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Brazil's Electoral Justice Permanent Program on Countering Disinformation: Strategic Plan Elections 2022

Aline Rezende Peres Osorio, Frederico Franco Alvim, Giselly Siqueira et al.

Brasilia: Brazil Superior Electoral Court; Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) (2022), 61 pp.

"The actions to be developed are distributed in three axes: (i) Inform, aimed at the dissemination of official, reliable and quality information; (ii) Empower, aimed at media literacy and training the whole of society to understand the phenomenon of disinformation and the functioning of the electora ... l process; and (iii) Respond, related to the identification of cases of disinformation and the adoption of strategies, both preventive and repressive, to contain its negative effects. For the 2022 electoral cycle, the first axis has five projects with their own purposes and goals. They are: (i) mass dissemination network of truthful and official information about elections and the Electoral Justice; (ii) chatbot – electoral queries on WhatsApp; (iii) access, dissemination and enhancement of the scope of fact checking on the electoral process; (iv) deepening electoral transparency; (v) development and improvement of other technological tools and digital channels to disseminate true and quality information. In this strategic point, the Court’s action is guided by the preferential position of freedom of expression, in the legal system, by encouraging plurality of information. Likewise, information actions meet the recommendations for “prophylactic” prebunking actions (that is, strategies to reduce citizens’ susceptibility to disinformation by exposing examples of how disinformation operates). The second axis, in turn, includes seven initiatives: (i) training for internal and external audiences on disinformation, on the integrity of Brazilian elections and on the fundamentality of the Electoral Justice as an institution that guarantees democracy; (ii) prevention of the mental health of members, agents and collaborators of the Electoral Justice who deal directly with actions to contain disinformation; (iii) training the internal and external public on the electoral process, including the functions performed by it in the context of the democratic rule of Law; (iv) awareness campaigns on disinformation and media and information education actions for the external public; (v) cooperation and actions to enhance reaching partners’ media and information literacy initiatives; (vi) dialog with political parties and party federations to make them aware of their responsibility in the context of fighting against disinformation; (vii) support to other public institutions to implement actions to confronting disinformation. Finally, the response axis encompasses eight projects: (i) permanent coalition for verification; (ii) engagement of digital platforms and their technological resources in confronting structured networks of disinformation and inauthentic behavior; (iii) reporting channel for mass shooting of content in partnership with WhatsApp; (iv) creating a network to monitor disinformation practices against the electoral process; (v) containment of disinformation on Telegram; (vi) partnership and dialog with the Federal Police and the Electoral Prosecutor Office; (vii) Strategic Cyberintelligence Committee and (viii) review and elaboration of norms that acts against the practice of disinformation in the Electoral Justice, as a way of preventing the phenomenon in question. Concerning to this point, the planning met the parameters of timely response, appreciation of fact checking, importance of engagement and transparency of platforms, as well as the expansion and improvement of channels for complaints." (Presentation, page 5-6) more

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Technique-Based Inoculation Against Real-World Misinformation

Jon Roozenbeek, Cecilie S. Traberg, Sander Van der Linden

Royal Society Open Science, volume 9, issue 211719 (2022), 13 pp.

"In recent years, numerous psychological interventions have been developed to reduce susceptibility to misinformation. Inoculation theory has become an increasingly common framework for reducing susceptibility to both individual examples of misinformation (issue-based inoculation) and to the techniq ... more

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Regulation of Harmful Content Online in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Between Freedom of Expression and Harms to Democracy

Anida Sokol, Maja Calovic

Sarajevo: Mediacentar; UNESCO (2022), 108 pp.

"The study specifically focuses on five types of harmful content: a) hate speech and hate narratives; b) denials of war crimes and glorification of war criminals; c) ethno-nationally and/or politically biased media reporting; d) disinformation; and e) attacks, threats and smear campaigns against ind ... more

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Digital Disinformation: Evidence from Ukraine

Lennart Maschmeyer

Zürich: ETH Zürich, Center for Security Studies (CSS) (2021), 4 pp.

"There is a pervasive fear that information technology enhances the effectiveness of destabilizing disinformation campaigns. Yet evidence from Ukraine, the paradigmatic case of “hybrid war”, indicates this threat is overstated. Rather, traditional media remain far more influential. The prevailin ... more

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National Regulatory and Self-Regulatory Framework Against Hate Speech and Disinformation: Factsheet Turkey

Sinem Aydinli

Ljubljana: South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM) (2021), 14 pp.

