"Internews’ work on disinformation in the Philippines aims at uniting the strengths of stakeholders in the media community, civil society, academia, private sector, and social media companies, along six axes: factchecking and myth busting, media and information literacy, public policy advocacy, di
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sinformation investigation, investment in trustworthy news and media, and algorithm accountability. The latter requires to understand the role each social media platform plays in the information ecosystem, to tailor specific strategies of engagement on and with these platforms. In that context, the Understudied Digital Platforms in the Philippines (UDPP) research project sought to understand the role of lesser-known digital platforms, such as TikTok and WeChat, in the Philippine information environment and draw out strategies to mitigate disinformation among their users. Internews worked with three researchers Jose Mari Hall Lanuza (University of the Philippines, Manila) and Rossine Fallorina and Samuel Cabbuag (University of the Philippines, Diliman) to conduct an Information Ecosystem Assessment (IEA) to look deeper into the role that these platforms play in the media and digital landscape, what their current and future impact may be, and where information actors need to focus their attention. The research provides an in-depth dive into these platforms, examining their affordances, information flows, user demographics, and disinformative potential. The research also offers preliminary recommendations for platforms, policymakers, and public stakeholders to establish regulated but democratic online public spheres within these platforms." (Publisher description)
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"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
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ther regrettable content to people around the globe. YouTube’s enormous influence means these films reach a huge audience, having a deep impact on countless lives, from radicalization to polarization [...] 37,380 YouTube users stepped up as YouTube watch dogs, volunteering data about the regrettable experiences they have on YouTube for Mozilla researchers to carefully analyze. As a result, Mozilla gained insight into a pool of YouTube's tightly-held data in the largest-ever crowdsourced investigation into YouTube's algorithm. Collectively, these volunteers flagged 3,362 regrettable videos, coming from 91 countries, between July 2020 and May 2021. This report highlights what we learned from our RegretsReporter research. Specifically, we uncovered three main findings: 1. YouTube Regrets are disparate and disturbing. Our volunteers reported everything from Covid fear-mongering to political misinformation to wildly inappropriate "children's" cartoons. The most frequent Regret categories are misinformation, violent or graphic content, hate speech, and spam/scams. 2. The algorithm is the problem. 71% of all Regret reports came from videos recommended to our volunteers by YouTube's automatic recommendation system. Further, recommended videos were 40% more likely to be reported by our volunteers than videos that they searched for. And in several cases, YouTube recommended videos that actually violate their own Community Guidelines and/or were unrelated to previous videos watched. 3. Non-English speakers are hit the hardest. The rate of YouTube Regrets is 60% higher in countries that do not have English as a primary language (with Brazil, Germany and France being particularly high), and pandemic-related Regrets were especially prevalent in non-English languages." (Executive summary)
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"Wer ein Wiki erforschen will, muss sich ein passendes Forschungsdesign aufbauen. Wer den Umgang mit Wikis unterrichten will, braucht ein Curriculum mit den einzelnen Arbeitsschritten. Wer ein Wiki unterstützen oder im Unternehmen einsetzen will, erstellt einen Arbeitsplan mit geeigneten Förderma
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nahmen. Für diese Tätigkeiten braucht man nicht nur die Kenntnis, wie man forscht, unterrichtet oder fördert, sondern auch eine theoretische Grundlage zu Wikis als Ausgangspunkt für eigene Überlegungen. Im Gespräch mit vielen verschiedenen Menschen, die mit Wikis umgehen, aber auch für mich selbst habe ich festgestellt, dass diese Grundlage noch ausbaufähig ist. Das vorliegende Buch versucht daher eine Synthese oder zumindest eine Synopse, also eine Zusammenschau, als Beitrag zu einem Forschungsgebiet Wikis und die Wikipedia. Wichtige Leitfragen auf diesem Weg lauten: Welches sind die Eigengesetzlichkeiten, die Stärken und Schwächen von Wikis? Wie ist Zusammenarbeit möglich, ohne dass Blockaden entstehen? Wer stellt die Regeln auf, wer handhabt sie? Wie wird die Qualität des Inhaltes gesteigert? Gibt es Inhalte, die sich für ein Wiki mehr eignen als andere? Wann kann man von einem konkreten Wiki sagen, dass es erfolgreich sei? (Für wen und wozu dieses Buch? Seiten 10-11)
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"Wie wahren wir die Menschen-, Grund- und Bürgerrechte? Und wie können wir unsere Werte für die Gestaltung disruptiver Innovationen und der digitalen Zukunft nutzen? Die Autor*innen aus Politik, Wissenschaft und Praxis zeigen auf, wie technologische Phänomene mit unseren Werten in Einklang gebra
