Joan Donovan

Joan Donovan (born 1979/1980) is an American social science researcher, sociologist, and academic noted for her research on disinformation. She is the founder of the nonprofit, The Critical Internet Studies Institute (CISI). Since 2023, she is an assistant professor at the College of Communication at Boston University.

Prior to that, Donovan was a researcher and lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University. She was also an affiliate at Data and Society, and was research director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy.

Education
Donovan earned her Ph.D. in sociology and science studies from the University of California, San Diego. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Society and Genetics at University of California, Los Angeles where her expertise was social movements, technology, and the use of DNA ancestry tests by white supremacists.

Career
She later held the role of research lead for the Media Manipulation Initiative at Data and Society, an independent nonprofit research institute, that mapped how interest groups, governments, political operatives, corporations, and others use the internet and media to disrupt social institutions.

After Data and Society, Donovan went on to Harvard Kennedy School, leading its Technology and Social Change Research Project and teaching a class entitled, Media Manipulation and Disinformation Campaigns.

In September 2023, she was hired as a tenure-tracking faculty member by the Boston University College of Communication and given the title of assistant professor.

Areas of research
Donovan's expertise is in examining internet and technology studies, online extremism, media manipulation, and disinformation campaigns. In January 2020, she testified at the "Americans at Risk: Manipulation and Deception in the Digital Age" hearing held by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.

As research director of the Harvard project, she published a number of impactful research papers and books. Donovan co-authored a widely-read study that demonstrated that a significant number of participants in the January 6 attack on the Capitol were driven by their support for Donald Trump.

In September 2021, Donovan released a book entitled, Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America, with co-authors Emily Dreyfuss and Brian Friedberg. The book explores the spread of right-wing political conspiracy theories through online media.

In 2022, Harvard announced that her research project there would end in 2024. Due to announcement of the closing of the project, she accepted a faculty position at Boston University. The Harvard project ended in August 2023, and Donovan began her work at Boston University in September.

On January 5, 2024, The Conversation published Jan. 6 was an example of networked incitement − a media and disinformation expert explains the danger of political violence orchestrated over social media by Donovan following research into the weaponization of social media that influenced the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. in 2020 and compared its dynamics to events in previous decades.

Whistleblower disclosure
In December 2023, Donovan alleged that she was forced to leave Harvard due to pressure from Meta Platforms owing to her research on online extremism. In a legal filing sent to both the Massachusetts Attorney General's office as well as the federal United States Department of Education, Donovan alleged that financial pressure from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative led to her being pushed out of Harvard. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative denied involvement in her departure from the university. Harvard also disputed Donovan's accusation, asserting that they did not "fire" her; that they were unable to find a faculty member who would oversee her work (although being director of the research project, she was not employed as "faculty"); and that they offered her an alternate position, which she turned down.