commbox Disinformation & Misinformation

Disinformation & Misinformation

Filter

770

Sort by:

Direction:

External Link (407)

Climate Disinformation in India: Subverting Indigenous Peoples’ Identity

Bangkog: Asia Centre (2025), viii, 55 pp.

"The report makes three key contributions: it identifies the main forms of climate disinformation in India, examines their specific impacts on indigenous peoples (IP) communities and sets out targeted policy recommendations for national and international stakeholders. First, four forms of climate di ... sinformation circulating in the media landscape in India are identified: one-sided coverage, where the media circulate disinformation by the state, by highlighting false ecological progress while omitting data on biodiversity loss, environmental impacts and displacement; promoting false climate solutions, like afforestation and green credit programmes, which are dubbed as climate action despite their harmful ecological impacts and effects on IPs; attributing environmental disasters to climate change, where state authorities deflect accountability for disasters arising from governance failures and poor infrastructure to climate change; denialism of climate change and its causes, which relies on the suppression of scientific data, promotion of anti-renewable myths and the institutional erasure of climate-linked mortality, thereby sowing doubt and enabling the deflection of accountability. Second, the report shows that the deliberate circulation of climate disinformation in the media subverts IPs’ rights and legal safeguards in favour of state and corporate interests in five critical ways: bypassing IPs’ rights to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) by deliberately spreading distorted information effectively marginalising IP voices from environmental decision-making; restricting traditional practices by promoting false state initiatives while claiming environmental legitimacy, thereby worsening climate adaptation and livelihoods; undermining IPs’ forest conservation efforts, through the reframing of unsustainable top-down conservation efforts as climate action, thus enabling the loss of biocultural diversity; forced evictions and deterritorialisation, often enabled by the misrepresentation of environmental data in judicial rulings under the guise of ecological progress; legal persecution, Intimidation and physical violence, where IPs and environmental defenders are subjected to both online harassment and militarised control in order to suppress resistance to state or corporate projects. Third, this report outlines a set of recommendations for action: United Nations (UN) bodies should conduct an audit of India's compliance with IPs’ rights, investigate how state and corporate disinformation facilitates violations and support the ratification of relevant international laws and conventions; the government should strengthen legal safeguards for IPs by providing greater technical and administrative support to effectively implement the Forest Rights Act, ensuring robust FPIC protocols in all climate and development projects; international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) should support Indigenous-led audits of government programmes, submit evidence of digital surveillance to UN bodies, and help establish rapid-response legal networks and community fact-checking hubs in IP languages; civil society organisations (CSOs) should establish a national database for eco-development displacements, offer mobile legal clinics for land rights and advocate for policies requiring IPs’ representation in environmental bodies; the media sector should expose data manipulation in official forest reports, establish Indigenous-language fact-checking and leverage public broadcasting to boost digital literacy and amplify community voices; technology companies should develop tools to detect disinformation targeting IPs, conduct transparent audits of algorithmic bias on their platforms and partner with CSOs to provide digital literacy and secure communication tools; IP communities should continue to document land-use violations using community mapping, file collective petitions to audit projects violating their rights and build alliances to establish Indigenous-owned media platforms to control narratives." (Executive summary, pages vi-vii) more

External Link (234)

Tackling Disinformation, Information Manipulation and Interference in Four African Elections
Deep Insights

Dani Madrid-Morales, Herman Wasserman, Nicola Davies-Laubscher, Fatoumata Sow

Mapping Electoral Disinformation inAfrica (MEDiA); Centre for Information Integrity in Africa (CIIA); Stellenbosch University (2025), 58 pp.

