Threats, lawsuits, smears: How the global war on fact-checkers and misinfo experts came to Australia

Tim Graham remembers when misinformation was a niche subject. In the decade or so since he started his career, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) associate professor’s work on conspiracy groups, online hate speech and social media bot networks has made him one of Australia’s leading misinformation experts at a time when people were increasingly interested in the topic. 

“My work kind of grew and so did the relevance of it. It became more publicised, and started to attract the media and politicians,” Graham told Crikey.

Public figures with enormous followings have directed torrents of abuse at Graham on social media.