For years, the public has pressured social media giants to crack down on misinformation, operating under the widespread assumption that if we simply starve these digital echo chambers of false content, political polarization will naturally recede and public trust will be restored. However, a landmark study led by UC Berkeley Ph.D. student Olivier Bergeron-Boutin, conducted in partnership with Meta during the 2020 presidential election, challenges this core belief. By systematically reducing some participants’ exposure to untrustworthy sources by roughly 70%, researchers hoped to see a corresponding shift in political attitudes. Instead, they found that even while what people saw on…

The recent expulsion of Ksenia Fedorova, the former editor-in-chief of RT France, represents a significant escalation in how European nations are confronting the complex issue of foreign media influence. On July 29, French authorities formally served a deportation order to Fedorova’s legal representatives, marking a definitive end to her residency in the country. This move was not merely a bureaucratic action but a pointed assertion of national security policy, framing her presence as fundamentally incompatible with the stability and integrity of the French state. By taking such a strong stance, the government is signaling that it no longer views the…