"La pandemia de la COVID-19 ha generado una crisis sanitaria y comunicativa sin precedentes. A través de las plataformas digitales, se ha producido una ingente circulación de información falsa, inexacta o descontextualizada so-bre el coronavirus. Entre ella, cabe destacar los rumores, bulos y teo
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rías conspirativas sobre (1) el origen, expansión y letalidad del virus; (2) las re-comendaciones y prácticas curativas; y (3) la gestión de la pandemia por parte de las administraciones públicas y organismos internacionales. En el actual escenario de infodemia, esta investigación aborda de qué forma 8 organizaciones de fact-checking han empleado Twitter como herramienta para combatir la desinformación en tiempos de la COVID-19: Agência Lupa (Brasil), Chequeado (Argentina), Maldita.es y Newtral (España), Colombia-Check (Colombia), Ecuador Chequea (Ecuador), El Sabueso – Animal Político (México) y Cotejo (Venezuela). Entre los meses de marzo y junio de 2020 estas organizaciones han publicado de forma sostenida en Twitter, obteniendo elevadas cifras de engagement en forma de retuits y favoritos. Se han incluido múltiples hashtags sobre la COVID-19, incluyendo aquellas etiquetas promovidas por LATAM Chequea y la IFCN (#CoronaVirusFacts y #DatosCoronaVirus) y otros hashtags genéricos dirigidos al gran público. Los contenidos relacionados con la COVID-19 han sido los más viralizados por los usuarios." (Resumen)
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"Twitter is still not doing enough to protect women from online violence and abuse. Since the release of Toxic Twitter in 2018, Amnesty International has continued to highlight the scale of abuse women face on Twitter, including in Argentina, India, the UK and the US. Meanwhile, women have continued
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to speak out about the abuse they experience on Twitter, and the company’s failure to adequately respond. The persistent abuse women face on the platform undermines their right to express themselves equally, freely and without fear. This abuse is highly intersectional, women from ethnic or religious minorities, marginalized castes, lesbian, bisexual or transgender women - as well as non-binary individuals – and women with disabilities are targets for abuse. Although the company has made some welcome progress, the Twitter Scorecard shows how much remains to be done. The purpose of the Scorecard is not only to track Twitter’s progress, but also to provide concrete recommendations on steps that Twitter should take to address this issue. Of the ten recommendations below, Twitter has, to date, only fully implemented a single one. Using this Scorecard, we will continue to track Twitter’s progress on this critical issue going forward." (Conclusion)
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"The article seeks to discuss varied forms of citizen engagement in the era of Internet viral cultures, ranging from (1) the use of social media for online protest, characterised by political contestation and fleeting outbursts of anger and backlash in the Twittersphere, to (2) the appropriation of
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protest messages into humorous viral memes (often oversimplified, ignoring the complexities of the situation and more focused on humour rather than underlying core problems). Four select hashtags during the 2017 Kenyan elections are analysed as frames for collective action within the context of playful participation and “spreadable” media." (Abstract)
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"The growth of the Internet in the last two decades has helped increase political and civic en-gagement and scrutiny. The growth of a digital economy in Kenya has led to the emergence of a vibrant online community with 89.7 % of the population having access to the Internet. This paper examines how K
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enyans on Twitter (KOT) use visuals as a form of political protest. Using an open source data tool, the paper provides results from a qualitative analysis of 200 tweets that drove three political hashtags with a special focus on the most prominent memes, cartoons and pictures. This research finds that #KOT uses visuals to highlight government corruption and incompetence through mockery, condemnation and humour." (Abstract)
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"This book brings together fresh evidence and new theoretical frameworks in a unique analysis of the increasing role of social media in political campaigns and electoral processes across Africa. Supported by contemporary and historical cases studies, it engages with the main drives behind the variou
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s appropriations of social media for election campaigns, organization, and voter mobilization. Contributors in this volume delve into changing and complex aspects of social media, offering an appraisal of theoretical perspectives and examining fascinating case studies which social media use is redefining elections across Africa. Contributions show that new media ecologies are resulting in new policy regimes, user behaviors, and communication models that have implications for electoral processes. The book also provides preliminary analysis of emerging forms of algorithm-driven campaigns, fake news, information distortions and other methods that undermine electoral democracy in Africa." (Publisher description)
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"This report analyses a persistent, large-scale influence campaign linked to Chinese state actors on Twitter and Facebook. This activity largely targeted Chinese-speaking audiences outside of the Chinese mainland (where Twitter is blocked) with the intention of influencing perceptions on key issues,
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including the Hong Kong protests, exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui and, to a lesser extent Covid-19 and Taiwan. Extrapolating from the takedown dataset, to which we had advanced access, given to us by Twitter, we have identified that this operation continues and has pivoted to try to weaponise the US Government’s response to current domestic protests and create the perception of a moral equivalence with the suppression of protests in Hong Kong." (https://www.aspi.org.au)