"In recent years, electoral disinformation has followed several recurring patterns globally, many of which were observed in the case studies analysed in this report. One prominent tactic is attacks on electoral integrity, where political actors spread false claims about voter registration, election ... rigging, or external interference to delegitimise outcomes. As we show in this report, in the DRC, for example, rumours circulated that biometric voter registration was designed to expose individuals’ HIV status, discouraging participation. In South Africa, disinformation networks falsely claimed that the Electoral Commission (IEC) was manipulating results to favour the ruling party, fueling distrust in the electoral process. Another trend is the weaponisation of ethnic and gendered disinformation. In Kenya, misleading narratives framed certain candidates as “foreign-sponsored outsiders” to undermine their legitimacy, while in Senegal, false claims about morality were used to discredit opposition figures. Meanwhile, gendered disinformation—targeting women candidates with sexist tropes and false accusations—was a recurring feature in all four countries, reflecting a broader global pattern in which women in politics are disproportionately subjected to online abuse and misinformation. Social media platforms have been central to the spread of electoral disinformation. Across Africa, as in much of the world, platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) have served as primary vehicles for the rapid dissemination of falsehoods, often facilitated by coordinated inauthentic behaviour. Data that we present in the report shows that, in South Africa, paid “nano-influencers”—individuals with small but loyal online followings—were mobilised to amplify misleading narratives in favour of specific political actors, demonstrating how disinformation strategies are evolving in response to changing digital landscapes. [...] In response to these findings, the report makes several key recommendations. First, it calls for greater cross-platform coordination among CSOs, fact-checking groups, and election monitors to ensure realtime responses to emerging disinformation threats. Second, it highlights the importance of media and digital literacy programmes among all age groups, including young voters, some of whom are often the most active on social media but may lack the skills to critically assess the credibility of information they encounter. Third, it urges greater transparency and accountability from technology platforms, which remain the primary distribution channels for electoral disinformation but have done little to curb its spread in African electoral contexts. Ultimately, electoral disinformation is not simply a digital challenge—it is a fundamental governance issue that shapes public perceptions of legitimacy and democratic participation. Evidence from the four elections in Africa that we examine in this report demonstrates that countering disinformation requires a multi-stakeholder approach that includes journalists, civil society actors, election commissions, and policymakers working collaboratively to strengthen information integrity and electoral transparency. The findings in this report offer both a diagnosis of the current disinformation landscape and a framework for more effective, evidence-based responses that can help safeguard future elections from manipulation." (Pages 9-10) more

Download (148)

Mapping the information integrity landscape in West Africa: An annotated bibliography

Zara Schoeder, Liz Orembo, Marie Batista

Cape Town: Research ICT Africa (2025), 26 pp.

"This annotated bibliography is organised into four sections. Section 1 demonstrates how disinformation emerges as the most prominent topic in the literature on information integrity. Several different kinds of agents of disinformation operate within West Africaʼs information sphere. These range fr ... om political actors and interest groups to foreign entities and social media influencers. Each exploits social fault lines to sway public opinion, particularly in the lead-up to elections and during conflicts. An organised network of influence narratives – which can sometimes be complex and include both local and foreign disinformation-for-hire merchants complemented by a network of informed but polarised citizens – forms part of the machinery of political campaigns. This machinery transcends elections to become a way of governance as governments continue to rely on it to deflect accountability and manipulate public discourse. Section 2 describes the events around which information disorders are promoted. During periods of political instability, elections, or armed conflicts, information disorders often emerge as key drivers of mass action. In these contexts, disinformation and hate speech are weaponised to incite violence, manipulate public sentiment, and deepen ethnic and religious divisions. Ethnicity and religion frequently become fault lines that disinformation campaigns exploit to divide communities and trigger mass actions such as violent protests, or for widespread voter manipulation. In the case of elections, disinformation is used to sway voter opinions by distorting candidatesʼ positions or spreading fabricated narratives about political opponents. Likewise, in conflict situations, armed groups and militant organisations may use information disorders to recruit new members by promoting extremist ideologies, spreading fear, or creating a sense of urgency. Politicians and conflict groups alike have learned to manipulate these divisions for their agendas, making information integrity a critical issue for social cohesion, democratic stability, and peacebuilding in the region. Section 3 covers literature on fact-checking as one of the measures to mitigate information disorders. Artificial Intelligence (AI) can scale up fact-checking efforts by detecting and scaling up the distribution of correct information. However, even using AI for fact-checking experiences significant limitations. For example, local languages make it hard for AI to detect disinformation and hate speech in all instances. When misinformation is shared on instant messaging platforms like Telegram channels it is also difficult for an ordinary user to detect. Section 4 covers media literacy as an antidote to information disorders, especially disinformation. UNESCO has been at the forefront of addressing information integrity issues in West Africa through its research and media literacy programmes. Recognising the role of accurate and reliable information in fostering peace, democracy, and development, UNESCO has sought to promote the importance of information integrity by partnering with governments, civil society organisations, and media outlets to combat disinformation. Additionally, UNESCOʼs media literacy programmes aim to empower citizens with the skills to critically evaluate and engage with information, fostering a more informed and resilient public.8 These initiatives are particularly important in an era where digital media plays such a significant role in shaping opinions and driving political discourse." (Introduction, pages 3-4) more

