Sumitra Badrinathan
@KhariBiskut
Followers
9,289
Following
775
Media
287
Statuses
2,435
assistant professor @AmericanU . working on countering misinformation in developing countries. @penn PhD in political science & philly sports fan
Washington, DC
Joined February 2010
Don't wanna be here?
Send us removal request.
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
Ireland
• 305644 Tweets
Norway
• 259255 Tweets
Spain
• 218314 Tweets
Apple Music
• 115397 Tweets
WIN AT MU PHILIPPINES
• 95193 Tweets
#WeAreSeriesEP8
• 91798 Tweets
#MissUniversePhilippines2024
• 83941 Tweets
KATY PERRY
• 53022 Tweets
#lovefighters
• 49278 Tweets
PondPhuwin WeAre EP8
• 43987 Tweets
Irlanda
• 40452 Tweets
ソフトバンク
• 37524 Tweets
Noruega
• 37338 Tweets
Thriller
• 27520 Tweets
مورينهو
• 22815 Tweets
たまちゃん
• 19502 Tweets
$PIKA
• 18306 Tweets
Lauryn Hill
• 18130 Tweets
$bull
• 14822 Tweets
TAKE OFF LETS GO TO SUCCESS
• 11236 Tweets
ルヴァン
• 10975 Tweets
リーグ戦
• 10950 Tweets
TPAB
• 10890 Tweets
Alden
• 10090 Tweets
Pinned Tweet
so happy that my paper using a field experiment to fight misinformation in india is out at
@apsrjournal
!
never imagined that i would get a null effects paper published, let alone at the APSR, so this feels truly surreal.
full paper:
#FirstView
from
@apsrjournal
-
Educative Interventions to Combat Misinformation: Evidence from a Field Experiment in India -
-
@KhariBiskut
0
0
5
27
91
636
if you’re an immigrant whose sanity is being affected by this F-1 student ban, imagine what the CAA + NRC is like for thousands of Indians
253
595
2K
Today during fieldwork we asked respondents (in 18 houses) to name the current PM. Everyone said Modi.
Then asked for his full name. 14 out of 18 said Nirav.
Bihar is incredible.
73
342
1K
hard to believe this is real: my first ever solo authored paper was just accepted to
@apsrjournal
🥲
during the 2019 general elections in India when political misinformation was rife, I designed a field experiment to combat it 🧵1/
63
157
1K
some personal news: so happy to share that i’m joining
@AmericanU
@AU_SIS
as an assistant professor in political science in fall ‘22! very excited to move back to the east coast and be a part of this incredible community 🥲
We’re thrilled to welcome Professor Sumitra Badrinathan (
@KhariBiskut
), who will be joining SIS in fall 2022!
1
6
37
87
14
665
🚨New Working Paper Alert! 🚨
An Experiment on Fact-checking WhatsApp Rumors in India
w/
@SimonChauchard
and
@d_j_flynn
We introduce a user-driven correction intervention and show w/ over 5k online users that it decreases belief in fake news. 🧵⬇️
1/
14
221
619
I zoom-defended my dissertation today and happy to share that I’m moving to Oxford for a postdoc
@risj_oxford
! Feeling so excited, grateful, and humbled right now.
66
9
592
I thought the Trevor Noah joke was pretty bad but if we’re giving him so much shit for it can we also criticize the maker of a certain joke on dyslexia with the same vigor?
16
105
416
some good news: i’m so honored to receive the
@APSAtweets
political communication section’s Paul Lazarsfeld best paper award for my
@apsrjournal
paper on misinformation in India
my deep gratitude to committee chair Sean Richey, and
@QueenCityProf
,
@alcivelasq
,
@poli_com
:)
31
16
412
today my own research was forwarded to me on a whatsapp group. can i retire from academia now?
@MilanV
8
11
406
celebrating an R&R today 🥳 first solo-authored project, first submission, first R&R. it’s finally sinking in.
13
2
393
🚨 excited to share our new pub out at the International Journal of Press/Politics w
@SimonChauchard
!
with over 5000 respondents in India, we show that simple rebuttals like "i don't think that's true, bro" can make people less vulnerable to misinfo despite partisan ties
10
69
384
my phd diploma finally came in the mail and i barely understand what it says. perfectly encapsulates a chaotic 5 years
9
2
348
finally set up my email address that goes with a job title i never expected i’d have. can’t wait for this new chapter!
