Dr Justin Phillips is a political scientist and Senior Lecturer in the School of Law, Politics, and Philosophy.  His research focuses on political communication, combining political and computer science to pursue a research programme that investigates critical issues of public interest, including ‘wicked’ problems like mis/disinformation, fact-checking, violent extremism, and conspiracy beliefs.  Typically, this research explores social media data, sometimes leveraging strategic partnerships with platforms like Meta for rare insights into online communication.  This ongoing collaborative and individual research has been funded by Meta, the New Zealand Government (e.g. MBIE), and the Royal Society Te Apārangi.