Download (12)

Fact-Checkers as New Journalistic Mediators: News Agencies’ Verification Units and Platform Dynamics

Regina Cazzamatta

Media and Communication, volume 13 (2025), 24 pp.

"This article examines how European international news agencies—Reuters, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa), and EFE—engage with the emerging subgenre of external fact-checking journalism in response to (dysfunctional) hybrid media systems. Through a content analysis of 86 ... more

Download (117)

Redefining objectivity: Exploring types of evidence by fact-checkers in four European countries

Regina Cazzamatta

European Journal of Communication (2025), 21 pp.

"Fact-checking journalism challenges procedural norms of objectivity by providing truth verdicts. By actively evaluating statements and online rumors based on evidence weight, fact-checkers aim for robust, scientific objectivity. Despite this trend, there is a lack of studies analyzing evidence type ... more

External Link (241)

Destruktive Diskurse: Digitale Verbreitung von klimabezogener Mis- und Desinformation

Hanna Börgmann, Dominik Hammer, Jan Beyer, Jonas Ziock, Fiete Stegers, Philipp Keßling, Felix Münch

Berlin; Hamburg: Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD); Hans-Bredow-Institut (2025), 52 pp.

Download (109)

The Alternative Truth Kept Hidden From Us: The Effects of Multimodal Disinformation Disseminated by Ordinary Citizens and Alternative Hyper-Partisan Media. Evidence From the US and India

Michael Hameleers, Darian Harff, Désirée Schmuck

Digital Journalism, volume 13, issue 8 (2025), pp. 1351-1372

"The affordances of social media potentially amplify the effects of disinformation by offering the possibility to present deceptive content and sources in credible and native ways. We investigate the effects of two aspects related to the dissemination and modality of digital disinformation: (In)auth ... more

External Link (338)

Google Scholar (250)

WorldCat (278)

Determinants of fake news diffusion on social media: A systematic literature review

Khurram Shahzad, Shakeel Ahmad Khan, Abid Iqbal, Omar Shabbir, Mujahid Latif

Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication (GKMC), volume 74, issue 7-8 (2025), pp. 2069-2092

"This paper aims to explore the determinants causing fake information proliferation on social media platforms and the challenges to control the diffusion of fake news phenomena. The authors applied the systematic review methodology to conduct a synthetic analysis of 37 articles published in peer-rev ... more

External Link (19)

Google Scholar (14)

WorldCat (13)

AI-Driven Disinformation and Political Influence on WhatsApp in South Africa’s 2024 Elections

Gregory Gondwe

The International Journal of Press/Politics (2025), 20 pp.

