Disinformation Then and Now — with Camille François

Disinformation researchers have been fighting two battles over
the last decade: one to combat and contain harmful information,
and one to convince the world that these manipulations have an
offline impact that requires complex, nuanced solutions. Camille
François, Chief Information Officer at the cybersecurity company
Graphika and an affiliate of the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for
Internet & Society, believes that our common understanding of
the problem has recently reached a new level. In this interview,
she catalogues the key changes she observed between studying
Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election and helping
convene and operate the Election Integrity Partnership watchdog
group before, during and after the 2020 election. “I'm
optimistic, because I think that things that have taken quite a
long time to land are finally landing, and because I think that
we do have a diverse set of expertise at the table,” she says.
Camille and Tristan Harris dissect the challenges and talk about
the path forward to a healthy information ecosystem.