NSF Convergence Accelerator Track F: Expert Voices Together: Building Trust in Communication Systems by Addressing Online Abuse and Harassment

该项目涉及影响当代通信系统信任的两个重大问题之间的联系：(1)错误信息的广泛和迅速传播；(2)对专家群体成员的虐待和骚扰。由错误信息驱动的骚扰运动对那些站在努力准确告知公众的最前线的人产生了特别大的影响，包括记者、科学家和公共卫生官员。因此，这种骚扰破坏了人们对关键知识来源的信心，并减少了专家对信息生态系统的参与。该项目将开发专家一起发声(EVT)，这是一个为遭受在线骚扰的专家提供实时支持的社会技术系统。该项目最初将侧重于支持记者，后来将其扩展到其他专家社区。EVT的目标是在危机时刻为专家提供支持，同时建立个人、组织和社会的能力，从长远来看预防和减轻在线虐待和骚扰的危害。科学家、技术专家、心理学家以及民间社会和媒体代表组成的团队将把他们在广泛领域的专业知识结合在一起，包括错误/虚假信息研究、数据伦理学、系统工程、实验和临床心理学、人机交互、案例管理、新闻和大众传播实践和研究，以创建一个快速反应的社会技术系统，支持面临在线虐待和骚扰的记者和其他专家。该系统将包括一个安全、快速反应的技术平台、训练有素的案件管理人员的支持和一个干预“工具包”。为满足每个用户的特定需求，EVT工具包将提供一系列选项，包括：(1)与数字安全和安保有关的个性化协助；(2)支持监测和报告虐待行为；(3)帮助识别和建立社区护理系统。基于创伤知情护理的最佳实践，社区护理系统尤其旨在将同行、朋友、家人、同事和精神健康护理专家聚集在一起，他们可以为面临在线虐待的专家提供支持，同时还有助于在社交网络、机构和整个社会内建立长期的韧性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project addresses the links between two significant problems impacting trust in contemporary communication systems: (1) the broad and rapid spread of misinformation and (2) abuse and harassment directed at members of expert communities. Misinformation-driven harassment campaigns have particularly large impacts on those at the forefront of efforts to accurately inform the public, including journalists, scientists, and public health officials. As a result, this harassment undermines confidence in pivotal sources of knowledge and reduces expert participation in the information ecosystem. This project will develop Expert Voices Together (EVT), a socio-technical system that provides real-time support to experts experiencing online harassment. The project will initially focus on supporting journalists, later expanding its reach to other expert communities. EVT aims to support experts in moments of crisis, while also building individual, organizational, and societal capacity to prevent and mitigate harms from online abuse and harassment in the long term.The team of scientists, technical specialists, psychologists, as well as civil society and media representatives will bring together their expertise in a wide range of fields—including mis-/disinformation studies, data ethics, systems engineering, experimental and clinical psychology, human-computer interaction, case management, journalism and mass communication practice and research—to create a rapid-response socio-technical system that supports journalists and other experts facing online abuse and harassment. The system will comprise a secure, rapid-response technical platform, support from trained case managers, and an intervention “toolkit”. Tailored to meet the specific needs of each user, the EVT toolkit will offer a menu of options, including: (1) personalized assistance with digital safety and security, (2) support monitoring and reporting abuse, and (3) help identifying and building a community care system. Grounded in best practices from trauma-informed care, the community care system in particular is designed to bring together peers, friends, family, colleagues, and mental health care specialists who can provide support for the expert facing online abuse, while also helping to build long-term resilience within social networks, institutions, and society as a wholeThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.