Francesca Tripodi

Francesca Tripodi is an Associate Professor at the UNC School of Information and Library Science and Lead Faculty in the Master of Applied Data Science program. She holds a PhD from the University of Virginia and an MA from Georgetown University. Her research focuses on social media’s impact on democracy, gender inequality on Wikipedia, and disinformation tactics in conservative media. She has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and authored a book under contract with Yale University Press analyzing far-right information strategies. Affiliated with the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP) and Data & Society Research Institute, her work bridges sociology and information science to expose sociotechnical vulnerabilities in digital platforms.

Education: PhD and MA in Sociology (University of Virginia), MA in Communication, Culture, and Technology (Georgetown University).

Research interests include algorithmic polarization, search engine manipulation, and media literacy. Her studies on Wikipedia reveal systemic gender and racial biases in content curation. Recent work explores how conservatives exploit search engines to spread disinformation, as detailed in her book The Propagandists’ Playbook. Media coverage of her work appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Guardian.

Her 2022–2025 publications address topics like semantic media’s health misinformation risks, library roles in combating disinformation, and the sociotechnical frameworks behind movements like “Stop the Steal.”