Expert in disinformation, social media, and online safety | Senior BBC Policy Advisor @ DCMS | Previously: Senior Researcher at Lancaster University | Also run @fakebelieveblog.bsky.social. Contact: w.dance@fakebelieve.bloghttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3lqfbex5xe22yHad a fantastic week in Montignac-Lascaux to celebrate completing my PhD 🇫🇷 Enjoyed canoeing 20km of the Vézère river, visiting Montignac’s Distillerie de l’Òrt, and soaking up the French sun ☀️30 May 2025 12:48 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3lqfbex5xe22yhttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3lpqil7fu2c2gDelighted to announce that I’ll be starting as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Media and International Directorate in the Department for Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS)! I’ll be working on BBC policy, including the upcoming BBC Charter Review, and I’m looking forward to helping shape UK media policy.22 May 2025 06:31 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3lpqil7fu2c2ghttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3lp7pu2idmk2eHappy to say that today I passed my PhD viva with no corrections at Lancaster University! Thanks to @journolinguist.bsky.social and @karinpt.bsky.social for being fantastic external and internal examiners, and to my supervisor @drclaireh.bsky.social for helping me get here.15 May 2025 14:26 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3lp7pu2idmk2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3lolmboqnqs2eNew from me 🚨 “Disinformation and Algorithms: Amplification, Reception and Correction” I contribute to the theory around disinformation and misinformation studies and then carry out a corpus-based analysis of the use of tokens like ‘disinformation’ on Twitter. https://www.cambridge.org/universitypress/subjects/languages-linguistics/discourse-analysis/manipulation-influence-and-deception-changing-landscape-persuasive-language07 May 2025 14:29 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3lolmboqnqs2ehttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3llsyitp4v227Spotted a lot of April Fools’ Day activity from brands and organisations on social media yesterday. Strikingly, the only one I encountered that didn’t use genAI images was this from the British Transport Police. Shows another way in which genAI has become the first port of call for ease and cost.02 Apr 2025 08:41 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3llsyitp4v227https://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3llgkjadhcs2xWe’re experiencing an interesting phenomenon here: There is a Pikachu-themed activist in the demonstrations in Türkiye, but the visual used here (and elsewhere) is AI generated. This blending of legitimate and fabricated content further complicates what people can believe online.28 Mar 2025 09:58 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3llgkjadhcs2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3llgjkwdlwc2fNew from me: ‘Corpus Linguistics and Social Media,’ to be published in print and online for the International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 3rd Edition in 2026. For now, you can find it online here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B978032395504100479828 Mar 2025 09:41 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3llgjkwdlwc2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3litqx27p7c2lI talked about the social and technical factors that contribute to belief in celebrity misinformation to @theathletic.bsky.social/ @nytimes.com and how it’s often family members and people associated with celebrities who end up the targets of false information too. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6138722/2025/02/19/lionel-messi-cristiano-ronaldo-false-viral-posts/23 Feb 2025 11:43 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3litqx27p7c2lhttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3lfcpko2cts2pI was just on BBC Radio Wales talking about Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement regarding moderation and fact checking on Meta platforms, and how he is embracing the ‘Musk approach’. Here’s a clip and you can hear the full 6 minute interview on my blog: https://fakebelieve.blog/media-engagement/09 Jan 2025 12:47 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3lfcpko2cts2phttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3lf7ys6wgp22oThis is the most extraordinary statement I’ve ever seen from a social media executive. There’s too much to unpack immediately, but the takeaway here is that Zuckerberg is doing what he *feels* is right, with no oversight, no real transparency, and with global impact. https://about.fb.com/news/2025/01/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes/08 Jan 2025 10:54 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3lf7ys6wgp22ohttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3leonxlrrws22My blog FakeBelieve had its best ever year in 2024 with 3,151 visitors from 72 countries spanning 5 continents! 🌍 The top countries were the US, UK, Canada, Germany, and the Philippines. I published 5 new posts with some new resources for adults and kids too. Check it all out at: fakebelieve.blog https://fakebelieve.blog/01 Jan 2025 13:25 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3leonxlrrws22https://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3lbakwrzqqs27Here’s a simple explainer for kids on how to navigate and understand (dis)information online. It teaches kids how to process information online, reiterating the specific things that they can do when on social media and the wider internet. #DigitalLiteracy Find it at: fakebelieve.blog/resources/18 Nov 2024 18:38 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3lbakwrzqqs27https://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3lb7mzubowc25I thought I'd make a new explainer for my blog (@fakebelieveblog.bsky.social). For this one l've focused on hostile-state information operations (HSIOs). The explainer is available as a PNG or PDF from my blog as a whole, or as individual tiles, here: fakebelieve.blog/resources/18 Nov 2024 09:43 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3lb7mzubowc25https://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3lb2tve6w322aThe Washington Post has uncovered details of a $45 million initiative led by Elon Musk’s advisors that was aimed at using “misdirection” ads, often featuring false claims about Kamala Harris, to target Black, Jewish, Muslim, and other voter groups. (🔒) https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/11/15/republican-ads-false-flag/16 Nov 2024 12:02 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3lb2tve6w322ahttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3layuvwslj22jUnlike X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, BlueSky allows users to input free text when reporting content on its platform. At the moment it benefits from a relatively small user base (15 million) and therefore can handle safety better, but it’ll be interesting to see if this stays as it grows.15 Nov 2024 17:15 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3layuvwslj22jhttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3kk7p4ediru2rNext week (Weds 7th Feb, 1300-1400) we will be at @lshtm.bsky.social where we will be talking about the construction and analysis of our Victorian anti-vaccination discourse corpus ‘VicVaDis’. The talk will be both in-person (London) and online: https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/events/vicvadis-victorian-anti-vaccination-discourse-corpus30 Jan 2024 17:41 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3kk7p4ediru2rhttps://bsky.app/profile/williamdance.bsky.social/post/3kk4grc5fxu2nJoin us online on February 15th (1200-1330 GMT) where we’ll be giving a webinar ‘The Questioning Vaccination Discourse Project (Quo VaDis): What we have learnt’. The webinar will discuss the rationale for the project, its methods, challenges and key findings: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/calendar/factor/ic4ch29 Jan 2024 10:33 +0000at://did:plc:otbtb4oaxl3np3abancrzi5g/app.bsky.feed.post/3kk4grc5fxu2n