"This study investigates the role of encrypted messaging apps, specifically WhatsApp, in disseminating political disinformation during South Africa’s 2024 general elections. Drawing on a dataset of 22,384 messages from 47 politically active WhatsApp groups and 6,283 unique users, the study identif ... more

Download (175)

Donetsk Don’t Tell: ‘Hybrid War’ in Ukraine and the Limits of Social Media Influence Operations

Lennart Maschmeyer, Alexei Abrahams, Peter Pomerantsev, Volodymyr Yermolenko

Journal of Information Technology & Politics, volume 22, issue 1 (2025), pp. 49-64

"Many fear that social media enable more potent influence operations than traditional mass media. This belief is widely shared yet rarely tested. We challenge this emerging wisdom by comparing social media and television as vectors for influence operations targeting Ukraine. This article develops a ... more

Download (164)

Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy: A Global Synthesis of the State of Knowledge on New Media, AI and Data Governance
Deep Insights

Robin Mansell, Flavia Durach, Matthias C Kettemann, Théophile Lenoir, Rob Procter, Gyan Tripathi, Emily Tucker

Paris: International Observatory on Information and Democracy (2025), xxxvi, 265 pp.

"This report is an invitation to grapple with the complex interplay between infrastructure, media systems, civil society, and public sector institutions. Our findings suggest that effective policy solutions must: acknowledge the historical, political, economic, and social forces that shape informati ... more

External Link (353)

AI-Generated Disinformation in Europe and Africa: Use Cases, Solutions and Transnational Learning
Deep Insights

Karen Allen, Christopher Nehring

Johannesburg: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), Media Programme Sub-Sahara Africa (2025), xii, 158 pp.

"While there are already several analyses and studies of AI disinformation in 2024 (particularly relating to elections), there are few transnational and transcontinental comparative studies of AI disinformation. The aim of this study is to fill this gap by providing a comparative analysis of AI disi ... more

External Link (221)

Google Scholar (188)

WorldCat (171)

Studying visual disinformation: A computational literature review of current issues, trends and research methods of a growing field

Xénia Farkas, Moa Eriksson Krutrök

Journal of Visual Political Communication, volume 12, issue 2 (2025), pp. 167-191

"The rise of visual mis/disinformation presents a significant challenge to democratic societies, as misleading visual content increasingly influences public opinion and decision-making. This study aims to comprehensively map the current state of research on visual mis/disinformation, providing insig ... more

Download (7)

Misinformation Trends and Fact-Checking Practices on Safaricom Kenya’s Twitter: An Online Content Review

Josephine Kalekye Mule

American Journal of Communication, volume 8, issue 1 (2025), 1-15 pp.

This study examines how Safaricom Kenya handled misinformation on its official Twitter account, focusing on posts and audience engagement from January to June 2025. It considers rumors about service outages, prices, and security breaches, and describes the company’s use of multimedia fact-checking ... more

Download (122)

Disarming disinformation in the media: What works, what doesn't and why

Cambridge: Thomson Foundation (2025), 4 pp.

Download (227)

WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech
Deep Insights

Sahana Udupa, Herman Wasserman (eds.)

New York: New York University Press (2025), vii, 375 pp.

"Known by the popular nickname “ZapZap” in Brazil and synonymous with the Internet across Africa and South Asia, WhatsApp has emerged as a major means of communication for millions of people around the world. Unlike social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, WhatsApp offers a closed, e ... more

Download (71)

Strengthening Soft Power of Cyber Resilience against State-Based Disinformation Attacks: Insights from South and Southeast Asia

Sangeeta Mahapatra

Hamburg: GIGA (2025), 29 pp.

"This paper proposes a cyber resilience strategy that integrates cognitive resilience – namely, the individual and collective capacity to withstand informational and psychological manipulation campaigns intended to destabilise social and political systems. This integrated approach addresses threat ... more

External Link (3883)

Emerging Media Structures, Media Policy and the Challenge of Disinformation in Post-Assad Syria

Asiem El Difraoui, Carola Richter, Anja Wollenberg

Berlin: Media in Cooperation and Transition (MiCT) (2025), 54 pp.

