Thorson Quoted in New York Times Piece on Political Misinformation

December 21, 2021

The New York Times

Emily Thorson

Political Science Department

Elections

United States

The New York Times

Emily Thorson

Lawmakers’ statements on social media and cable news are now routinely fact-checked and scrutinized. But email—one of the most powerful communication tools available to politicians—teems with unfounded claims and largely escapes notice. Emily Thorson, assistant professor of political science, says what concerns her is that—unlike much of the misinformation on social media—these email claims come from people with authority and are being spread repetitively. That is how lies that the 2020 election was rigged gained traction: not “because of random videos on Facebook but because it was a coherent message echoed by a lot of elites,” she says. “Those are the ones that we need to be most worried about.” Read more in the New York Times article, "Now in Your Inbox: Political Misinformation."