Meta, Trump, and Facts: A Conversation With Sushi Das

Sushi Das is an award-winning journalist, creator, and journalism lecturer at RMIT College in Melbourne the place she additionally spent eight years working worldwide truth checking desks aligned with Meta and Fb, targeted on debunking on-line misinformation.

She was chief-of-staff for RMIT ABC Reality Verify, which targeted on political truth checking, from 2017 to 2021, earlier than being named as affiliate director of RMIT FactLab the place the eye was on debunking social media.

However these days are ending with on-line platform operators relinquishing truth checkers following the reelection of Donald Trump as United States president.

RMIT FactLab labored in partnership with Meta, however it was closed down in January after RMIT heard Meta’s announcement that it will axe its fact-checking operations within the US.

Das spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt in Melbourne about the usage of the phrase “lie” and the method of “enshittification,” which was named Phrase of the Yr in 2023 by the American Dialect Society and is used to explain the decay of digital platforms – extra in order AI leaves its mark.

It’s an advanced subject that stretches far and vast, from Peter Dutton’s failed bid to win the final Australian election and autocrats in Southeast Asia in search of to regulate the message that fits them, to transnational repression and criminals adept at dealing with the newest expertise.

However some constructive surprises did emerge from the analysis, which Das says has discovered that politicians do maintain their guarantees more often than not.

Das labored at The Age newspaper for 22 years, the place she held a collection of senior positions, together with information editor, senior author and opinion editor, and her work has been acknowledged with two Melbourne Press Membership awards.

She can also be the creator of “Deranged Marriage,” an east-meets-west memoir about organized marriage. In addition to lecturing in journalism at RMIT, she is at present researching fact-checking for a PhD.