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Podcast: The role of podcasters in spreading the ‘Big Lie’

Evelyn Douek,
ED
Evelyn Douek S.J.D. Candidate - Harvard Law School
Quinta Jurecic,
Quinta Jurecic headshot
Quinta Jurecic Fellow - Governance Studies, Senior Editor - Lawfare

Valerie Wirtschafter, and
Valerie Wirtschafter
Valerie Wirtschafter Senior Data Analyst - Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative
Chris Meserole
Chris Meserole, Fellow, Foreign Policy, The Brookings Institution
Chris Meserole Director - Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative, Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology

January 13, 2022

Diane "Feisty" Feist holds up a sign that says "stop the steal" during a pro-Trump protest outside Oakes Farms Seed to Table in North Naples on Wednesday, January 6, 2021.Ndn Best Of January 001

 

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, many popular political podcasters used their platforms to spread the idea that President Joe Biden’s victory was illegitimate and that he had won due to widespread voter fraud. Collectively known as the “Big Lie,” these narratives around the election played a key role in fomenting the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, yet the role of podcasts in spreading this conspiracy theory has been relatively unexamined. In this week’s episode of Lawfare‘s Arbiters of Truth, Valerie Wirtschafter, a senior data analyst at the Brookings Institution, and Chris Meserole, a fellow at Brookings and the director of research for the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology Initiative, discuss their recent study of the role played by podcasts in spreading election fraud narratives and the challenge of content moderation in podcasts.

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