Facts and Their Discontents: A Research Agenda for Online Disinformation, Race, & Gender

Many disinformation campaigns are specifically designed with racist and/or misogynistic content, suggesting that disinformation is a tool used to promote ideologies like white supremacy. This report outlines findings from various studies regarding online disinformation, race, and gender. Results show that there were racially targeted disinformation campaigns aimed at suppressing votes from communities of color in the last three major elections in the U.S.; disinformation tactics include the use of “digital blackface/brownface”; Spanish-speaking communities are particularly vulnerable to disinformation; and more. Building on this research, this report identifies unresolved research questions around the intersections of online disinformation, race, and gender, and provides recommendations for how to tackle the related methodological and technical problems that researchers and others face in addressing these topics.