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.

Partnership Fights Election Misinformation, Honors Legacy of Freedom Summer

College of Computing
College of ComputingSchool of Interactive Computing

The Institute for People and Technology (IPaT) at Georgia Tech has teamed up with The BLK+Cross to tackle election-related misinformation in Fulton County.

The partnership recently launched WatchtheVoteAtl.org, a new platform for tracking problematic content on social media and the web in the run-up to this month's general election. The site will also serve as a training ground for local students and community members, equipping them to effectively identify and respond to misinformation.

Georgia Tech's IPaT executive director, Michael Best, emphasized the importance of this initiative. “This project’s hyper-focus on Fulton County allows us to have a real-world impact on our own home turf while creating globally applicable methods to address online electoral misinformation,” said Best, a professor with the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs and the School of Interactive Computing.

The initiative honors the legacy of Freedom Summer, connecting today’s students to a historic push for Black voter registration by empowering them to combat misinformation and engage their communities.

You can learn more about this initiative and see how to get involved by reading the whole story.

*Some content in this article was created using ChatGPT [October 2023 version]