My colleague @rrb just sent me this : The Toxic Tales of the 2022 Midterms
Unraveling the Lies, Hate, and Extremism Polluting the Public Square...
And instead of commenting the report, I have questions.
Mainly: as a disinformation analyst, should I be participating in a space that I'm studying (and therefore altering my subject by interacting with it).
@rrb I think this is a genuine question and being here on #Mastodon may provide a beginning of an answer.
Previously I analysed #disinfo operations on Twitter, by publishing on Twitter. Which always seemed to me to be pretty iffy ethically (although, convenient) because I became part (even minutely) of the conversation analysed.
Being here kind of takes me out of the equation, if you get what I mean...
@stephlamy It makes sense to go where the audience is. If you are treating disease you have to deal with the infected. It is a problem which can not be studied with the same distance as ancient history.
@rrb LOL. Ok, so expanding on your analogy: if you're treating the infected, you need to implement barriers. Not saying that I won't plunge into the cesspool to examine it, just saying that Mastodon offers me that extra protection and distance necessary to keep treating the infected.