In an op-ed in Fortune, Sarah Kreps, the John L. Wetherill Professor of government, and Douglas Kriner, the Clinton Rossiter Professor in American Institutions, write that in attempting to fight misinformation about Joe Biden and Ukraine, social media giants Facebook and Twitter became the story.
“With the election imminent, social media platforms find themselves once again in the awkward position of being the referee deciding whether to call a penalty kick in overtime,” Kreps and Kriner write in the piece. “Especially since this summer, social media platforms have also taken the unprecedented steps of flagging and even deleting false or misleading claims by politicians, including most recently a post by President Trump claiming that COVID-19 was 'less lethal' than the flu.”
Sreang Hok/Cornell University
At center, holding her award, is Abra Geiger ’26, recipient of the 2026 University Relations Campus-Community Leadership Award. Left to right, with her are Erik Herman, creative director of the Free Science Workshop/Ithaca Physics Bus; Kyle Kimball, vice president for university relations; Cassaundra Guzman, McNair Program advisor/coordinator; and Marla Love, Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students.
