My First Story for The Atlantic: Nextdoor's Election-Misinformation Problem
My First Story for The Atlantic: Nextdoor's Election-Misinformation Problem
And how it affected a city council election on Mercer Island.
This one’s been in the works for quite a while and I’m thrilled to be able to share it with you. It’s a story I’ve just published in The Atlantic about a city council election on Mercer Island that appears to have been the target of an online misinformation campaign. The vehicle for this misinformation campaign: Nextdoor, which is now a major source of local news for Mercer Island and countless other small communities around the country.
While potential online interference in national elections gets most of the attention, in recent years concerns have been raised repeatedly—albeit locally—about politically biased individuals across America gaming the system on Nextdoor, a digital platform that relies heavily on volunteers to moderate its content. The allegations about Nextdoor and the Mercer Island election have it all: Fake accounts, biased moderators, “fraudsters,” a quiet investigation, and a seemingly concerted effort to tip the digital scales against an insurgent political newcomer after she’d won a surprise primary election victory in a hotly contested race.
I may have more to say about this project in a future newsletter, but for now you can read The Atlantic story here. Research for the story was funded by the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, using a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.