Collaborative Research: HNDS-I: The Digital Society Project: Infrastructure for Measuring Internet Politics

互联网自由、网络安全、虚假信息以及社交媒体造成的两极分化等问题是现代生活的核心。他们在世界各地的社会生活、政治和民主力量中发挥着关键作用。然而，很难衡量这些问题如何影响网络空间的政治活动。学者们不知道什么因素最重要。该项目将产生工具和数据，以帮助研究网络世界中影响国家安全、商业风险和日常生活的问题。这笔赠款支持基础设施从世界各地收集关于网络安全、互联网自由、虚假信息、协调信息行动以及社交媒体政治化和两极分化的数据。该项目建立了一个全球专家库，每年都会提供数据。它还提出了确保这些数据有效的方法。该项目将数据与大量按地点编码的政治推文联系起来。学者和其他人可以通过在线界面和开源软件获取这些数据。这个项目可以帮助我们了解国家如何监控、改变和控制在线空间。这项研究对美国政府、援助和人权组织以及私营企业至关重要。政策制定者还可以依靠这个项目更好地了解如何以及在哪里介入，以遏制互联网驱动的政治暴力，阻止虚假信息的传播，减少选举操纵，并加强政府问责。公民社会团体可以利用对网络自由和网络安全的评估来改善人权监督。公司可以利用这些数据来减少他们的社交媒体平台造成的伤害。最后，教师和学生可以利用这个项目更好地理解数字世界中的政治，使公民能够安全地穿越现代信息景观。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。

Issues such as internet freedom, cybersecurity, misinformation, and the polarization caused by social media are central to modern life. They play a key role in social life, politics, and the strength of democracy around the world. Yet measuring how these issues affect political events in online spaces is hard. Scholars do not know what factors matter most. This project will produce tools and data to help study problems in the online world that affect state security, business risk, and daily life. This grant supports infrastructure to collect data from around the world on cybersecurity, internet freedom, disinformation, coordinated information operations, and the politicization and polarization of social media. The project builds a global pool of experts who will provide data each year. It also advances methods to ensure that these data are valid. The project links the data to a massive set of political tweets, coded by place. Scholars and others can access these data through an online interface and open-source software. This project can help us learn how states monitor, alter, and control online space. This research is critically important to the US government, aid and human rights groups, and private industry. Policy makers can also rely on this project to better understand how, and where, to step in to curb internet-driven political violence, stop the spread of disinformation, reduce electoral manipulation, and enhance government accountability. Civil society groups can use assessments of online freedom and cybersecurity to improve human rights surveillance. Firms can use the data to reduce harm caused by their social media platforms. Finally, teachers and students can use this project to better understand politics in a digital world, equipping citizens to safely traverse the modern information landscape.This 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.