 So when people hear that I study disinformation, the first thing they usually ask me is, do you mean fake news? And I do prefer the term disinformation, and that's the spread of false information with the willful intent to deceive. And in particular, I'm interested in how that information gets structured to be believable and emotionally resonant, and so that it shapes interpretation in a deceptive way. But the short version is, yes, I study fake news. So then I usually get a follow-up question, which is, how do I defend against it? So first, read beyond the headline. Even the most reputable journalistic outlets will use attention-grabbing headlines designed to get you to read more. So go ahead and read more, and don't take the headline as gospel truth. Check the origin and check the sources. So did this piece of information come to you as a share or a retweet or something like that on social media? What was the agenda of the person that's sharing with you? And what's the origination of the piece of information? Where did it start? Did it start as a news article? Or did it start maybe as an opinion or editorial article, because there's different standards of veracity and truth to those? Or did it start as a piece of advertising? Often you can tell that by the small keyword in gray that says sponsored. That's paid advertising. And does the piece of information cite any sources? All named sources are best, anonymous sources are next best, and no sources cited at all is kind of a red flag. So these rules remind us that disinformation is really a human problem more than a technical problem and we all have a role to play, starting with reading broadly and critically. Now my colleagues and I here at ASU, we're working on better technologies that will help identify disinformation and help alert governments and everyday readers alike to its presence and its risks. And we're also at work studying what makes it believable, what makes it appealing and why it spreads so fast, and more techniques for how we can defend against it. My first day of graduate school was 9-11. I awoke in my Southern California apartment to the neighbors TV blaring news reports of the attacks. Because of that indelible experience, that's why I've studied strategic communication and geopolitical influence here at ASU for the past nine years. Rumors, propaganda, all of these things serve to divide us. They serve to undermine our faith in democratic institutions and fundamental American values. And in that way I see rumors and disinformation as insidious, as dangerous as those 9-11 attacks. And that's what keeps me up at night. But it also keeps me in the lab looking for new ways to defend against it.