Ex-Harvard 'misinformation and disinformation' expert takes job at Boston U

Joan Donovan, an expert in “misinformation and disinformation,” will be joining Boston University’s College of Communication this fall after she departed Harvard University earlier this year. 

Over the last year, Donovan has made many statements supporting left-wing causes and attacking right-wing ones.

As part of her role as a researcher, Donovan plans to build an “internet observatory,” collecting all online posts of nationally-elected politicians.

“My hope is that in a couple of years we can get a law passed so that the National Archives will take this over and do it permanently,” Donovan told BU Today, the university’s newspaper, on August 16.

The university outlet labels Donovan as a “nationally recognized expert in misinformation and disinformation.”

[RELATED: Boston University prof suggests TAXING fake news]

The researcher has previously indicated she believes that research regarding “manipulation” and “disinformation” have a “right-wing Republican agenda.” Donovan made the observation during an interview with Times Higher Education in July. 

“You have people like Matt Taibbi pushing the Twitter Files, claiming that academia and the government are working together with tech companies to suppress right-wing voices,” she said.

In response to a tweet in June noting that Google highlighted crisis pregnancy centers for women seeking information about pregnancy and abortion, Donovan stated that the company was “hurting women and pregnant people.” 

During the Target boycotts in May, Donovan tweeted, “Target can’t even sell LIVE LAUGH LESBIAN shirts for fear of right-wing violence. It’s going to be a very dangerous pride month.”

Target can’t even sell LIVE LAUGH LESBIAN shirts for fear of right-wing violence.

It’s going to be a very dangerous pride month.

‘Don’t go alone. Go with a friend. You might need ‘em in the end.’https://t.co/HW8wHxHMS9

— Joan Donovan, PhD 🦫 (@BostonJoan) May 24, 2023

Earlier this summer, Donovan promoted several comments critical of recent Supreme Court cases and figures and organizations surrounding them.

In July, Donovan retweeted author Andrew Seidel calling Alliance Defending Freedom “a Christian Nationalist legal outfit behind so many of the cases that are dragging this country back to a time when conservative, white Christian men ruled everything.” Seidel’s remark was part of a thread regarding 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, the Supreme Court case that ruled a wedding web page designer did not have to create a website for LGBTQ+ weddings because forcing her to would be compelled speech.

Just a few days earlier, on June 29, Donovan retweeted Patrick Gaspard, former executive director of the Democratic National Committee and president of George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, denouncing the Supreme Court case ending affirmative action. “Six extremists just set us back yet again on rights,” Gaspard said. “For decades, affirmative action has benefitted students of all races, particularly women. It led to more diverse workplaces and helped millions escape poverty. This fight for equality is far from over.”

[RELATED: New DHS disinfo board echoes university attacks on free speech]

In early June, Donovan called a Ron DeSantis speech about wokeness the “rhetoric of fascism.” 

DeSantis’s “political platform is targeting the civil rights gains over the last 50 years,” Donovan said. “The very idea that BIPOC and LBGTQ+ folks have representation and rights is intolerable.”

According to BU Today, Donovan will be on a tenure track at the university, a privilege she did not have at Harvard. 

Last year, she published her co-written book titled “Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America.”

Campus Reform contacted Donovan and Boston University for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.