{"id":80703,"date":"2021-02-09T09:04:55","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T14:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sis.utk.edu\/?p=80703"},"modified":"2021-02-09T09:04:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T14:04:55","slug":"sis-assistant-professor-ben-horne-to-moderate-panel-on-social-media-and-the-rise-of-extremism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cci.utk.edu\/sis\/2021\/02\/09\/sis-assistant-professor-ben-horne-to-moderate-panel-on-social-media-and-the-rise-of-extremism\/","title":{"rendered":"SIS Assistant Professor Ben Horne to Moderate Panel on Social Media and the Rise of Extremism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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SIS Assistant Professor Ben Horne<\/a> has focused much of his research on how misinformation and disinformation spreads online \u2013 a topic that has been pushed to the forefront this past year as internet conspiracy theories and extremism have been connected to the January 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot. While it may be a fairly new concept for the general public, Horne and others who conduct similar research have long known about this insidious dark side of the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people who have opinions on extremism on platforms because it\u2019s gained mainstream light due to recent events, but it\u2019s important to take into account experts who have been studying it for years. It\u2019s not suddenly a topic due to one event, it\u2019s been growing for some time,\u201d Horne said. \u201cWe want to have experts to discuss what is really going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that vein, Horne will moderate an upcoming panel featuring three experts discussing this topic \u2013 \u201cThe Rise of Extremist Movements on Social Media: A Conversation with the Experts\u201d \u2013 during the University of Tennessee\u2019s Social Media Week. This panel will be 1-1:50 p.m. Feb. 24, and you can join it via Zoom at https:\/\/tennessee.zoom.us\/s\/95338519342<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social Media Week<\/a> is open to anyone who wants to attend, and Horne is encouraging information sciences students to pop into this session to learn more about topics such as content moderation, information sharing, and user behaviors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of (SIS students) will get jobs where they\u2019re analyzing or building information systems, and you can think of these social networks as information systems that are dealing with the problem of content moderation right now. So having a discussion about content moderation and how a system is being impacted by the behavior of users is a good discussion for our future graduates who may deal with this very same problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Horne said this line of research can get so heavy at times that he has to step back from it and take a break. He\u2019s recently started studying users who move to alternative platforms so they can share unmoderated content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a reason you don\u2019t want this type of material to be exposed too broadly in the public. Researchers have expressed it\u2019s hard to do qualitative and quantitively research on these platforms just due to how dark it is, but someone has to do it,\u201d Horne said. \u201cAttending this panel will give you an in-depth perspective you may not get from the news right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Horne reached out through his connections to get these experts to be on the panel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n