Disinformation researcher Joan Donovan testifying remotely throughout a U.S. Senate listening to in April 2021. Donovan contends she misplaced her job at Harvard University attributable to strain from the social media firm, Meta.

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Disinformation researcher Joan Donovan testifying remotely throughout a U.S. Senate listening to in April 2021. Donovan contends she misplaced her job at Harvard University attributable to strain from the social media firm, Meta.

Pool/Getty Images

A widely known on-line disinformation researcher has accused Harvard University of pushing her out and shutting down her work to protect the college’s relationship with Facebook proprietor Meta.

In a legal filing despatched to the U.S. Department of Education and the Massachusetts legal professional common’s workplace, Joan Donovan accused the college of violating her free speech rights and the college’s personal dedication to tutorial freedom “in order to protect the interests of high-value donors with obvious and direct ties to Meta/Facebook.”

Donovan alleged the strain marketing campaign got here because the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the charitable group established by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his spouse, Priscilla Chan, that was pledging $500 million to fund a brand new university-wide middle on synthetic intelligence at Harvard.

“There are a handful of tried-and-true means to coerce someone or some entity to do something they would not otherwise do, and influence through financial compensation is at or near the top of the list,” Donovan’s attorneys wrote within the submitting. “Objectively, $500 million is certainly significant financial influence.”

Donovan had labored on the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center since 2018, serving as analysis director and main its Technology and Social Change Research Project, which studied media manipulation campaigns. She was a distinguished skilled on social media and on-line disinformation, testifying earlier than Congress, elevating thousands and thousands of {dollars} in grant funding, and being steadily cited by information media, together with NPR.

Donovan alleged a challenge she was concerned in to publish hundreds of inner Facebook paperwork leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen was the set off that led Harvard to close down her work final 12 months and finally remove her position. In August, Donovan was employed as an assistant professor at Boston University.

The submitting asks for a proper investigation by federal training officers into whether or not Harvard was “inappropriately influenced by Meta” and whether or not it was deceptive donors and misappropriating cash given to fund Donovan’s work, amongst different issues. Donovan is being represented by Whistleblower Aid, a nonprofit group that additionally represented Haugen in her grievance in opposition to Facebook.

Harvard disputed Donovan’s claims. Her “allegations of unfair treatment and donor interference are false,” Kennedy School spokesperson James Smith mentioned in a press release. “The narrative is full of inaccuracies and baseless insinuations, particularly the suggestion that Harvard Kennedy School allowed Facebook to dictate its approach to research.”

A spokesperson for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative mentioned in a press release: “CZI had no involvement in Dr. Donovan’s departure from Harvard and was unaware of that development before public reporting on it.”

Latanya Sweeney, a Harvard professor who labored with Donovan on the Facebook paperwork challenge, referred to as FBarchive, additionally denied Donovan’s accusations in a response shared with NPR by Smith.

“The number and nature of inaccuracies and falsehoods in the document are so abundant and self-serving as to be horribly disappointing,” Sweeney mentioned. “Meta exerted no influence over FBarchive or any of our/my work. Just a few weeks ahead of the public launch, we offered Meta the chance to review the archive for security and privacy concerns and suggest redactions, which we independently elected to accept or reject.”

Smith mentioned Harvard Kennedy School’s “longstanding policy” requires all analysis initiatives to be led by college members, and Donovan was workers, not college. “When the original faculty leader of the project left Harvard, the School tried for some time to identify another faculty member who had time and interest to lead the project. After that effort did not succeed, the project was given more than a year to wind down. Joan Donovan was not fired, and most members of the research team chose to remain at the School in new roles,” Smith mentioned.

He added that Harvard continues to analysis misinformation and social media.

Meta declined to remark.