Democracy Dies in Darkness

Harvard is shutting down project that studied social media misinformation

The school’s Technology and Social Change Project, which published research on covid misinformation and the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, will end in 2024

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February 2, 2023 at 6:19 p.m. EST
Joan Donovan testifying before Congress in 2020. (Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post)
4 min

Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government said Thursday that it will shut down a prominent research center that studied online misinformation next year, marking the latest turning point for the study of social media’s impact on American society and politics.

Since 2019, the Technology and Social Change Project has published research into the spread of coronavirus hoaxes and the online incitement techniques that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. It will wind down due to a school policy that requires a faculty member lead such an undertaking, Nancy Gibbs, the director of the Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy, said in an internal email shared with The Washington Post.