@AU_SIS
21
3
347
does misinformation research from western countries generalize to the global south? how should scholars think about developing countries when studying misinfo?
in a new article w
@SimonChauchard
we discuss this question and provide pointers for future research. key table:
4
66
290
campuses and politicians are busy curtailing students’ right to free speech and protest but nobody will bat an eye if you churn out garbage like this
imagine this headline about other communities/groups in the US. shame on
@WSJopinion
15
86
287
the saddest part about this day is that somehow microsoft teams and zoom are still working
3
36
264
so happy to share that our team was awarded a large grant from the
@ssrc_org
mercury project (w/
@NSF
and
@RockefellerFdn
)
our project (with
@SimonChauchard
&
@NeelanjanSircar
) will evaluate a year long anti-misinformation RCT in indian schools. excited to kick this off soon 🥳
We’re proud to award $7.2M in direct research funding to the first
#MercuryProject
cohort. An announcement🧵 ⬇️
9
35
106
29
12
264
seeing all the northern lights photos on my timeline today
3
18
261
the times, india’s leading daily paper, just published a straight up fake story based on a fake tweet. others followed
i hope misinformation researchers use this to understand why “discernment” and “trust in good sources” are imperfect survey measures in countries like india
3
67
228
Thrilled to share new findings from the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey, joint w/ Devesh Kapur and
@MilanV
!
This time we look at how Indian Americans view India. Summarizing some key findings below on politics and policy attitudes of Indian Americans 👇🧵
11
49
209
excellent
@soniafaleiro
article on the avalanche of fake news in india right now. this is crisis of information on top of a public health disaster.
2
71
197
after 8 months of living in the UK i finally made it out west to wales and got to see some delightful atlantic puffins in the wild 🤩
7
0
207
happy 5th anniversary to the reason i decided to write a whole dissertation on misinformation in india
4
22
196
two hour WhatsApp outage is no joke when you’re a south asian person living abroad…
11
7
178
is it okay to not want to write until the shipping container is fully unstuck
8
5
174
last week we officially signed an MOU with
@brlps_jeevika
to launch the Bihar Information and Media Literacy Initiative:
a grassroots, long-term, educational RCT in *600* villages across the state of bihar to counter health misinformation among school children 📚📝
8
15
165
lots of misinformation on Indian whatsapp this past week:
— biden caused the second wave
— kumbh mela images photoshopped
— western media manufacturing high death rates
the govt has a clear misinfo supply side advantage. this is a problem for electoral accountability.
5
34
165
adding to the chorus of folks having an impossible time getting a visa for
#apsa2022
.
the mental effort, time and $$ it takes for global south passport holders to do even one of these apps (but especially canada) is such a burden—and only to learn that you can’t go after all.
6
19
156
saving this for when i teach a class on survey methods
1
12
140
So excited to share results from the 2020 Indian American Attitudes Survey (IAAS), joint w/
@MilanV
& Devesh Kapur
We surveyed a nationally representative sample of 936 Indian American citizens ahead of the 2020 election
Key findings below👇🧵
6
26
134
🚨Excited to share new findings from the
@risj_oxford
Trust in News project, using survey data in four countries including India!
We look at trust in news sources, who is less trusting and why, and how politics affects media trust. Key findings from the Indian sample below 👇🧵
2
39
128
We asked respondents about trust in specific news brands. Republic TV receives the highest levels of distrust (14%); Republic also emerges as one of the most polarizing brands, trusted by 72% of BJP supporters but only 50% of all others
10
35
117
saying goodbye to wonderful Philly after a glorious 5 years. so bittersweet but also excited for the next phase 🥲
9
1
122
today I learnt that I have a very animated talking face
8
2
112
🚨 we’re hiring! the dept of politics, gov & econ at
@AU_SIS
@AmericanU
is looking for a TT assistant prof in political economy / CP w quant focus. join us in dc!
i’m on the committee & happy to answer Qs.
note deadline 9/15
#psjminfo
#poliscijobs
0
50
109
when researcher identity defies expectations of a typical academic profile (eg male and while), it has important implications for running RCTs
our new paper our at
@ps_polisci
explores this with an all⭐️team
@eunjikim_media
,
@dhdannychoi
,
@sabrinamkarim
,
@yangyang_zhou
3
22
106
i’m coming up on ONE YEAR since i applied for a canadian visa for apsa 22. the conference came and went last year, still no visa.
we study polisci & IR yet our discipline couldn’t be more ignorant about immigration nightmares a majority of the world faces. it’s appalling.
I'm not sure if ISA is considering some kind of credit for next year's registration or reimbursement for folks who're losing money because of Canada's visa policy/inefficiencies etc.?
This hits graduate students hard especially.
@IsaNet
@DeborahAvant1
@ProfKMcNamara
2
2
45
5
10
100
From Penn’s international office.
