"Publicadas en noviembre de 2020, las recomendaciones del Foro sobre transparencia de las plataformas digitales resultantes del informe “Cómo acabar con la infodemia” figuran en la agenda de la Conferencia Mundial sobre la Libertad de Prensa de la UNESCO que se celebra en Punta del Este (Urugua
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y). En esta ocasión, estas recomendaciones se han traducido al español con el apoyo de Observacom, miembro del Consejo de Administración del Foro. Estas recomendaciones son el resultado del grupo de trabajo sobre infodemia copresidido por Maria Ressa, Premio Nobel de la Paz 2021, y Marietje Schaake, actual Directora de Política Internacional del Centro de Ciberpolítica de la Universidad de Stanford. El informe del grupo se publicó en noviembre de 2020 y figuró en el orden del día de la primera Cumbre sobre Información y Democracia, celebrada al margen de la Asamblea General de la ONU en septiembre del 2021." (Publisher description)
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"El presente documento aborda la problemática de la moderación de contenidos en las plataformas haciendo hincapié en su impacto fundamental en el periodismo y teniendo como eje los derechos a la libertad de prensa y la libertad de expresión." (Introducción, página 5)
"Während in Russland immer mehr unabhängige Medien der staatlichen Kontrolle unterworfen und als „ausländische Agenten“ gebrandmarkt werden, nutzen die russischen Staatsmedien die Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit in Deutschland, um ungehindert Desinformation zu verbreiten. Nach acht Jahren Berich
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terstattung von RT DE und Sputnik/SNA ist ein kritischer Punkt erreicht, auf den die Verantwortlichen für Medien reagieren sollten. Während der Corona-Krise ist mehr als deutlich geworden, dass RT und SNA eine politische Agenda verfolgen, die darin besteht, das „System“ und damit die Demokratie in Deutschland anzugreifen und die autoritäre Herrschaft in Russland als bessere Alternative zu propagieren. Schon im März 2020 warnte das Innenministerium, dass RT Deutsch „die öffentliche Sicherheit und Ordnung“ durch „gezielten Falschmeldungen“ bedrohe [...] Die russischen Staatsmedien – insbesondere in Russland – schaffen ein Feindbild „Westen“, mit dem sie die Menschen nicht nur in Russland, sondern auch in den westlichen Staaten verunsichern oder zum Widerstand mobilisieren. Das Schüren von Ängsten vor einem Krieg und die überzogene Darstellung vom dekadenten, gottlosen Westen sind dabei zwei zentrale Narrative. Dieses Feindbild wird seit Frühjahr 2021 vor allem mit den Grünen in Verbindung gebracht, die angeblich kriegerische Absichten gegenüber Russland verfolgen und dem Klimaschutz als „neuer Religion“ frönen. Die Berichterstattung zu den Bundestagswahlen hat gezeigt, dass das erste Ziel war, eine Grüne im Kanzleramt zu verhindern. Gegen Annalena Baerbock wurden unbelegte Vorwürfe wie nationalsozialistisches Gedankengut erhoben, um sie zu diskreditieren." (Fazit, Seite 24)
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"Our main findings show that, numerically, disinformation overpowers the news. More precisely, this study identified 559 different types of disinformation cases in 494 news items disseminated in 14 (out of 15 analysed) Serbian news media. Our study found that false, misleading and manipulative infor
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mation occupy a significant portion of news in some of the analysed media. Online editions of tabloids Alo and Kurir account for more than half of all the news containing disinformation. They are followed by two printed dailies Vecernje novosti and Informer. Among the TV channels with national coverage, TV Pink more frequently disseminated disinformation than other news media. Central news of the public broadcaster Radio-television of Serbia 1 (RTS 1) had the fewest disinformation." (https://crta.rs/en/report-mapping-disinformation-in-the-serbian-media)
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"The study finds that journalistic and fact-checking disinformation responses in the country have struggled due to lack of conceptual understanding of disinformation among journalists, monetization trends that incentivize sensationalist news and reduce the impact of capacity building initiatives, la
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ck of financial sustainability of responses, language barriers, and political backlash. At the same time, the research finds that local capacity building responses have improved the ability of individual journalists to understand Covid-19 misinformation and hashtag manipulation on Twitter whereas fact-checking responses have led to the development of efficient workflows, informed recruitment principles, contextual verification practices, and collaboration with social networks to downrank viral online disinformation. The study also confirms findings from literature that disinformation is negatively affecting the work and safety environment of Pakistani digital journalists. The journalists surveyed for this research reported that disinformation has increased their risk of getting deceived by fake social media posts during online newsgathering. In addition, most women journalists surveyed for the study said they were targeted with gendered disinformation campaigns, which caused them physical, psychological or reputational harm. A majority of surveyed women digital journalists also believed that they face additional challenges to counter disinformation due to their gender identity. The digital journalists who participated in the survey identified fact-checking training as their most urgent need to counter disinformation." (Executive summary, page 8)
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"Esforços de síntese de evidências vêm apontando para o avanço das formas organizadas de desinformação e negação do conhecimento científico sobre a mudança climática global. Em vários países do mundo, há um forte debate sobre a difusão dessas narrativas no ambiente online e seus impa
