CSEC 448: Online Misinformation and Disinformation Operations

A hands-on course in which students familiarize themselves with the concepts of information operations, dissemination of misinformation and disinformation online (e.g. social media platforms, Wikipedia, forums, chatrooms, etc.), fact checking, automated detection, evasion, and the lifecycle of alternative narratives. Antecedents, cognitive predispositions, and the history of misinformation and disinformation in human evolution as well as societies are also discussed. Students work on the design of an experimental social media platform for socially calibrated misinformation and disinformation containment for their final project.