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Stanford Internet Observatory
The Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) was a multidisciplinary program for the study of abuse in information technologies, with a focus on social media, established in 2019. It is part of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, a joint initiative of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford Law School. The program ended in 2024.
Alex Stamos founded the Stanford Internet Observatory in 2019, after leaving Facebook the year before over frustrations that he was not allowed to publish the full account of Russia's influence operations on the platform in the 2016 US Presidential elections.
According to Lauren Coffey of Inside Higher Ed, by 2024 the Stanford Internet Observatory had "published 15 white paper reports, 10 journal articles and garnered more than 5,000 media mentions".
The SIO was the first to out Russian support for Trump online in 2016, raised China spying concerns around the Clubhouse app in a 2021 report, partnered with the Wall Street Journal in a 2023 report on Instagram and online child sexual abuse materials, and developed a curriculum for teaching college students how to handle trust and safety issues on social media platforms.
The Stanford Internet Observatory participated in pre-2020 election research focusing on misinformation about election processes and procedures, resulting in a 2021 report that concluded "The 2020 election demonstrated that actors—both foreign and domestic—remain committed to weaponizing viral false and misleading narratives to undermine confidence in the US electoral system and erode Americans’ faith in our democracy".
SIO co-founded the Election Integrity Partnership along with the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public to identify real-time viral falsehoods about election procedures and outcomes. The partnership worked the 2020 and 2022 election cycles and has since concluded their work. The lawsuits, which were eventually dismissed, as well as rhetoric about the research and work, however, resulted in scaled back or shut down research on elections by 2024. Researchers also received threats and online harassment from disinformation about their research. As of 2024, the Center for an Informed Public continued to work on election misinformation at the University of Washington.
In 2021, SIO launched the Journal of Online Trust and Safety, an open access peer-reviewed journal covering research on how consumer internet services are abused to cause harm and how to prevent those harms.
The Stanford Internet Observatory was praised as "the gold-standard organization for determining the veracity of political information circulating online" by Thom Hartmann of The New Republic.
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Stanford Internet Observatory
The Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) was a multidisciplinary program for the study of abuse in information technologies, with a focus on social media, established in 2019. It is part of the Stanford Cyber Policy Center, a joint initiative of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Stanford Law School. The program ended in 2024.
Alex Stamos founded the Stanford Internet Observatory in 2019, after leaving Facebook the year before over frustrations that he was not allowed to publish the full account of Russia's influence operations on the platform in the 2016 US Presidential elections.
According to Lauren Coffey of Inside Higher Ed, by 2024 the Stanford Internet Observatory had "published 15 white paper reports, 10 journal articles and garnered more than 5,000 media mentions".
The SIO was the first to out Russian support for Trump online in 2016, raised China spying concerns around the Clubhouse app in a 2021 report, partnered with the Wall Street Journal in a 2023 report on Instagram and online child sexual abuse materials, and developed a curriculum for teaching college students how to handle trust and safety issues on social media platforms.
The Stanford Internet Observatory participated in pre-2020 election research focusing on misinformation about election processes and procedures, resulting in a 2021 report that concluded "The 2020 election demonstrated that actors—both foreign and domestic—remain committed to weaponizing viral false and misleading narratives to undermine confidence in the US electoral system and erode Americans’ faith in our democracy".
SIO co-founded the Election Integrity Partnership along with the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public to identify real-time viral falsehoods about election procedures and outcomes. The partnership worked the 2020 and 2022 election cycles and has since concluded their work. The lawsuits, which were eventually dismissed, as well as rhetoric about the research and work, however, resulted in scaled back or shut down research on elections by 2024. Researchers also received threats and online harassment from disinformation about their research. As of 2024, the Center for an Informed Public continued to work on election misinformation at the University of Washington.
In 2021, SIO launched the Journal of Online Trust and Safety, an open access peer-reviewed journal covering research on how consumer internet services are abused to cause harm and how to prevent those harms.
The Stanford Internet Observatory was praised as "the gold-standard organization for determining the veracity of political information circulating online" by Thom Hartmann of The New Republic.
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