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"This study examines disinformation and propaganda in war in the age of information particularly through social media. It analyzes Twitter's posts of the Afghan government and the Taliban, from January to March 2018. For understanding disinformation, 952 tweets of both parties were crosschecked with
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four national media outlets and a civilian protection advocacy group; and to recognize how the belligerents tried to present and propagate, their contents were analyzed to identify terms that dominate their outbound information. The study found discrepancy in information disseminated by the warring parties and mainstream media. Terrorism and Jihad were dominant frames of government and the Taliban, respectively. The findings could contribute to a greater body of literature regarding propaganda in operationalization of social media in the conflict zone." (Abstract)
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"The rapid escalation in the long-running conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia which took place in late September 2020 has been shadowed by a battle across social media for control of the international narrative about the conflict. On Twitter, large numbers of accounts supporting both sides have
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been wading in on politicised hashtags linked to the conflict. Our findings indicate large-scale coordinated activity. While much of this behaviour is likely to be authentic, our analysis has also found a significant amount of suspicious and potentially inauthentic behaviour. The goal of this research piece is to observe and document some of the early dynamics of the information battle playing out in parallel to the conflict on the ground and create a basis for further, more comprehensive research. This report is in no way intended to undermine the legitimacy of authentic social media conversations and debate taking place on all sides of the conflict." (Aspi.org.au)
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"These guidelines are published under the Going Digital series where we explore and share our learning in using new digital technologies in evaluation and research. In this fifth instalment of Going Digital, another form of digital data is explored: web data. The paper discusses how web data, in par
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ticular social media data, can be collected and provides hands-on guidelines for harvesting Twitter data." (Page 1)
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"Cet ouvrage donne les détails les plus précis sur la campagne menée par les principaux candidats à l'élection présidentielle 2018 au Congo. Ils ont été suivis chacun de très près, au jour le jour : Fayulu, Kamerhe, Shadary, Tshisekedi. Pendant 50 + 20 jours, leurs actes publics, leurs pro
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pos politiques ainsi que leurs apparitions dans l'univers internet ont été notés avec minutie. Ce livre offre la possibilité de revivre l'éclat du climat général de ces élections, avec ses épisodes de grave incertitude ou de vive animosité." (Description de la maison d'édition)
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"Our analysis of millions of Russian tweets over 2014-2018 reveals that bots make up a large proportion of the Russian political Twittersphere. However, an important lesson from our region is that one cannot assume that simply because there are bots present in the Russian political Twittersphere tha
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t they are pro-Kremlin. Instead, as it turns out, pro-opposition, pro-Kiev, and neutral bots proliferate as well. We therefore also developed machine learning models that allow us to distinguish between three major groups of political bots in Russia at scale, including pro-Kremlin, pro-opposition, and pro-Kyiv bots. It is worth noting, though, that the fourth residual category of bots that we call neutral actually make up a plurality of these bot-orientation types. Our preliminary analysis of bot activity shows that across the entire data set, bots mainly seem to be being used to amplify political messages. In the case of neutral bots, amplification is conducted via tweeting repetitive texts, whereas non-neutral bots achieve this via retweeting. It appears that the sources of retweets from Russian political bots are either mass media with strong political orientation or prominent political figures. Exciting topics for future research would include more deeply diving into the topics of the messages shared by bots, better understanding whether the target audience for these shared messages are humans or other computer algorithms (e.g., to influence search rankings), and testing hypotheses related to over-time variation in the use of political bots, both in Russia and beyond." (Conclusion)
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"The 55-year long Colombian conflict with the FARC guerrilla movement ended in 2016 with the signing of a peace agreement, which resulted in a substantial reduction in the number of victims of socio-political violence. Paradoxically, this did not improve security for journalists, who were targeted:
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one was killed, another suffered sexual abuse, and 262 received threats. In a qualitative case study, we content analyzed 592 tweets in order to document how threats from a political powerholder contributed to the formation of networks engaging in verbal violence on Twitter. Results showed that attacks on freedom of the press originated from a legitimate actor, caused an extremely polarized discussion among citizens who took sides, and provoked further threats and accusations. Conciliatory positions were hard to find." (Abstract)
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"Educators use Twitter in many ways, including:
- The Digital Classroom: Twitter can be used to teach media and information literacy, including digital skills as well as global citizenship. You can prepare students to be informed, creative, engaged, empowered as well as how to express themselves —
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contributing to positive societal change while being safe and smart on Twitter and everywhere else online.