"This study analyses the media ecosystem in post-Assad Syria, focusing on the proliferation of disinformation, ethno-sectarian hate speech and Foreign Interference (FIMI). It covers the period from December 2024 to December 2025, one year after the collapse of the Assad regime. Besides disinformati ... on, the research examines emerging media structures, media policies of the transitional government, and the professional conditions of journalists across different regions of Syria. The study is based on field research conducted in Damascus in September and November 2025, semi-structured interviews with approximately 60 stakeholders —including government officials, journalists, and media experts from eight Syrian cities— in-depth desk research, social media analysis and a focus group discussion with Syrian media professionals held during a workshop in Amman [...] Within this broader context, the Syrian media landscape is undergoing significant transformation. State media institutions, such as the television channel Al-Ikhbariya, the news agency SANA, and the newspaper Al-Thawra, have adjusted their editorial lines and now largely support the new government, with limited critical coverage. The state media sector employs an estimated 7,000–8,000 staff, but displays pronounced salary inequalities between long-standing employees and newly appointed executives from Idlib. Media outlets funded by Qatar, including Syria Now and Syria TV, have gained prominence due to their close alignment with the new authorities. While some exile media outlets have begun to return to Syria, local and independent media organisations continue to operate under precarious financial conditions. In the Kurdish-controlled northeast of Syria (AANES), an autonomous media system persists, though it has been severely affected by the withdrawal of U.S. funding. Disinformation represents a central challenge in the Syrian media and information environment, particularly given the dominance of social media and messaging platforms as primary news sources. The study identifies multiple actors involved in coordinated disinformation campaigns. These include remnants of the former regime (Foloul), who seek to destabilise the transitional authorities as well as foreign actors—for example Russia, Iran, Israel and Turkey—that pursue their own geopolitical interests partly through coordinated campaigns; and ISIS propaganda, which routinely calls for attacks on Alawites, Shias, Christians, Druze, Kurds, and other groups it casts as enemies. Most of the various ethno-religious communities are both targets and producers of disinformation. Competing narratives centred on victimhood, revenge, and revisionism have contributed to cycles of mistrust and fear. Disinformation, hate speech, and propaganda are primarily disseminated via Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram. Based on these findings, the study proposes five policy recommendations: (1) the establishment of a Syria Media and Disinformation Observatory to monitor and analyse disinformation trends; (2) the development of a context-sensitive media literacy toolkit; (3) sustained international funding for public interest media; (4) cross-regional professional networking and training programmes for Syrian journalists; and (5) youth-focused initiatives aimed at promoting social cohesion. The study concludes that the future development of a pluralistic media system in Syria will depend largely on internal power dynamics within the ruling elites, particularly the balance between ideological hardliners and more pragmatic actors." (Executive summary) more

Download (97)

El derecho a la no desinformación: Un nuevo derecho en Bolivia

Erick R. Torrico Villanueva

La Paz: Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA); Instituto de Investigación, Posgrado e Interacción Social en Comunicación (IpiCOM) (2025), 148 pp.

"Asumiendo a la democracia como un sistema fundado en la vigencia de derechos y leyes, este libro aborda el tema de la desinformación desde la perspectiva de los derechos humanos y, dentro de ella, de los que competen a la información y la comunicación, para bosquejar una estrategia inédita de e ... more

Download (205)

Fact-Checking Organisations in the Balkans after US Funding Cuts

Manuela Anastasova

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), Media Programme South East Europe (2025), 6 pp.

"The regional approach of the fact-checking organisations in the Balkans gives hope that they will be able to deal with crises. Milena Popovic from Istinomer shared the opinion that collaboration through joint investigations and coordinated responses to disinformation must be enhanced. In her view, ... more

Tackling Disinformation, Information Manipulation and Interference in Four African Elections Deep Insights

Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy: A Global Synthesis of the State of Knowledge on New Media, AI and Data Governance Deep Insights

AI-Generated Disinformation in Europe and Africa: Use Cases, Solutions and Transnational Learning Deep Insights

WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech Deep Insights

Tackling Disinformation, Information Manipulation and Interference in Four African Elections
Deep Insights

Information Ecosystems and Troubled Democracy: A Global Synthesis of the State of Knowledge on New Media, AI and Data Governance
Deep Insights

AI-Generated Disinformation in Europe and Africa: Use Cases, Solutions and Transnational Learning
Deep Insights

WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech
Deep Insights