BBC Breakfast interview on social media content moderation
This week I was interviewed by BBC Tech editor Zoe Kleinman. It was for a piece on the human cost of social media content moderation. We discussed whether it was possible for AI to replicate the job done by human moderators. I argued that human moderation was necessary, but that these jobs are very harmful to those who do them.
The clip can be viewed below.
I also contributed to this article exploring the human costs of moderating traumatic images and videos.
Many thanks to Zoe, Georgina and the BBC crew for the chat, and to Charlotte Morris for helping organise this.
I have written an essay for the Glasgow Social Sciences Hub. My essay discusses why social media is an unreliable barometer of public opinion. I argue that bot activity and manipulation gave US voters a skewed reality. This happened in the run-up to the 2024 US Presidential Election. I also point to the problem of information pollution and how citizens actively avoid news on these platforms.
Thanks to Charlotte Morris for the support in getting this out. The piece can be read in full here.
Donald Trump criticised for spreading misinformation about Hurricane Hélène
Last week I spoke to Sebastian Seibt from France 24. We talked about how neo-Nazi groups were using Hurricane Hélène. They aimed to show themselves as civil society actors, amplifying misinformation and conspiracy theories about the relief efforts favouring migrants.
I argued that the misinformation spread by US Presidential candidate Donald Trump was very damaging. His false claims about the Biden administration not supporting victims influenced the behavior of vulnerable citizens. They were more likely to turn to extremist groups like Patriotic Front for information and support than the authorities. In effect, they exploited this crisis to rebrand themselves as legitimate, credible actors.
Last week, Andy Bruce interviewed me. This was for a Reuters piece on the number of British police forces deciding to remove their Twitter/X accounts. I argued that the rise of hate speech, extremist content, and misinformation was a major factor. This led public organisations to leave the microblogging site for other platforms.
Thanks to Andy and Charlotte Morris for the invite. The article can be read in full here.
I am delighted to share a preprint copy of my entry in the forthcoming Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Communication, to be published in 2025.
In ‘Belief Echoes’, I explore how and why people continue to believe false information even when it has been debunked or factchecked. I draw on examples from my own research on Northern Ireland and the COVID-19 pandemic to show how there is often a small proportion of the population who continue to remain within epistemic bunkers revolving around misinformation and half-truths.
Many thanks to the editors (Alessandro Nai, Max Grömping, and Dominique Wirz) for all their work bringing together the 430+ entries (from 570+ authors) in the Encyclopedia. I look forward to reading the final version when it’s out early next year.
The preprint version of my entry can be read here.
“The book enables a wide range of readers – academic scholars and researchers, but also citizens and activists – to grasp the relevance of contentious politics and how these are articulated and disputed in the digital era, especially in our increasingly datafied social world”
“This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the context of NI as a divided society, understanding the recent history of local protests and disputes (between 2012-2015) and the wider scene of the relations between NI, Ireland, and the UK”
“Overall, this book offers valuable and detailed insights into the ways that digital media shape and fuel contentious politics, social mobilisation and citizenship. It shows how online platforms can impact polarised societies negatively, by reproducing prejudice and hate speech, but also positively by managing inter-group tensions, avoiding violence and social unrest, and providing informal learning”
“This work can help academics, activists, political and media experts, as well as the general public evaluate the occurrence of disputable events, such as protests and demonstration parades, within profoundly fragmented contexts like NI particularly in the face of rising mis- and dis-information in the digital age”
I am very grateful to Penny for such a thoughtful review of the book, which can be read in full here
I have had an op-ed published on LBC Views yesterday. I discussed how social media platforms will face penalties for not doing more to combat online misinformation and hate speech that contributed to the UK riots. I also argued that politicians and public figures who have created a toxic discourse around immigration need to take some of the blame for the civil unrest too.
Thanks to Katy Rankin for the invitation. The post can be read here
On Saturday I appeared on BBC Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme to discuss freedom of expression online. Suzanne Whitten (Queen’s University Belfast) and I discussed a variety of topics including Twitter/X owner Elon Musk’s claims to be a ‘free speech absolutist’, what type of platform regulation might emerge after the UK riots, and the contested definition of ‘free speech’.
Many thanks to Brian and the GMS team for the invitation. The segment can be listened to here.
Yesterday I had an op-ed published in The Scotsman. In ‘Social media tycoon won’t act to ditch harmful content, I review the various ways online platforms could be better regulated in order to avoid a repeat of the misinformation linked to the recent violence in the UK. These include calls for temporary shutdowns, stronger financial penalties, and even the suspension of operating licences. I also discuss the ways citizens can counteract hate speech and msinformation that contributes to civil unrest.
Many thanks to Charlotte Morris for helping arrange this. It can be read in full here.
Delighted to have written an article for VIEWdigital on the responsibility of social media for amplifying hateful content during the UK riots. I argue that there are some steps that users can take to mitigate its impact if platforms are unwilling to take stronger action on hate speech and misinformation.
Many thanks to Brian Pelan and Una Murphy for the invitation. The article can be read here
Dr Paul Reilly 
