads

Where the platform enforced its policy, or should have, it was wrong more often than right

4 min readDec 9, 2021

Researchers’ audit reveals flaws in Facebook’s identification of political ads

Cybersecurity for Democracy
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Cybersecurity for Democracy

Ad Observer over collection incident report

Tl;dr: The Ad Observer team discovered that a code formatting change by Facebook led to Ad Observer’s inadvertent collection of the top…

3 min readNov 11, 2021

Cybersecurity for Democracy
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Cybersecurity for Democracy

Understanding Engagement with (Mis)Information News Sources on Facebook

Posts from misinformation news sources got six times more engagement than factual information in lead up to 2020 elections

7 min readSep 14, 2021

Testimony of Laura Edelson, NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy

Before the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, U.S. House Science, Space, and Technology Committee

Too little, too late

By the time harmful content posted to Facebook during the Capitol riot period came down, millions had already engaged

Spending on 2020 Spanish-language political ads on Meta lagged behind English-language ads

More complex topic modeling and deeper research is needed on how Spanish-speakers are targeted with misinformation

Five things you can learn from Ad Observatory about digital political advertising

Getting started with insights on political messaging across Facebook and Instagram

New, enhanced AdObservatory.org provides transparency & insights on digital political spending

Free, public research tool, available in English & Spanish, features data viz on paid messaging across Facebook & Instagram.

YouTube channels with conspiracy content are fertile ground for predatory advertisers

Study reviewed ad traffic on YouTube to learn how conspiracy content is monetized

Pursuing platform Transparency in 2022

Mozilla, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and Cybersecurity for Democracy are co-hosting a discussion about what’s…

Researchers’ audit reveals flaws in Facebook’s identification of political ads

Where the platform enforced its policy, or should have, it was wrong more often than right

Ad Observer over collection incident report

Tl;dr: The Ad Observer team discovered that a code formatting change by Facebook led to Ad Observer’s inadvertent collection of the top…

Understanding Engagement with (Mis)Information News Sources on Facebook

Posts from misinformation news sources got six times more engagement than factual information in lead up to 2020 elections

Cybersecurity for Democracy