Welcome to The American Sunlight Project!
Nina fell into the study of disinformation because our nation faced an exigent threat: Russia, which had been using influence operations for decades, had perfected online information operations in Central and Eastern Europe, and was training its new tools on the United States. We all know what came next. Russia interfered in our democracy. Contrary to popular belief, Moscow did not only work to swing the 2016 election, and it didn’t only support President Trump. It amplified divisions in our society because those divisions made America weaker.
Today, those divisions are wider than ever, and despite a mountain of evidence of the harm online disinformation causes in the real world, the United States has done little to improve the health of our information environment. This inaction has left our nation exposed ahead of the 2024 election. And there is a coordinated effort ongoing to keep it that way.
Since April 2022, extremists have been running a campaign to undermine critical disinformation research ahead of the 2024 election and beyond. Encompassing elected officials, conservative media, attorneys, paid-for ‘journalists,’ and online influencers, the campaign has falsely claimed the Federal Government is overseeing a vast censorship regime in coordination with social media platforms, academic institutions, and civil society organizations. It has relied on widespread smears against individual researchers and government employees, which have led to online and offline threats against them and their families, and a chilling effect across the research community.
We believe this campaign represents the greatest threat to freedom of expression and academic integrity since the McCarthy Era. The researchers are the canaries in the coal mine, and those canaries are getting snuffed out. Meanwhile, more foreign adversaries are engaging in information warfare. Artificial intelligence is supercharging disinformation, making it easy for anyone after power or profit to create increasingly realistic fake images, audio, video, or generate targeted text-based disinformation at scale. Without a shared set of facts and a trusted public square, democracy can’t function.
We started The American Sunlight Project to meet this moment. We are launching today with a letter to the Congressional Representatives who have led the intimidation of researchers through their committees.
Over the next few months, we will expose the infrastructure and funding behind the disinformation campaigns that are attempting to undermine American democracy, beginning with the campaign against disinformation research. We are committed to showing our work, and making these open source investigations transparent and accessible.
Finally, we will educate the American public about the threat that disinformation poses to their daily lives. Too often, this issue is presented in an abstract and technical manner, leaving out personal, human impact. I know all too well what being the target of disinformation can do to your safety and security. We’ll be telling stories about the ways disinformation has affected our fellow citizens, and making the case that every American – no matter their political party – should be concerned about it.
In a world clouded by disinformation, The American Sunlight Project is here to bring clarity.
We’re excited to get to work, and we hope you’ll join us.