How would international students who live *off campus* leaving fix the problem? Are American students living off campus immune to the virus? I’m so livid
14
20
93
apropos of nothing, here is an excerpt from our recent
@ps_polisci
article on how identity and positionality can affect fieldwork, especially for women and people of color who are often perceived as 'outsiders' even in home countries:
1
20
92
when those in power are complicit in creating and spreading falsehoods, countering them is a challenging prospect.
my piece on misinformation in india for
@washingtonpost
:
2
26
92
opened the canadian visa website today and was reminded that my application to attend
@APSAtweets
2022 in montreal -- TWO APSAS AGO -- is still pending.
such an unfair burden on certain people and how this is sustainable is beyond me
2
7
91
excited to head back to chicago for
#mpsa2023
!
presenting new work on misinformation and violence in india and pakistan w/
@SimonChauchard
and
@NiloSiddiqui
if you’re around let’s grab a coffee or drink! :)
2
6
89
government tweets out that everyone over 18 can register to get a vaccine starting today. government forgets to change portal to allow for registration.
7
26
85
grad student happy hour
0
5
81
had the chance to speak at length to
@RohanV
about my research on misinformation in india: why do people believe fake news? does fact-checking work? what can we do about the problem? read below 👇🏽
On the Political FIx Q&A, I speak to
@KhariBiskut
about her recent research on tackling misinformation and how much we understand the mechanics of the problem.
0
9
32
2
14
79
i have long covid. climbing up a flight of stairs makes me feel like i ran a 5k. can’t focus on work without feeling like i have a concussion. heart palpitations every other night mean no sleep.
life is not the same anymore.
Hi my name is Charlie and
#LongCovid
has destroyed my life. Today is two years.
Before my 'mild infection' I was a healthy fit 30 year old biking 10 miles a day. Now I can't work or leave the house. I still can't breathe right. It‘s a nightmare.
Here are my 4 questions:
764
19K
80K
19
1
77
panic and vibes
Academics and PhDs juggling multiple projects: What project management system do you rely on? Notion, Excel, Kanban board, Trello, or other tools?
252
45
524
1
0
78
It’s been one whole semester since I took a class where the prof told us to “screenshot the graph made in R and paste it into MS Paint to crop”. I still think about this everyday.
#rstats
8
2
72
after all this university administrators will pretend like nothing happened and ask us to serve on DEI committees in the fall
3
4
75
straight from
#ica22
to nuffield college,
@simonchauchard
presents fascinating joint work w/
@pavithra_suri
on status loss and preferences for redistribution in india
4
6
73
govt / academia collaborations are so important to make sure experiments are generalizable and can be rolled out “in the wild”
huge thanks to
@Rahulkumar_IAS
and
@brlps_jeevika
for enabling this- never imagined i would get here when i started working on misinfo during my phd :)
.
@brlps_jeevika
&
@uc3m
signed a MOU to implement "Bihar Information & Media Literacy Initiative" -An Educative Intervention in Community Library & Career Development Center, to study the effectiveness of information & media literacy intervention with 12000+ learners.
0
18
68
4
9
71
fieldwork in bihar for our
@ssrc_org
mercury project! brainstorming sessions between street food and walks by the ganges 🐬
5
2
74
This is the R color palette. For Halloween, I stuck a printout of it on my sweater and went as 50 Shades of Gray.
#rstats
5
4
72
most important 2020 achievements:
1. didn’t get covid
2. didn’t host indoor events
3. didn’t give covid to anyone
🍻
3
3
72
apart from literally all the other ways this is problematic, the lack of point
#1
and handwritten email address are really icing on the cake
Urge
@australian
to publish the rejoinder to set the record straight on the covid management in India and also refrain from publishing such baseless articles in future.
@cgisydney
@CGIPerth
@cgimelbourne
@MEAIndia
3K
3K
6K
1
7
70
why do we need netflix when indian tv news provides this kind of quality entertainment
5
5
70
bro are you mad do you know what happens online to people who post live locations???
3
9
70
in India and now in the US too, facebook is censoring posts calling for the resignation of the prime minister
3
38
64
i also never agreed with my rank in my phd qualifying exams but that is not how this works
Govt doesn't agree with India's rank in World Press Freedom Index: I&B minister
351
102
780
2
1
66
meta’s spokespeople retweeting folks associated w the hindu nationalist movement to push back against claims that they favor the indian govt is….not the slam dunk they think it is
4
7
64
i’m going to need 3 business days to recover from this. sorry to everyone i owe an email response to.
Wordle 243 X/6
🟩⬛⬛⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩
5
0
64
this chapter (w/ D. Kapur) was one of the first ever pieces of writing i produced as a phd student. so glad to finally see this book out with
@CambridgeUP
! huge thanks to
@NeelanjanSircar
and Sanjoy Chakravorty for making it happen.
order from amazon or
@bahrisons_books
☺️
4
3
62
chatted with
@yangyang_zhou
and
@alan_jacobs1
about my research on misinformation, india, and the challenge of being fed too many cups of tea while on fieldwork. thanks for having me
@scopeconditions
and tune in below!
📢 New ep!