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ctos políticos, sociais e econômicos. Neste trabalho, realizamos uma revisão de escopo aplicada às bases Web of Science e Scopus, a fim de mapear como a literatura acadêmica internacional vem descrevendo as relações entre o negacionismo da ciência sobre mudanças climáticas e o uso de campanhas de desinformação no século XXI, assim como as possíveis lacunas e apontamentos desses estudos para a agenda de pesquisas. Em todos os tipos de mídias estudados nos 31 artigos selecionados, foi identificada uma predominância de discursos contrários ao consenso científico sobre o tema, alavancada por campanhas de desinformação organizadas, inclusive, por atores governamentais. Observamos um crescimento significativo do campo nos últimos anos, assim como transformações estratégicas nas comunicações negacionistas tendendo a uma disputa maior da opinião pública sobre a ciência." (Resumo)
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"Seit Beginn des russischen Angriffskriegs gegen die Ukraine im Februar 2022 nutzen Rechtsextreme die Ereignisse und Entwicklungen für ihre Propaganda. Dabei lassen sich sowohl pro-ukrainische als auch prorussische Positionierungen beobachten. Insbesondere werden gezielt Desinformationen und Versch
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wörungserzählungen verbreitet. Eine zentrale Plattform stellt Telegram dar: Rechtsextreme und verschwörungsideologische Akteur:innen können hier ungestört ihre Propaganda betreiben, meist ohne Löschungen befürchten zu müssen." (Seite 2)
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"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
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ividuals. After giving overviews of the five types of harmful content, their targets and consequences, the following chapters are dedicated to the legislative, regulatory and self-regulatory frameworks for the five types of harmful content, how effectively they are used online, what the major obstacles are in their implementation and to what extent they are aligned with international standards. The study also addresses the practices of the courts, the Communications Regulatory Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Press Council of Bosnia and Herzegovina and other relevant actors in countering harmful content. The final parts of the study are dedicated to the community guidelines of social networks and examples of frameworks in other countries. The scope of harmful content online in Bosnia and Herzegovina is worrying and calls for a comprehensive response. The study emphasizes the need to safeguard freedom of expression and to find responses and practices that are aligned with international human rights law and that do not chill or censor online speech or discourage the flow of diverse sources of information and opinions." (Executive summary)
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"The spread of disinformation has received significant attention in recent years, yet little has been paid to government disinformation, and whether governments may violate freedom of expression not only in how they regulate disinformation, but also in how they facilitate, sow and spread it. This ar
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ticle analyses whether and to what extent Article 10 of the ECHR is engaged by government disinformation. It extends the analysis from well-established violations of freedom of expression—overt censorship and withholding information—into novel forms of government interference in the ‘post-truth’ age: false claims of ‘fake news’ levelled at the press and intentional lies about matters of public importance. These latter categories warrant further attention, as governments can cause just as much harm to public discourse and debate by intentionally injecting falsehoods as by censoring truth. A purposive approach to freedom of expression is needed to protect not only the means of expression, but also the ends—vibrant democratic discourse and meaningful public debate." (Abstract)
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"Through in-depth qualitative research and a survey to confirm and quantify findings, this study aims to provide a more holistic understanding of how displacement-affected communities in three humanitarian settings are using their mobile phones. These settings were chosen to provide a variety of per
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spectives on the research questions: North and Akkar governorates in Lebanon, which host tens of thousands of Syrian refugees and are the most economically underdeveloped regions in the country; Iowara refugee settlement in Western Province, Papua New Guinea (PNG), which hosts between 2,500 and 3,000 refugees from West Papua, Indonesia (Iowara is an extremely remote settlement that is hard to reach from the nearest town of Kiunga and has a host population of only about 200 people); Bor Protection of Civilians (PoC) site in South Sudan, which hosts about 2,687 internally displaced Nuer people and is located 7 kilometres from the urban centre of Bor Town. Deep qualitative engagement and surveys with refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs) and host communities revealed complex digital worlds in which people use their mobile phones to navigate and cope with difficult daily realities. Connecting with friends and family, staying up to date on news and information from home or relaxing with music are all ways for people to respond to the challenges they face. However, these complex uses also present risks for mobile phone users. The research highlights the impacts of low digital literacy, online scams, misinformation, disinformation and hate speech (MDH), and how humanitarians, mobile network operators (MNOs) and other digital and financial service providers can help protect people from those risks." (Executive summary)
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"States should interpret – and apply – existing rules in a manner that ensures adequate and sufficient protection for civilians and civilian infrastructure, information and communication technology (ICT) systems and data in our ever-increasingly digitalised societies. Academia, tech companies, s