"The current legislation should include a direct expression of hate speech and expand the scope of hate speech in terms of person and subject as much as possible. The anti-discrimination state bodies should focus on protecting the human rights of the most vulnerable groups, broadening legal protecti ... more

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Ill Advice: A Case Study in Facebook’s Failure to Tackle COVID-19 Disinformation

Aoife Gallagher, Macckenzie Hart, Ciarán O'Connor

London: Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) (2021), 34 pp.

"Despite detailed policies on mis- and disinformation and promises to enforce them, social media platforms are failing to tackle prominent groups and individuals who spread false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines online. Using the World Doctors Alliance1 as a case study, a group that has spread var ... ious problematic, false and conspiratorial claims about COVID-19 and vaccines, ISD found that 78% of the group’s 1.2 million online followers are found on mainstream platforms (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok) who claim to prohibit this kind of content. The Facebook pages of World Doctors Alliance members have a following of over 550,000 users, which increased by 13,215% between January 2020 and July 2021. Videos posted by these Facebook pages have been viewed more than 21.1 million times. These pages have accumulated a total of 5.77 million interactions since January 2020, with interaction rates increasing by 85% in the first six months of 2021 compared to the previous six months. Facebook posts mentioning the World Doctors Alliance or its members have attracted more than three million engagements on Facebook and are present in at least 46 different languages on the platform. ISD found that large proportions—often the majority—of the most engaged with content on Facebook mentioning the World Doctors Alliance or its members in English, Spanish, German and Arabic contained false, misleading or conspiratorial claims related to COVID-19 and vaccines. Organisations that are part of Facebook’s fact-checking program have debunked false claims made by the World Doctors Alliance 189 times since the beginning of the pandemic. Despite this extensive fact-checking effort, Facebook is failing to take decisive action on the group or its members. Facebook’s fact-checking program incorporates organisations from 115 countries, but there appear to be major gaps in fact-checking in non-English languages. ISD found minimal application of fact-checking labels across the four languages analysed, with lower application rates on posts in German, Spanish and Arabic than in English. Content that does contain fact-checking labels is still accumulating tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of engagements." (Key findings) more

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Maria Ressa: Fighting an Onslaught of Online Violence. A Big Data Analysis

Julie Posetti, Diana Maynard, Kalina Bontcheva

Washington, DC: International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) (2021), 44 pp.

"This groundbreaking collaborative case study is the most comprehensive assessment of online violence against a prominent woman journalist to date. We conducted a forensic analysis of the torrent of social media attacks on internationally celebrated digital media pioneer Maria Ressa over a five-year ... more

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Edelman Trust Barometer 2021: Global Report

Edelman (2021), 58 slides

"After a year of unprecedented disaster and turbulence – the Covid-19 pandemic and economic crisis, the global outcry over systemic racism and political instability – the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals an epidemic of misinformation and widespread mistrust of societal institutions and leade ... more

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Information Saves Lives: Ebola Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Final Project Report

Internews; USAID (2021), 33 pp.

"On June 25, 2020, the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo declared the end of the Ebola outbreak in Eastern DRC – the 10th in the country’s history and the second largest after the West Africa Ebola outbreak. The outbreak recorded over 3,000 Ebola cases and left over 2,000 deaths1. W ... more

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The Critical Risk of Disinformation for Humanitarians: The Case of the MV Aquarius

Sean Healy, Victoria Russell

Journal of Humanitarian Affairs, volume 3, issue 1 (2021), pp. 28-39

"The search and rescue of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants on the Mediterranean has become a site of major political contestation in Europe, on the seas, in parliaments and government offices and in online public opinion. This article summarises one particular set of controversies, namely, fals ... more

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Respuestas para combatir la desinformación en procesos electorales en Perú

Lima: UNESCO (2021), 72 pp.

"Este informe de UNESCO en Perú analiza una variedad de respuestas que han sido implementadas en el país para contrarrestar los efectos de la desinformación durante las Elecciones Generales 2021. El estudio reconoce que diversas organizaciones han contribuido en la lucha contra las llamadas fake ... more

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Primera encuesta MediaScan Panamá: Percepción ante la desinformación. Consumo de medios. Confianza en las fuentes informativas

Mediáticos; Centro Internacional de Estudios Políticos y Sociales (CIEPS) (2021), 12 pp.

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The Psychology of Fake News: Accepting, Sharing, and Correcting Misinformation

Rainer Greifeneder, Mariela Elena Jaffé, Eryn Newman, Norbert Schwarz (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2021), x, 239 pp.

"In a general climate where facts and misinformation blur, and are intentionally blurred, this book asks what determines whether people accept and share (mis)information, and what can be done to counter misinformation? All three of these aspects need to be understood in the context of online social ... more

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Desmontando la mentira: Dos años bajo la lupa del OVFN Observatorio Venezolano de Fake News

Mariela Torrealba, Pablo Paz, Ysabel Viloria (eds.)

