Georgia Tech and The Blk+Cross Launch #WatchtheVoteATL to Fight Election Misinformation

ATLANTA — (Oct. 21, 2024) – The Institute for People and Technology (IPaT), an interdisciplinary research institute at the Fulton County-based Georgia Institute of Technology, is partnering with The BLK+Cross to build local awareness around, and response capacity to election-related mis- and disinformation across social media and the web. Through the recently launched WatchtheVoteAtl.org, Georgia Tech and The BLK+Cross will track problematic online content and train students and the local community to rapidly identify and counter such content including misinformation during the November 2024 general election cycle. 

“I have spent the last two decades examining the role, the promises, and the peril of information technology in political development and democratic deepening,” said Georgia Tech’s Michael Best, executive director of IPaT. “This project’s hyper-focus on Fulton County allows us to have a real-world impact on our own home turf while also creating new globally generalizable methods to identify and respond to online electoral misinformation.”

“The BLK+Cross is thrilled to be working with Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology again on such an important cause — disrupting misinformation and defending our democracy. With the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw first-hand, the threat that mis- and disinformation posed to public health. Now that voting has been designated a social determinant of health, we are excited to be working with IPaT on yet another project that  addresses social vulnerability in social media, the new town square. As disinformation continues to run rampant, we are battling bots at this point. It is of critical importance to protect the power local communities have over their own digital narrative, as well as protect our collective right to vote,” said Gail Brooks, principal of The BLK+Cross.

The BLK+Cross will work alongside Amanda Meng, research scientist with the School of Computer Science, and Michael Best, who is also a professor with the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech, to recruit and train volunteers to be part of a social media monitoring team, research and identify key areas of misinformation, and participate as social media monitors during a high-intensity tracking period around the election day.

This effort coincides with the 60th anniversary of Freedom Summer, when students led the campaign to register Black voters. The WatchtheVoteATL.org platform empowers today’s students to stay informed about key election issues, political platforms, and policies, by helping them  determine truth from rhetoric. The initiative enables participants to share critical news and perspectives with their peers, families, and communities, ultimately encouraging informed non-partisan voter registration.

About Georgia Tech’s Institute for People and Technology
The Institute for People and Technology's (IPaT) goal is to maximize Georgia Tech’s societal impact through people-centered innovation. They support and connect faculty and students across the entire Georgia Tech campus by blurring the lines between academic disciplines and partnering to translate research results into real-world use. Georgia Tech is at the forefront of science and technology research, and home to state-of-the-art facilities and world-renowned experts who are working every day to find answers to tough problems. IPaT brings together researchers, industry, and other partners to identify technology solutions that will shape our global future. IPaT was created in 2011 to embrace these opportunities and needs, to create a networked research ecosystem of Georgia Tech faculty and industry partners, and to amplify their combined thought leadership and on-the-ground results to create a positive economic and societal impact in critical areas that define much of everyday life.

About The BLK+Cross
The BLK+Cross brings over 20 years experience leveraging ethnographic and digital technologies to better understand and engage BIPOC, youth, and socially vulnerable populations through culture.  

Contact information:
Martine Charles, martine@marcglobalcommunications.com
Mitch Messinger, mitchell@marcglobalcommunications.com
Walter Rich, walter.rich@research.gatech.edu