The Virality Project is a left-of-center coalition of research organizations that works to support what it considers “real-time information exchange between the research community, public health officials, government agencies, civil society organizations, and social media platforms.” ¹

Originally convened by the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) and funded by grants from the Craig Newmark Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, ² the Virality Project has worked with social media platforms to police what it considers to be “mis- and disinformation” regarding COVID-19 vaccines. ¹

The organization has coordinated with social media platforms to review content related to these topics on a “mass scale” ³ and has argued for the creation of a new U.S. government center of excellence to address what it considers to be misinformation and disinformation. ^{4 5}

History and Leadership

The Virality Project was founded as a project at the Stanford University-based Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) in May 2020. ² It was formally launched in 2021. ⁶

According to former Virality Project associate researcher Lily Hart Meyersohn, she delivered briefings with research that appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, and NBC News, and helped shape the perspectives of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Rockefeller Foundation, and others. ⁷  Meyersohn claims that her research was incorporated into the Biden administration Office of the Surgeon General’s office to shape its “vaccine misinformation strategy.” ⁷

Activities and Funding

The Virality Project is a left-of-center coalition of research organizations that works to support what it considers “real-time information exchange between the research community, public health officials, government agencies, civil society organizations, and social media platforms.” ¹ The group has worked to address what it considers to be vaccine disinformation on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. ⁸

The Virality Project was originally convened by the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO) to address what it considered to be disinformation dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic. ² As of October 2024, the Virality Project’s partners include SIO, the New York University School of Engineering, the Center for Social Media and Politics, the University of Washington Center for an Informed Public, the National Conference on Citizenship, and Graphika. ¹

Since its founding, the Virality Project has claimed to detect, analyze, and mitigate the impacts of what it considers COVID-19 vaccine disinformation in online ecosystems. ¹ According to Nature, in 2021, the Virality Project issued more than 600 notifications to social media platforms regarding platforms that it had determined violated election and vaccine policies. ⁸

The organization has hosted webinars with the Stanford Internet Observatory to discuss analyses of COVID-19 vaccine-related conversations online. ¹ It has published reports regarding what it considers to be real-time examples of anti-vaccine narratives online and issued recommendations for collaboration between governments and other organizations to censor “mis- and disinformation” online. ^{3 9}

The Virality Project also has published articles to counter what it considered “vaccine misinformation” during the COVID-19 pandemic and published other reports that offer policy recommendations to the Biden administration to counter alleged online vaccine misinformation. ^{10 11 12}

Controversies

During the 2020 election cycle, the Virality Project coordinated the work of 120 analysts, published 32 blogposts, and worked with social media platforms on more than 800 incidents of what it considered to be “election-related disinformation.” ¹³

In July 2021, the Virality Project published a report entitled “The Case for a Mis- and Disinformation Center of Excellence,” in which the organization argued in favor of the creation of a new government agency focused on what the Virality Project claims is misinformation and disinformation online. The proposed federal center would coordinate efforts and support state and local efforts to target supposed misinformation and disinformation. The group’s report also suggested that the proposed center of excellence focus on “pre-bunking” or “rumor control sites” regarding COVID-19 vaccines instead of removing content. ^{4 5}

The Virality Project also recommended that public health organizations “should focus on misinformation narrative themes and tropes rather than attempt to fact-check individual incidents,” that social media platforms should “consistently reinforce their existing policies, and must continue to improve data sharing relationships with researchers,” and that research groups should have a tip line process to communicate with other organizations. The Virality Project also recommended that “government should develop and maintain communication channels between federal, state, and local agencies to understand and learn from what is happening across regions” and that “government and public health officials should address vaccine hesitancy in underserved communities through collaboration with trusted voices.” ³

According to an online post by independent journalist Matt Taibbi, the Virality Project “…reviewed content on a mass scale for Twitter, Google/YouTube, Facebook, Medium, TikTok, and Pinterest. It knowingly targeted true material and legitimate political opinion, while often being factually wrong itself.” ¹⁴ Taibbi also shared what he claimed to be evidence that the Virality Project shared reports of Twitter users discussing “reports of vaccinated individuals contracting COVID-19 anyway”; “natural immunity”; suggesting COVID-19 “leaked from a lab”; and “worrisome jokes” as potential disinformation events. ¹⁴

In its June 2021 weekly briefings, the Virality Project claimed that the release of Anthony Fauci’s emails as a part of The Twitter Files were “used to exacerbate distrust in Dr. [Anthony Fauci]” and “increased distrust in Fauci’s expert guidance.” ¹⁴

Funding

Virality Project is a project of the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO). ⁶ It has been funded by pre-existing grants by Craig Newmark Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. ²

1.  “Our Partners.” Virality Project. Accessed October 27, 2024. https://www.viralityproject.org/home.
2. “Launching the SIO Virality Project.” Stanford University Internet Observatory. May 21, 2020. Accessed October 27, 2024. https://cyber.fsi.stanford.edu/io/news/launching-sio-virality-project.
3. “Home.” Virality Project. Accessed October 27, 2024. https://www.viralityproject.org/.
4. Matt Masterson, Alex Zaheer, Chase Small, and Carly Miller. “The Case for a Mis- and Disinformation Center of Excellence.” Virality Project with Stanford Internet Observatory. July 8, 2021. Accessed October 27, 2024. https://www.viralityproject.org/policy-analysis/center-of-excellence.
5. Matt Masterson, Alex Zaheer, and Katie Johnson. “White House COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Plan: Analysis and Recommendations.” Virality Project. February 18, 2024. Accessed October 27, 2024. https://www.viralityproject.org/policy-analysis/white-house-plan-analysis-and-recommendations.
6. “Announcing the Virality Project.” Accessed October 27, 2024. https://www.viralityproject.org/news/about.
7. “Experience.” Lily Hart Meyersohn LinkedIn Profile. Accessed October 28, 2024. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lily-hart-meyersohn-bb1483181/.
8. Tollefson, Jeff. “The race to curb the spread of COVID vaccine disinformation.” Nature.  April 16, 2021. Accessed via Web Archive October 28, 2024. https://archive.ph/tbtiY
9. “Memes, Magnets and Microchips: Narrative dynamics around COVID-19 vaccines.” Stanford Digital Repository. Accessed October 27, 2024. https://purl.stanford.edu/mx395xj8490.
10. Matt Masterson, Alex Zaheer, and Katie Johnson. “White House COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Plan: Analysis and Recommendations.” Virality Project. February 18, 2021. Accessed October 27, 2024. https://www.viralityproject.org/policy-analysis/white-house-plan-analysis-and-recommendations.
11. Jennifer John, Kolina Koltai, Alex Zaheer, Carly Miller, Katie Jonsson, Isabella Garcia-Camargo, Matthew Masterson, Renee DiResta, and Chase Small. “Vaccine Rollout Mis/Disinformation: Expectations and Action Plan for Health Communicators.” Virality Project. March 4, 2021. Accessed October 27, 2024. https://www.viralityproject.org/policy-analysis/what-to-expect.
12. Matt Masterson, Alex Zaheer, Chase Small, Jack Cable, and Jennifer John. “Rumor Control: a Framework for Countering Vaccine Misinformation.” Virality Project. May 4, 2021. Accessed October 27, 2024. https://www.viralityproject.org/policy-analysis/rumor-control.
13. “Announcing the Virality Project.” Virality Project. Accessed October 27, 2024. https://www.viralityproject.org/news/about
14. “Tweet.” Matt Taibbi Twitter. Posted March 17, 2023. Accessed October 28, 2024. https://x.com/mtaibbi/status/1636729166631432195?s=20.