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cht werden können und diskutieren normative Impulse und Ideen für die Regelung des Gemeinwohls in der digitalen Welt." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"La Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC) tiene la misión de defender los derechos fundamentales mediante la contribución al diseño de políticas por parte del sector público y privado. Las respuestas de los gobiernos deben promover un espacio público amplio y robusto en internet. Este deb
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er implica asegurar la libertad de expresión de los usuarios, garantizar condiciones favorables para la creación de grupos online (libertad de asociación) y permitir el ejercicio del derecho de protesta en plataformas (libertad de reunión). Al mismo tiempo, las empresas privadas también tienen la obligación de contribuir a dicha finalidad. Las grandes plataformas poseen un amplio poder para determinar las condiciones en que el discurso puede circular a través de internet. La influencia de estas entidades es incluso mayor que la de muchos países y, por lo tanto, su accionar puede impedir seriamente la circulación de ideas y opiniones. De este modo, el sector privado también se encuentra sujeto al deber de respetar los derechos humanos. La crisis sanitaria producida por el Covid-19 y la intensificación de la polarización política alrededor del mundo -con la situación de Estados Unidos como ejemplo central- ha atraído la atención de la ciudadanía acerca del rol de los Estados y las plataformas para abordar fenómenos como la desinformación y el discurso de odio. Las acciones adoptadas por gobiernos y compañías deben ser sometidas a la más estricta evaluación, ya que ellas influenciarán la forma en que el debate público se llevará a cabo en el futuro." (Resumen ejecutivo)
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"This report is the culmination of an in-depth investigation aimed at better defining the causes and challenges of information disorder, and offering a viable framework for action [...] The Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder invited voices from across our society to help build up
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on our understanding of the issues and our approach to recommendations. This included numerous examples of research, original ideas, draft legislation, and critical analysis from academics, policymakers, and activists—all leveraging deep, real-world experience while striving to meet the scale of the challenge. Each recommendation that follows represents a discrete, actionable idea. Though not all of the recommendations are mutually dependent, they should be considered together—they reinforce and build off one another. For instance, recommendations calling for access and disclosure support those that impose greater accountability for bad actors and, conversely, create a check on overreach. Our recommendations cover multiple areas: technology, society, government, and media. It is also important to note that, with imperfect information, we make imperfect decisions. Due to the opacity of tech and media platforms—how they operate and how they optimize their products—we do not have sufficient understanding of all the coordinated levers that could reduce societal harms while still allowing for innovation, and both individual and community benefit." (Letter from the co-chairs, page 2)
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"The emergence of digital platforms has attracted considerable scholarly attention among media theorists. Yet, much of this scholarship has taken Western platforms such as Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, Netflix, Uber, and so on, as exemplars. In this article, we seek to contribute to the proj
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ect of de-Westernizing and reregionalizing Internet studies through an analysis of Chinese platforms. Seeking to avoid dichotomizing China and the West, we identify similarities and four overlapping areas of difference between U.S. Internet platforms and Chinese platforms that need to be accounted for as part of a project of de-Westernizing platform studies. Understanding such differences, we argue, is crucial given the hegemonic roles platforms now play in a multipolar world." (Abstract)
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"In this article, we employed communication infrastructure theory (CIT) to analyze Gram Vaani’s (“Voice of the Village”) Covid-19 Response Network in India. We reviewed key CIT components (i.e., storytelling network and communication action context) and their applications in civic engagement,
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health disparities, and crisis mitigation. Our results showed that Gram Vaani’s Covid-19 Response Network merged all three types of CIT application into an integrated whole and extended it to marginalized rural and migrant/resident worker communities in India. In 15 months, 870,000 individuals used the organization’s Mobile Vaani platforms, made 2.5 million calls, recorded 24,880 voice reports, and shared 2,327 impact stories. Taken together, they amplified the voices of the most vulnerable, provided direct assistance, and held government agencies accountable in three major areas: health promotion and healthcare access, livelihood support and working conditions, and safety nets and essential services. We identified (1) storytelling network actors at all levels (micro, meso, interstitial, and macro), (2) enabling and constraining communication action contexts of pandemic community mobilization, and (3) specific impact pathways for different storytelling network actors to overcome barriers and leverage Mobile Vaani as an enabling and empowering communication action context." (Abstract)
