Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat for a conversation with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday in Clinton’s new capacity as a professor of practice at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
I think the idea of two of the most powerful women in U.S. history chatting with one another is compelling stuff, no matter your politics. And this chat met my expectations.
The full convo is available here. One of the most compelling parts of the discussion came when Clinton discussed the dangers of disinformation, social media manipulation, and nefarious actors gaining access to all of our private information online.
Both Clinton and Pelosi are frequent subjects of right-wing propaganda and disinformation.
Of course, Clinton and Pelosi were having this rather amiable conversation about the dangers that online disinformation and incitement can create as former President Donald Trump awaited arraignment on criminal charges in Manhattan. Oh, the irony.
Both Clinton and Pelosi are frequent subjects of right-wing propaganda and disinformation, including images and video deliberately spread to make it seem as though they were unwell or inebriated.
Clinton mentioned, for example, Facebook’s initial refusal to take down a viral video of Pelosi in which the creator slowed down audio of her speaking. The account that posted the video falsely claimed Pelosi was intoxicated.
During the Monday talk, Clinton shared the following warning:
The capacity for extortion and blackmail based on your data — including data that is not even 100% true — becomes a huge problem in the world of unfettered social media use. We are all going to be racing around saying, “But I didn’t do that. I didn’t say that.” Or, “Yeah, I said that. But I didn’t mean this.” And we are going to be in a constant state of uncertainty and instability because other people have captured so much information about us.
Those remarks are a great reminder of the…
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