NSF Convergence Accelerator Track F: Expert Voices Together: Building Trust in Communication Systems by Addressing Online Abuse and Harassment

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This project addresses the links between two significant problems impacting trust in contemporary communication systems: (1) the broad and rapid spread of misinformation and (2) abuse and harassment directed at members of expert communities. Misinformation-driven harassment campaigns have particularly large impacts on those at the forefront of efforts to accurately inform the public, including journalists, scientists, and public health officials. As a result, this harassment undermines confidence in pivotal sources of knowledge and reduces expert participation in the information ecosystem. This project will develop Expert Voices Together (EVT), a socio-technical system that provides real-time support to experts experiencing online harassment. The project will initially focus on supporting journalists, later expanding its reach to other expert communities. EVT aims to support experts in moments of crisis, while also building individual, organizational, and societal capacity to prevent and mitigate harms from online abuse and harassment in the long term. The team of scientists, technical specialists, psychologists, as well as civil society and media representatives will bring together their expertise in a wide range of fields—including mis-/disinformation studies, data ethics, systems engineering, experimental and clinical psychology, human-computer interaction, case management, journalism and mass communication practice and research—to create a rapid-response socio-technical system that supports journalists and other experts facing online abuse and harassment. The system will comprise a secure, rapid-response technical platform, support from trained case managers, and an intervention “toolkit”. Tailored to meet the specific needs of each user, the EVT toolkit will offer a menu of options, including: (1) personalized assistance with digital safety and security, (2) support monitoring and reporting abuse, and (3) help identifying and building a community care system. Grounded in best practices from trauma-informed care, the community care system in particular is designed to bring together peers, friends, family, colleagues, and mental health care specialists who can provide support for the expert facing online abuse, while also helping to build long-term resilience within social networks, institutions, and society as a whole This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.