Renée DiResta

Renée DiResta (born 1981) is a writer and former research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO). DiResta has written about pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, terrorism, and state-sponsored information warfare. She has also served as an advisor to the U.S. Congress on ongoing efforts to prevent online and social media disinformation.

Education and career
DiResta attended Stony Brook University and in 2004 received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science // Political Science. DiResta has stated that as an undergraduate student she worked as an intern for the CIA, but that her association with that agency ended in 2004.

Until 2011 she worked in finance, as a trader at Jane Street Capital after which she worked in high tech venture capital firms until 2014. In 2015, DiResta co-founded Vaccinate California, an organization designed to promote vaccination in California. Di Resta was Director of Research at Yonder, a company that specialized in information integrity. Yonder was called to testify before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about possible Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. Until June 2024, DiResta was the Technical Research Manager for the Stanford Internet Observatory.

Vaccination misinformation research
DiResta has advised the California State Senate on matters of vaccination misinformation. Following an outbreak of measles in the U.S., DiResta began research into misinformation around vaccines. Along with data scientist, Gilad Lotan, DiResta identified that on Twitter, 25% of anti-vaccine information came from 0.6% of users, in a phenomenon DiResta described as similar to automation. This study additionally identified groups of individuals who would actively create false accounts and "shape public opinion about particular policies". This report was used by Vaccinate California and the California State Senate to demonstrate that the majority of Californians were in favor of removal of vaccine-opt out policies, resulting in California Senate Bill 277 passing into law.

In 2021, the Virality Project, an organization DiResta is a part of, released the report "Memes, Magnets and Microchips: Narrative dynamics around COVID-19 vaccines" advising social media sites and health officials on how to counter COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation.

Social media and disinformation research
DiResta has previously written that social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, are used as "useful testing grounds for bad actors". Specifically, she wrote that foreign governments, such as Russia, will pilot memes and false stories online to see what can become popular and sway public opinion. DiResta described it as "the asymmetry of passion" where extremist groups will intentionally attempt to reinforce narratives to "shape the reality" of viewers. This, according to DiResta, has seeped into the public policy of vaccines, zoning laws, and water fluoridation".

During her ongoing tenure at the Stanford Internet Observatory, DiResta led investigations into the Russian Internet Research Agency's efforts to manipulate United States society and the GRU's efforts to influence the U.S. 2016 Presidential Election. This included a report to the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), detailing the means by which the GRU used social media to influence the election and how social media poses an ongoing risk to US politics. This report further stated that Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet's algorithms were intentionally manipulated in a multi-year effort by the Internet Research Agency, directed by the Russian government, and had successfully created false personas that spread misinformation to an estimated hundreds of thousands of Americans. The identified purpose of this effort was to "deepen political divisions".

DiResta is a member of the Council for Responsible Social Media, a project of the campaign reform lobbying group Issue One. She has criticized Mark Zuckerberg's controlling share of Meta and Elon Musk's Acquisition of Twitter, calling for greater transparency and accountability for these sites.

Media appearances
DiResta appeared in the documentary The Social Dilemma and is a contributor at Wired and The Atlantic.

DiResta appeared on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.

DiResta appeared on the Power User Podcast with Taylor Lorenz to discuss her work.

Literature

 * The Hardware Startup: Building your Product, Business, and Brand (2015)
 * Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies into Reality (2024)