Threatcast 2020: Our New Brainstorming Game To Explore Disinformation In The 2020 Election

from the come-and-play dept

As you may recall, a few years back, I helped design and run a large group election simulation game called "Machine Learning President." The game explored what odd or surprising coalitions might form around a 2020 election, as well as the impact of both money and technology on the races. It was a fun exercise, but a complicated one to run, and, to date, it has only been run twice.

Last year, Renee DiResta, at the Mozilla Fellowship in Media, Misinformation, and Trust, commissioned myself and Randy Lubin (with whom we worked on Machine Learning President, our CIA card game, and a variety of other game-related projects) to create a group brainstorming exercise to explore ways in which disinformation might be used in the 2020 election, called Threatcast 2020.

The game is a unique and fun election simulation, designed to enable groups of people (~15 to 30 people or so) to creatively brainstorm how disinformation might impact all sides of the 2020 election. Throughout the game, players are repeatedly asked to come up with disinformation strategies, creative uses of technology, and to explore how those might be shaped by real world events. So far, we've run it privately in off-the-record settings, but I can say that it has generated some really amazing insights and ideas for both how disinformation might be used -- and how different actors might help to limit its impact.

Nathaniel Gleicher, the head of security policy at Facebook, whose entire role right now is focused on figuring out how to prevent Facebook from being abused for mis- and disinformation, recently tweeted that this kind of exercise is one of the "best ways to think like, and get ahead of the bad guys."

DiResta, who originally asked us to create this game, has talked about how engaging our game is, telling us that we "designed and ran a unique, engaging tabletop exercise that got all of the participants out of their usual modes of operating and into a space that inspired deep, creative thought -- while still having fun."

We're now hoping to run this game with more folks -- especially those working at tech companies, working on related policies, and those working in media for whom this process would likely be useful. If you're interested in having us run Threatcast2020 for you, please contact us.

Filed Under: brainstorming, disinformation, threatcast, threatcast 2020