Washington Post: Could Google Tilt a Close Election?

A study by Takis Metaxas, Professor of Computer Science, and Eni Mustafaraj, Norma Wilentz Hess Fellow in Computer Science was cited in a recent opinion article in the Washington Post. Their paper, "Social Media and the Elections," investigated the role of social media in elections and how manipulation of social media can affect a voters’ perception of a candidate and compromise the voters’ decision-making abilities. It was published by the Journal Science in November 2012.

“The more trust we give to these kinds of tools, the more likely we can be manipulated down the road,” Metaxas told the Post. “We need to understand, as people, as citizens, why we believe what we believe.” Read, "Could Google tilt a close election?" in the Washington Post.

In 2011, Metaxas and Mustafaraj were awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study the trustworthiness of messages on Social Media sites like Twitter.