Obummer

Obama will give the keynote speech at the symposium as part of his personal crusade to fight disinformation in the digital domain. He announced this week that the Obama Foundation will work with experts to combat disinformation, which he said poses “real challenges” for democracy. Obama reportedly joined the fight after discussions with Apple heiress Laurene Powell Jobs, who has funded a network of fake local news sites that push Democratic talking points….

Obama was awarded the 2013 “Lie of the Year” for declaring, “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it,” in order to sell Obamacare to the American public. Rhodes, a national security adviser to Obama, admitted in 2016 that he manipulated journalists in order to push favorable but misleading stories in the media. Rhodes bragged about creating an “echo chamber” of reporters who amplified White House spin. Rhodes also said he “largely manufactured” a narrative about the timeline by which the Obama administration began negotiating with the Iranian government about its nuclear energy program.

Two lesser-known panelists have been at the center of disinformation firestorms. Rashad Robinson, the president of the civil rights group Color of Change, repeatedly pushed the false claim that actor Jussie Smollett was the victim of an anti-gay, anti-black hate crime in Chicago in 2019. Robinson pushed the hoax even after evidence emerged that Smollett lied to police about the attack. Renee DiResta, a Stanford researcher moderating a session with Obama, advised a technology company that created fake Russian bots in order to influence Republican voters in the 2017 Alabama special election.