Authors

Sohan Dsouza is a computational social scientist and open-source intelligence practitioner, an alum of the Digital Forensics Research Lab's "Digital Sherlocks" programme and of Tactical Tech's "Investigating the Influence Industry in Elections" mastercourse. His research background includes crowdsourcing, strategic cooperation, incentive mechanisms, social mobilisation, AI ethics, and computer-mediated negotiation. He has worked in computational social science research at the MIT Media Lab and at the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, on projects such as The Moral Machine, The Disobedience Award, and the US State Department Tag Challenge. His work has been published in Nature, PNAS, Transport, and IEEE intelligent Systems, and has been covered by major media outlets including the New York Times, BBC, NPR, Guardian, New Scientist, Scientific American, and Associated Press. He is interested in the intersection between disinformation and political polarisation, and in AI-powered deception, and their implications for platform design and policy. He holds an SM in Media Arts and Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; an MSc in Informatics from the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics associate programme at the British University in Dubai; an MBA and PGDM in IT Management from the SP Jain Centre of Management and SP Jain Institute of Management and Research; and a BS in Computer Information Systems from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Website: http://www.sohandsouza.info 

 Marc Owen Jones is an incoming Associate Professor in Residence of Media Analytics at Northwestern University in Qatar, where he will lecture and research on disinformation, digital authoritarianism, and political repression. His recent work has focused on the quantitative and qualitative documentation and analysis of social media disinformation and harassment campaigns in the Middle East. Jones has won multiple awards for his work.He was previously an Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar. He is also a non-resident fellow at Democracy for the Middle East now and the Middle East Council for Global Affairs, and a member of the Committee for Academic Freedom at the Middle East Studies Association. He completed his PhD in Government and International Affairs at Durham University in 2016. Among his various publications are two monographs,  ‘Political Repression in Bahrain’, published by Cambridge University Press (2020), and  ‘Disinformation and Deception in the Middle East’ with published Hurst Books and Oxford University Press (2022). Jones’ PhD thesis in Government and International Affairs from Durham University won the ‘2016 Best Thesis’ award from the Association for Gulf and Arabian Peninsula Studies. In 2021 he won the ‘UK alumni professional achievement’ award from the British Council in Qatar.  In addition to his academic publications, Jones has written for numerous international media outlets, including the Washington Post, CNN, Time magazine, the Independent and the New Statesman. His work features frequently in publications such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Guardian. He has a regular column on Al Jazeera English, and also makes regular appearances on BBC, LBC, CBC News, and many others. Jones grew up in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and has worked and studied in Sudan, Syria, Germany and the United Kingdom.  

Website: https://linktr.ee/marcowenjones