Doctor Mike

it was very clear that the anti-vaccine movement was networking very heavily into conservative spaces.

And the pro-vaccine, very, very small communities just weren't.

So you could see it happening, right?

In California, 10 years ago, as this fight was happening, you could see the evolution of the movement structurally.

You could see the messages that were working.

You could see how influencers were involved.

And I found it absolutely fascinating.

I didn't really stay involved in the pro-vaccine fight as an activist.

Instead, I got very involved in the question of when the sort of means of shaping public opinion has changed, what does that do writ large?

And that was how, when I say accidental academic, I went from that to looking at ISIS, actually.

So I wound up looking at what came to be called kind of adversarial abuse.

How do small groups of people make themselves look much larger?

How do you use things like automated accounts to actively manipulate an online space?

How do you...

use new and novel tactics.

Anytime you have a new platform emerge, you change the terrain.

I did a lot of work on Russia.

I led the outside investigation for the Senate Intelligence Committee on the Russia interference in 2016.

It actually was a lot more than just 2016.

I wound up looking quite a bit at state actors and propaganda campaigns writ large.