• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

DTD Lab

DTD Lab
  • Research
  • Events
  • People
  • Opportunities
  • About
  • News
  • Subscribe

Research & Programming

Technology & Disinformation

About In the News Past Events Project Members

Overview

This study works to challenge and deconstruct long-standing stereotypes about favelas—often portrayed as hubs of disinformation due to a supposed lack of education.

Findings reveal that such assumptions are unfounded. In fact, engagement with disinformation among favela residents—who are predominantly Black—is significantly lower than among individuals from higher social classes.

This study is part of a broader initiative working collaboratively with residents to establish a local research lab, enabling them to conduct their own investigations and generate knowledge from within their communities.

The report Technology and Disinformation in the Território do Bem (Vitória-ES), published as a bilingual booklet (Portuguese and English) by Editora Milfontes, is available for download at the link below. This is the first report of its kind focused on understanding how favela residents engage with technology and disinformation, and how these interactions shape their everyday lives. The project centers on exploring the role of technology and disinformation in the daily experiences of the Território do Bem, emphasizing participatory research and community engagement as key drivers of social transformation.

View Favela Digital

Explore Publications on Favela Digital

Learn More

In the News

The true paradox of the “iPhone socialist”

In his latest column, David Nemer, DTD Lab faculty co-lead, describes the paradox of the 'iPhone socialist' that lies in the capitalist who uses products heavily funded, conceived, and enabled by the state, while denying the crucial role of the public sector throughout the entire innovation chain.

theconversation.com

Technopolitics and extremist configurations in the era of digital platforms

David Nemer, DTD Lab faculty co-lead, highlights the role of major tech corporations in fostering neoliberal rationalities that sustain populist and extremist ideologies, calling for a critical understanding of technopolitics and its implications for democracy in a new publication.

revistas.uniandes.edu.co

Artificial intelligence as heteromation: the human infrastructure behind the machine

A new article from DTD Lab faculty co-lead, David Nemer, and DTD Lab postdoctoral research fellow, Andre Sobral, interrogates the widespread narrative of AI as autonomous, intelligent, and self-sufficient, and instead centers on the largely invisible human labor that sustains these systems.

link.springer.com

Past Events

  • Technology & Disinformation

Digital Democracy: The Uses and Misuses of Technology in Unequal Societies

Monday, December 9, 2024 • 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM EST

DTD Lab, 722 Preston Ave., Ste. 201

  • Technology & Disinformation
  • Visual Misinformation

Misinformation and Image Manipulation in a Polarized America

Friday, November 22, 2024 • 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM EST

UVA's School of Data Science and Online

See All

Project Members

Undergraduate Research Assistant

Diego DiMattina

Diego DiMattina is an undergraduate student and Echols scholar at the University of Virginia, majoring in computer science and philosophy. He works as a research assistant in the Digital Technology for Democracy Lab alongside faculty co-lead, David Nemer, and postdoctoral research fellow, André Sobral. Diego is interested in science and technology studies, political/social philosophy and computer science techniques that incorporates both interests. He has worked with the Massive Data Institute at Georgetown University studying misinformation during the 2024 election and interned at organizations implementing technologies to drive policy efforts. Diego is committed to leveraging an interdisciplinary approach to better understand how to use technology ethically in society.

Full Profile

Faculty Co-Lead

David Nemer

Affiliation

  • Associate Professor of Media Studies, Department of Media Studies, College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

Bio

David Nemer is an associate professor in the department of media studies, and an affiliated faculty in the department of anthropology and in the Latin American studies program at the University of Virginia. He is also a faculty associate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. His research and teaching interests cover the intersection of science and technology studies, anthropology of technology, ICT for development, and human-computer interaction. Nemer is an ethnographer whose fieldworks include the Slums of Vitória, Brazil; Havana, Cuba; Guadalajara, Mexico; and Eastern Kentucky, Appalachia. Nemer is the author of Technology of the Oppressed (MIT Press, 2022), winner of the Marcel Roche Award, and Favela Digital: The other side of technology (Editora GSA, 2013). He holds an MA in anthropology from the University of Virginia, an MS in computer science from Saarland University, and a PhD in computing, culture, and society from Indiana University. Nemer has written for The Guardian, El País, The Huffington Post (HuffPost), Salon, The Intercept, UOL, and CartaCapital.

Full Profile

2024-26 Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Andre Sobral

Andre Sobral, a postdoctoral research fellow with UVA's Digital Technology for Democracy Lab, is a sociologist specialized in science and technology studies. Motivated by a passion for comprehending social change, Sobral has studied interpersonal relationships and political activism mediated by social networks. His enthusiasm lies in collaborative work within creative teams, where collective thinking and academic knowledge are applied to address real-world challenges. Sobral earned a bachelor of sociology at the Federal University of Bahia in Salvador, Brazil, and a master's degree and PhD of systems engineering and computer science at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Previously, he was a researcher at the international project on community resilience “Understanding Risks & Building Enhanced Capabilities in Latin American Cities." Sobral also collaborated as a voluntary researcher at the Informatics & Society Laboratory and at the Aaron Swartz Brazil Institute.

Full Profile

Stay up to date on research, news, and events through our newsletter

Connect with the DTD Lab

Subscribe

Footer

DTD Lab
  • Non-Discrimination Notice
  • Consumer Information
  • Accessibility
  • Emergency
  • FOIA
  • Privacy

Contact Us

722 Preston Avenue, Suite 201 Charlottesville, VA 22903

uva-dtdlab@virginia.edu

YouTube

Site by Charlottesville SEO Web Development.

© 2026 By the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia