Harvard, big-tech money, and the whistleblower
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2023
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
As social media disinformation grows, academics are studying its harms. But big-tech funding at universities is creating a fraught power dynamic that recently erupted at Harvard, where a researcher claimed Meta forced her ouster amid critical research.
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Silicon Valley tech giants, including Google and Facebook parent Meta, are increasingly influential at universities across the United States, with ramped-up charitable giving. The donations can give the companies influence over academics studying critical topics such as artificial intelligence, social media and disinformation.
But as technology reporter Joseph Menn explains, some researchers are raising concerns that increasing dependence on tech companies’ funding can create a troubling power dynamic. Recently, a disinformation researcher, Joan Donovan, filed complaints with state and federal officials against Harvard University. Donovan claims that the personal connections of Meta executives — along with a $500 million grant for research — were behind her ouster this year from the Harvard Kennedy School. Harvard has denied that it was improperly influenced.
Today’s show was produced by Arjun Singh. It was mixed by Sean Carter. It was edited by Monica Campbell. Thank you to Mark Seibel.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My work is used by people in national security. I was just on the hill talking to several |
| 0:08.8 | congressional offices on Thursday and the staffers told me we feel the absence of your voice. |
| 0:16.2 | We depend on your research. |
| 0:18.4 | Joan Donovan is an assistant professor at Boston University and one of the world's leading experts in disinformation. |
| 0:25.7 | She studied how people can get radicalized online and how social media can have real world |
| 0:30.7 | consequences like the January 6th attack on the capital. |
| 0:34.9 | Recently Donovan said that she was silenced by her former employer, |
| 0:38.9 | Harvard University. |
| 0:41.2 | They stopped me from being able to use my research funding. They took away or |
| 0:47.6 | terminated the position of research director that I was in and they got rid of my team. |
| 0:54.0 | And since leaving Harvard, Donovan has blown the whistle. |
| 0:58.0 | She's accusing the university of bowing to pressure from Meta, |
| 1:01.0 | formerly known as Facebook. |
| 1:03.6 | Donovan was increasingly critical of Meta |
| 1:06.0 | because of the dangers she said the platform poses |
| 1:09.4 | to society worldwide. |
| 1:10.9 | This is probably the. worldwide. |
| 1:13.0 | This is probably the biggest issue coming to my mind that relates to technology and the pace of |
| 1:20.8 | disinformation is unfortunately accelerating. |
| 1:23.7 | Joseph Mann covers technology for the post and he has been closely following |
| 1:28.1 | Donovan's case against Harvard. |
| 1:30.5 | That's because he says, if Meta really did influence Harvard to push Donovan out because of her research about Facebook, |
... |
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