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"This document reports an increase in so-called “hate speech” posts on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although dissimilar, such an increase can be observed in the transparency reports of the different platforms and the surge in content moderation since M
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arch 2020. During the same period—as a result of the lockdown measures adopted in most countries around the world—platforms increased the use of AI tools for content moderation. Therefore, we can’t fully say whether the interannual growth is linked to increased posts or changes in monitoring systems." (Executive summary)
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"In this policy, ARTICLE 19 outlines how open markets, competition, and users’ empowerment can help address current freedom of expression challenges in online content curation. We offer practical solutions on how to achieve these objectives through a pro-competitive instrument: the unbundling of t
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he provision of hosting and content curation services." (Executive summary)
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"1. Global internet freedom declined for the 11th consecutive year. The greatest deteriorations were documented in Myanmar, Belarus, and Uganda, where state forces cracked down amid electoral and constitutional crises. Myanmar’s 14-point score decline is the largest registered since the Freedom on
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the Net project began. 2. Governments clashed with technology companies on users’ rights. Authorities in at least 48 countries pursued new rules for tech companies on content, data, or competition over the past year. With a few positive exceptions, the push to regulate the tech industry, which stems in some cases from genuine problems like online harassment and manipulative market practices, is being exploited to subdue free expression and gain greater access to private data. 3. Free expression online is under unprecedented strain. More governments arrested users for nonviolent political, social, or religious speech than ever before. Officials suspended internet access in at least 20 countries, and 21 states blocked access to social media platforms. Authorities in at least 45 countries are suspected of obtaining sophisticated spyware or data-extraction technology from private vendors. 4. China ranks as the worst environment for internet freedom for the seventh year in a row. Chinese authorities imposed draconian prison terms for online dissent, independent reporting, and mundane daily communications. The COVID-19 pandemic remains one of the most heavily censored topics. Officials also cracked down on the country’s tech giants, citing their abuses related to competition and data protection, though the campaign further concentrated power in the hands of the authoritarian state." (Key findings)
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"The Online Regulation Series Handbook provides an analysis of global online regulation, analysing over 60 legislations and regulatory proposals in 17 countries, and their implications for countering terrorist and violent extremist content. The Handbook is based on analysis published throughout Octo
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ber and November 2020 for the first edition of our Online Regulation Series. All country analyses have been updated to reflect recent regulatory changes. For each country, we provide a summary of the regulatory framework and the key takeaways for tech platforms, as well as Tech Against Terrorism’s commentary. The Handbook also includes Tech Against Terrorism’s key recommendations for governments and an analysis of International Human Rights Law as a possible framework for content regulation and governance. With this Handbook we aim to provide a comprehensive and accessible resource for tech platforms to improve their understanding of legislative developments and key trends in online regulation." (Publisher description)
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"As of July 2021, Telegram had 550 million active users worldwide – more than the individual user bases of Twitter, Snapchat or Discord. It is the fifth most-popular messaging app after Facebook-owned Whatsapp and Messenger, and WeChat and QQ which dominate the Chinese market [...] For this paper,
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I looked at Telegram’s policies and functionalities to help understand what made it so attractive to misinformation actors both in the Ukraine, which has a long history of Telegram engagement, and Brazil, Spain and Germany where it has had more of an impact in recent years. According to the journalists and digital researchers I interviewed about investigating misinformation and disinformation on Telegram, there are ways to address the issue, both on and off the platform: by investigating movements and their political or financial interest, by producing more responsible journalism, through clearer communication from governments, and through the continued moderation efforts on other social media platforms." (Pages 7-8)
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