What happens when a researcher visits India, sees something alarming about misinformation and violence, and then spends years trying to figure out how to get data about a platform designed to be private? In this interview recorded at the 2026 Tech for Open Minds Annual Conference, Kiran Garimella (School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University) takes us through that journey — from reverse-engineering apps and recruiting local coders to building donation infrastructure and coordinating geographically dispersed samples — and then delivers the methodological twist: misinformation on WhatsApp may not be doing what everyone assumed. If misinformation isn’t the lever, what is?
Author: Kiran Garimella, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Information, Rutgers University
Date Published: 2026-04-02