- Networking with Colleagues: Twitter is a great tool to get ideas from other educators, to stay connected to education, and edtech conferences you cannot attend in person. It’s also an ideal tool to aid professional development and continuous learning.
- Connecting with the School Community: Teachers and administrators can use Twitter to share classroom or school news — from homework and projects to back-toschool nights.
This resource will provide insight into how Twitter can be used by educators and social actors of all kinds to innovate for better learning outcomes." (Introduction, page 3)
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"When the first Tweet was sent in 2006, no one could have foreseen the impact it would have on the world. As the world’s online public space — a one-to-many communication platform where conversations that shape opinions happen — Twitter has bolstered the ability of citizens to interact with on
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e another as well as their public representatives, and for politicians and journalists to keep their finger on the pulse of the public opinion. This resource will help you make the best use of this unique platform. It’s a platform that is particularly suited to getting your message out to an active and engaged community. Whether you are a politician and want to highlight your policy ideas, a government official who wants to share critical information, or a civil society organization that wants to build campaign momentum, Twitter is the platform for you. Twitter will not only help you to inform and engage people who are already part of your campaign, but it will also allow you to reach those who might otherwise not have gotten involved. A timely, well-crafted message on Twitter can resonate internationally." (Introduction, page 1)
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"Drawing on over a dozen new empirical case studies – from Kenya to Somalia, South Africa to Tanzania – this collection explores how rapidly growing social media use is reshaping political engagement in Africa. But while social media has often been hailed as a liberating tool, the book demonstra
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tes how it has often served to reinforce existing power dynamics, rather than challenge them. Featuring experts from a range of disciplines from across the continent, this collection is the first comprehensive overview of social media and politics in Africa. By examining the historical, political, and social context in which these media platforms are used, the book reveals the profound effects of cyber-activism, cyber-crime, state policing and surveillance on political participation." (Publisher description)
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"In this factsheet, we study online audience engagement with legacy and digital-born news media across social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) and the open web during the 2019 Indian General Election on the basis of data collected between 11 April and 19 May. We analyse cross-platform online a
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udience engagement with a sample of 101 major Indian news media during an election in which more than five thousand candidates ran for the 543 available seats in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, and nine hundred million eligible voters were called to the polls in the largest democratic election in the world." (Publisher description)
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"Teaching the concrete methods needed to use digital devices, search engines and social media platforms to study some of the most urgent social issues of our time, this is the essential guide to the state of the art in researching the natively digital. With explanation of context and techniques and
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a rich set of case studies, Richard Rogers teaches you how to: build a URL list to discover internet censorship; transform Google into a research machine to detect source bias; make Twitter API outputs comprehensible and tell stories; research Instagram to locate ‘hashtag publics’; extract and fruitfully analyze Facebook posts, images and video; and much, much more." (Publisher description)
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"This collection of thirteen new essays is the first to examine, from a range of disciplinary perspectives, how the new technologies and global reach of the internet are changing the theory and practice of free speech. The rapid expansion of online communication, as well as the changing roles of gov
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ernment and private organizations in monitoring and regulating the digital world, give rise to new questions, including: How do philosophical defenses of the right to freedom of expression, developed in the age of the town square and the printing press, apply in the digital age? Should search engines be covered by free speech principles? How should international conflicts over online speech regulations be resolved? Is there a right to be forgotten that is at odds with the right to free speech? How has the Internet facilitated new speech-based harms such as cyber-stalking, twitter-trolling, and “revenge” porn, and how should these harms be addressed?" (Abstract)
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"Social scientists and international relations scholars are increasingly analyzing data collected from Twitter or Facebook to examine political processes in which social media are used. The sheer amount of web 2.0 data and its heterogeneity (including text, photos, and videos), however, pose challen
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ges which analysts frequently seek to overcome through a mixed method approach relying on both quantitative and qualitative methods. This article discusses the advantages and limits of using mixed methods for analyzing social media. We show how the shortcomings of quantitative methods such as sentiment analysis and data mining can be remediated by qualitative content methods in a study of the Twitter activity of private military and security companies (PMSCs)." (Abstract)
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"WhatsApp und Facebook werden auch in Lateinamerika massiv genutzt, vor allem aufgrund ihres vermeintlich kostenlosen Charakters. Auch dort wird das Problem der rechten Meinungsmache und der Fake News diskutiert, denn die Tatsache, dass sich die Leute heute vor allem über Werbeplattformen informier
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en, die unzutreffend „soziale Medien“ genannt werden, hat handfeste politische Auswirkungen. In Brasilien und El Salvador wurden die jüngsten Wahlen nicht über Präsenz und Debatten in den traditionellen Medien gewonnen, sondern über gut vorbereitete und teure WhatsApp-Kampagnen. In Brasilien siegt so der Rechtsextremist Jair Bolsonaro, in El Salvador der politische Wende-hals und PR-Profi Nayib Bukele. Die brasilianischen WhatsApp-Nutzer*innen wurden während des Wahlkampfs mit gefälschtem, häufig explizit sexuellem Inhalt geflutet, wie etwa der Meldung, dass die Arbeiterpartei plane, Babyfläschchen mit Nuckel in Penisform zu verteilen, um die Homosexualisierung der Kleinkinder voranzutreiben.
Haarsträubendes postfaktisches Zeitalter – warum fallen Fake News auf fruchtbaren Boden? Klar ist: Klassische Medien haben ihre Funktion als „Gatekeeper“, als Instanzen, die sortieren und filtern, längst eingebüßt. Die Gesellschaften werden vielfältiger und unübersichtlicher: mehr Pluralität auf der einen Seite, andererseits immer tiefere Gräben, die sich durch die Gesellschaften ziehen. Die mediale Öffentlichkeit und die Zugangsbedingungen zu ihr wandeln sich. Die Menschen misstrauen „denen da oben“ durchaus zu Recht. Aber die kommerziellen Global Tech Player beherrschen die Räume für Kommunikation, Information und Meinungsbildung mit Algorithmen. Das hat Folgen. Das Geschäftsmodell basiert auf Datenschürfen, kombiniert mit persönlich zugeschnittener Werbung. Du bekommst das, was du sehen und hören willst, nicht was wahr ist und den Tatsachen entspricht. Und davon profitieren vor allem rechtspopulistische Akteure.
Gibt es dazu einen funktionierenden linken Gegenentwurf? Wir, die Macher*innen der ila und ähnlich Gesinnte, wollten eigentlich schon immer zur Bildung einer Gegenöffentlichkeit beitragen, positionierten uns gegen den „bürgerlichen Journalismus als Stellvertreterjournalismus“, wollten „Betroffenenberichterstattung“. Heute haben Rechte und Rechtsextreme den Begriff „Gegenöffentlichkeit“ für sich gekapert. Und jetzt haben wir den Salat.
Aktuell existiert eine Öffentlichkeit jenseits der Dichotomie „staatlich geregelt oder privat“. Wir haben kein Problem mehr damit, unsere eigenen Inhalte zu verbreiten und eigene Medien zu schaffen. Das stellt allerdings noch längst nicht sicher, dass wir auch gehört werden. Der springende Punkt ist nicht mehr der Zugang, sondern die Reichweite. Wir konkurrieren mit allen anderen Anbietern von welcher Information auch immer um Aufmerksamkeit. Und dabei verfügen wir, kaum anders als früher, immer noch über die schwächeren Möglichkeiten.
Wie sieht also das Überleben im „Plattformkapitalismus“ aus, wie sich darin bewegen, schützen, informieren, seine Meinung bilden und als politisch Aktive oder alternative Medienschaffende die eigenen Inhalte verbreiten? Dazu ein paar Ideen, die sich aus der Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema und lateinamerikanischen Gesprächspartner*innen herauskristallisieren: Versteht, die Technik zu verstehen (in Lateinamerika ist die Rede von hackear la tecnología, also die Technologie für die eigenen Zwecke zu nutzen wissen), wahrt eine kritische Distanz, haltet eure Informationsquellen vielfältig (was vor allem auch Kindern und Jugendlichen vermittelt werden sollte), schafft und nutzt alternative Plattformen. Manchmal kann auch digitales Fasten das Gebot der Stunde sein. Handy aus und raus auf die Straße – oder in den Wald." (Editorial)
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