Fresh out of Barnard College with a degree in political science, Riley is learning the ropes as a writer and reporter for GZERO. When she isn’t writing about global politics, you can find her making GZERO’s crossword puzzles, conducting research on American politics, or persisting in her lifelong quest to learn French. Riley spends her time outside of work grilling, dancing, and wearing many hats (both literally and figuratively).
GZERO teamed up with Cyabra, a disinformation detection firm, to investigate how fake actors on the internet could be shaping interactions with AOC’s posts.
They found that 27% of responses to her X posts condemning US involvement in Israel’s Gaza operations and Columbia University’s use of police against protesters were from fake accounts.
The most common words used by the fake accounts were “Hamas” and “terrorist,” and their comments were usually accusing the congresswoman of sympathizing with terrorists or inciting violence. Many also compared the student protests to the Jan. 6 riots, proposing that there was a double standard to the protesters’ political agenda.
