Blair Visscher's thesis links Meta news ban to wildfire misinformation rise

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Blair Visscher's thesis links Meta news ban to wildfire misinformation…?

Of the 25 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 64% are rated left, 36% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 32. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.

Is Blair Visscher's thesis links Meta news ban to wildfire misinformation… left or right?

Neither side dominates it. Of the 25 rated outlets on this story, 64% are rated left, 36% are rated centre, 0% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.

Is the coverage of Blair Visscher's thesis links Meta news ban to wildfire misinformation… biased?

Blair Visscher's thesis links Meta news ban to wildfire misinformation rise is one event reported by 32 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.

Which side is not reporting Blair Visscher's thesis links Meta news ban to wildfire misinformation…?

When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.

Which outlets covered Blair Visscher's thesis links Meta news ban to wildfire misinformation…?

32 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.

What did Blair Visscher's thesis find about misinformation during wildfires?

Visscher's research found that misinformation and conspiracy narratives on Facebook increased significantly after Meta removed Canadian news from its platforms in August 2023. Her thesis linked this rise to the platform's algorithms and growing distrust in official sources since the COVID-19 pandemic.

How did Meta's news ban affect information during the Bush Creek East wildfire?

Meta's news ban removed Canadian news from Facebook and Instagram on 2 August 2023, during the Bush Creek East wildfire. Visscher's thesis found that this created an information vacuum, allowing conspiracy theories and misinformation to spread more widely on the platform.

Which wildfires did Blair Visscher study for her thesis?

Visscher studied three wildfires: the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, the 2021 White Rock Lake wildfire, and the 2023 Bush Creek East wildfire. She analysed Facebook discussions around each event to track the growth of conspiracy narratives over time.