Caracas: Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB); abediciones; Medianálisis (2021), 210 pp.

"Con la vista fija en una mejor calidad en la percepción misma de la información, así como en el desarrollo de competencias ciudadanas para disminuir la vulnerabilidad a la manipulación y contrarrestar el secuestro mismo de la libertad de consciencia, surge el Observatorio Venezolano de Fake New ... more

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Misconceptions, Misinformation and Politics of COVID-19 on Social Media: A Multi-Level Analysis in Ghana

Philip Teg-Nefaah Tabong, Martin Segtub

Frontiers in Communication, volume 6, issue 613794 (2021), 13 pp.

"The study showed a changing pattern in the misconceptions and misinformation about COVID-19. Initially myths were largely on causes and vulnerability. It was widely speculated that black people had some immunity against COVID-19. Also, the condition was perceived to cause severe disease among the e ... more

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National Regulatory and Self-Regulatory Framework Against Hate Speech and Disinformation: Factsheet Montenegro

Milica Bogdanovic

Ljubljana: South East European Network for Professionalization of Media (SEENPM); Peace Institute; Montenegro Media Institute (2021), 19 pp.

"Competent institutions should react in case of spreading hate speech and introduce appropriate measures to combat the spread of disinformation, which would serve as a middle ground between arresting those who spread disinformation and a too passive approach to this problem. In addition to this, the ... more

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Toward a Globally Networked Counter-Disinformation Response

Kevin Sheives

Global Insights (2021), 8 pp.

"A loosely connected, constantly learning global network of counter-disinformation responders—with the benefit of greater access to platforms and additional resources from funders—can serve as a bulwark against evolving threats to the integrity of the information space. Although these threats tr ... more

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Social Media and the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Dilemma of Fake News Clutter Vs. Social Responsibility

Moez Ben Messaoud

Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research, volume 14, issue 1 (2021), pp. 25-45

"This article examines the relationship between fake news and social media as increasingly important sources of news, at a time when mainstream media no longer have exclusive control over news production and dissemination. It has been evident that few media outlets and professionals tend to draw con ... flicting news about COVID-19 from social media feeds, which are largely produced by common citizens with mostly no journalism training. This pervasive use makes social media key sources to scores of media outlets for news, whether it is related to COVID-19 or public affairs issues, even though it is susceptible to torrents of credibility and accuracy issues. As a result, of the overwhelming spread of fake news on coronavirus, which is contributing to framing events from several angles, media professionals are now obliged to track and vet information circulating on social media. Due to the scale of disinformation spreading on the Web, it has become imperative that the credibility and accuracy of news is thoroughly verified. Media organizations have already been putting in place various mechanisms to monitor false news. This article will attempt to identify and assess these monitoring efforts in the Arab world. For this purpose, I have put together a list of Arab observatories launched on the internet in order to monitor fake news circulating in relation to COVID-19, and to discuss their methods of monitoring work, in the context of mobilization carried out by governments and many organizations such as the World Health Organization. This article is pinned down on social responsibility approach which helps pave the way the differentpropositions to combat fake news and avoid abuses in social media uses. This article proposes an evaluation of the monitoring initiative viaa- vis fake news and proposes a set of guidelines for improving the work of such monitoring bodies. Hence, this research reveals that social media outlets have diversified their goals to match the power of the conventional media in disseminating information and bringing up issues for debate. However, in the light of the framework of social responsibility, social media actors have to constantly develop a set of ethical practices to be observed by users, establish codes of conduct regulating content production, and lay down a code of integrity to assure accuracy in news and information transmission." (Abstract). more

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YouTube Regrets: A Crowdsourced Investigation Into YouTube's Recommendation Algorithm

Jesse McCrosky, Brandi Geurkink

Mozilla (2021), 39 pp.

"YouTube is the second-most visited website in the world, and its algorithm drives 70% of watch time on the platform—an estimated 700 million hours every single day. For years, that recommendation algorithm has helped spread health misinformation, political disinformation, hateful diatribes, and o ... more

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Gendered disinformation: 6 reasons why liberal democracies need to respond to this threat. Policy brief

Ellen Judson

Berlin: Heinrich Böll Stiftung (2021)

"Gendered disinformation is a form of identity-based disinformation that threatens human rightsworldwide. It undermines the digital and political rights, as well as the safety and security, of itstargets. Its effects are far-reaching: gendered disinformation is used to justify human rightsabuses and ... more