We're bombarded with (political)
#misinfo
on social media. How can we learn to tell truth from lies?
@KhariBiskut
tells us about her experiments in India 🇮🇳 that give voters tools to check
#misinfo
on Whatsapp. Do they work?
Listen here:
1
10
73
1
9
60
happy to be in this issue in the company of so many great scholars 🥳 articles ungated for the next month!
The new issue of the APSR is now available online!
1
12
51
1
2
59
thanks to funding from
@ssrc_org
’s mercury project, we can undertake a dream project of sorts: a year long, large scale RCT to combat health misinformation in india. an abstract of our project is below! (with
@SimonChauchard
and
@NeelanjanSircar
)
2
9
59
wrapping up a fantastic
#EPSA2023
with old and new friends. glasgow is ok too :)
@europsa
#epsaphotocomp23
3
2
57
grateful to
@DSI_Democracy
and the beautiful city of zurich for allowing us the chance to present research in person for the first time in almost 2 years 🥺
1
2
56
My first political discussions ever were with my grandfather, who always taught me to reject bigotry, hate, and marginalization.
He couldn’t vote today, so this one is for him.
1
3
56
I owe so many people for making this project possible, but in particular I want to thank
@guygrossman
,
@m_levendusky
,
@mieuque
and Devesh Kapur, without whom this paper would not have made it this far.
full draft here:
5/5
8
3
51
very excited about
#APSA2023
, not least because it’s going to be my first one in 4 years 🥹 see you all in LA!
2
0
52
what are the odds he marked india blue b/c he thought it was iran
7
1
52
Anecdotal narratives say that Indian Americans are more liberal in the US and less so in India. We find support for this in our data. For a similar set of policies, Indian Americans have more liberal opinions on issues in America and more conservative opinions on issues in India:
3
15
49
Excited to share that our third report on Indian Americans is out today! (w/ Devesh Kapur,
@MilanV
,
@_JonathanKay
)
We look at the social realities of Indian Americans, including questions on identity, belonging, and social distance 👇
1
11
50
Nothing in this election season surprises me anymore. If you told me that Mike Pence gave up his American citizenship to come to India and contest on a BJP ticket, I’d be like yeah, that makes absolute sense.
3
9
50
super cool to have visited oslo and presented new work at
#GlobalFact9
on cross-country comparisons of whether labeling works against misinfo. paper to come soon! :)
4
4
50
so incredible to have
@_sarahkhan
joining us at
@AU_SIS
! welcome to dc, Sarah, and so excited to be colleagues 🥳
now that it’s official I can share!
I’m moving to DC and joining
@AU_SIS
as an Assistant Professor in the dept. of politics, governance and econ in Fall 24! ☺️
SO excited to join a vibrant community with brilliant colleagues, and v thankful to everyone who made it possible. 🙏🏽
87
6
594
1
1
49
I show that partisan motivated reasoning exists in India (a surprising finding!)-- at least with some partisans and during elections.
but the null result means we have to think hard about what kinds of treatments can work in contexts such as these. 4/
2
3
46
using apsa attendance to judge junior scholars on their politics is reprehensible (and may even be illegal if you’re hiring)
so many of the folks saying so didn’t say a word when last year’s canada apsa excluded gs passports and happily attended. stop this.
@arthur_spirling
@zfurnas
yeah a lottttt of posts on here that are like "i can't imagine ever interacting with somebody who would go to a panel at these conferences"
0
0
10
0
2
47
This is a first draft but we hope this work will lead to more studies in beh science on WhatsApp and misinfo in dev countries.
Please let us know if you have comments, questions, thoughts!
Full paper here:
9/9
7
4
47
cool way to find out that during every riot, genocide and conflict over the past decade, tech platforms had the ability to block disinformation and bad propaganda and yet did absolutely nothing about it
Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately. It’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action.
1K
4K
16K
0
9
46
for those without context, this is a prominent indian journalist at
@TimesNow
celebrating muslim citizens’ homes getting destroyed.
1
12
46
first major in person conference in 3 years also happens to be my first ever ICA. who on twitter is around and wants to hang?
#ica22
1
2
44
Trust in the press is low relative to other institutions in society: only 25% of respondents in India say they completely trust the media. On the flipside, 72% say they completely trust the military- this is over 45 points more than in Brazil, the UK and the US
2
18
44
Finally, how do respondents view majoritarianism? Hindus and non-Hindus agree that white supremacy is a threat
in the United States. But they significantly diverge on the threat posed by Hindu majoritarianism in India:
11
12
41
@CanadianUK
has been doing a “background check” on my app for over 90 days—after i sent a ton of paperwork AND paid the full fee. i won’t get my passport back in time.
did nobody at apsa for a second think through how exclusionary this would be for so many of us?
@APSAtweets
2
1
42
