National Science and Technology Council Releases Roadmap on Information Integrity Research and Development

The White House’s National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) has released The Roadmap for Researchers on Priorities Related to Information Integrity Research and Development. The report identifies combating misinformation as a high priority target for researchers, citing the harmful nature it can have on the public. According to the roadmap, the NSTC will focus its efforts on the following areas:

• Develop and improve ways to measure the effect of misinformation on the public.
• Determine strategies to prevent misinformation and increase resilience against misinformation among the public.
• Understand how technical design and system policies on online platforms affect the spread of misinformation and ways to reduce unintended consequences, including the development of information platforms with a focus on building trust within the community.
• Develop strategies to reduce misinformation that specifically target campaigns.
• Improve the amount of available data on how the public interacts with online platforms.
• Inform policies with developed strategies, data, and research.

The roadmap is intended to guide research in understanding and combating corrupted and manipulated information while protecting freedom of expression and speech. Notably, the roadmap includes an action plan that details different actions that could be taken by different actors across the scientific community, including federal agencies, research institutions, the private sector, and others. The report can be found here.