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tates and humanitarians should work together to better understand the impact of misinformation, disinformation, and hate speech in contexts affected by armed conflict and violence, and to identify ways to address it. The humanitarian community must join forces – and find partners – to ensure the best possible protection against cyber operations targeting humanitarian operations and personal data entrusted to us." (Key issues, page 1)
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"This compact, accessible guide unpacks a number of key digital justice issues and looks at how digital communication impacts marginalized peoples and groups. Case studies, facts and figures, discussion questions, and suggested readings offer tools for reflection and action. For use by individuals o
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r groups, the Study and Action Guide includes chapters on the digital divide; access to digital spaces; weaponization of digital resources; surveillance, censorship, and privacy; digitality and marginalized peoples." (Publisher description)
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"Information disorder involves wide-ranging content that challenges democratic rules and social harmony. Pseudo-media that relies on conspiracy theories and misleading versions of the social reality contribute to feeding the disinformation ecosystem by reinforcing biased messages with expressive pat
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terns and polarising practices. This article focuses on the content published (N = 1,396) by seven far-right wing Spanish pseudo-media. Based on qualitative and quantitative methods, it analyses headlines, types of text and sources, as well as the distortion strategies of journalistic conventions. Results show that the emotional component is expressed by means of polarised headlines that rely on clickbait to gain attention and build a particular jargon, exacerbated by disinformation and populist practices. The absolute dependence of conspicuous headlines is evidenced by the limited resources of pseudo-media, whose production lies in a mix of opinion text and the processing of online content. Plagiarism from mainstream—mainly conservative—media, social networks and website siblings fuel these outlets that play the role of the ambiguity, mimicking journalistic conventions and mocking them by means of disinformation practices, with a particular focus on reframing social issues, progressive policies and measures to manage the pandemic." (Abstract)
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"The spread of social media platforms ushered the beginning of an unprecedented communication era, which is borderless, immediate, widespread, and defies restrictions and censorship. Digital technology aided the spread of democracy and freedom of expression and helped to overthrow some Arab regimes
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in 2011. At that time, it was believed that these platforms paved the way for democracy by allowing citizens to easily circumvent governmental censorship, and by facilitating communication, networking, and organization among activists, thus weakening authoritarian regimes. These assumptions were overly optimistic, as the detours in democratization and political reform in the Arab region over a decade later illustrate. This article tackles the exploitation of new media, and the laws and regulations governing them, by Arab authoritarian regimes to crack down on opponents, activists, and journalists, oftentimes under the mantle of fighting disinformation, using a plethora of techniques. It also illustrates how disinformation could spread rapidly through governmentally orchestrated campaigns via new communication tools, causing serious political consequences and high risks to activists and journalists, while aiding counter revolutions. The constraining implications of these complex phenomena on Arab journalism will be explored, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic." (Abstract)
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"Este estudio aborda el modo cómo la desinformación propalada principalmente a través de las redes sociales digitales, pero también en sitios web y medios periodísticos, ha contribuido a alimentar los conflictos y cómo éstos han dado lugar a más desinformación. Asimismo desentraña los prop
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ósitos de esos mensajes (difamar, desacreditar, engañar, atemorizar, incitar al odio y a la violencia, impidiendo el conocimiento y consideración de los problemas que dan lugar a los conflictos y de las posiciones e intereses de las partes involucradas), que generan un círculo vicioso muy dañino, lo cual es especialmente evidente en el caso de los temas políticos, que han adquirido un carácter transversal ya que atraviesan los distintos temas considerados en el análisis. La investigación muestra que el déficit de una cultura democrática y la polarización política son condiciones propicias para el crecimiento de la tarea desinformadora, influyendo de manera negativa sobre la opinión pública y haciendo víctimas tanto a los ciudadanos como al propio trabajo periodístico. Incluye referencias al necesario y valioso trabajo de las entidades verificadoras y pone de relieve la necesidad de desarrollar esfuerzos mancomunados para contar con información de calidad y confiable, fundamentales para la práctica de un periodismo de paz, sacando al ciudadano de la pasividad y empoderándolo en términos informativos." (Introducción, página 7-8)
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"Over the past few years, a growing barrage of disinformation has targeted UN peacekeeping operations, particularly the missions in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), Mali (MINUSMA), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). This includes false allegations that UN peacekeepers are tra
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fficking weapons to armed groups, supporting terrorists, and exploiting natural resources. This disinformation makes it harder for peacekeeping operations to implement their mandates and has put the safety of peacekeepers at risk [...] But considering how quickly this challenge has grown in scale, missions are still playing catch-up. They need greater capacity and coordination to monitor and analyze disinformation both online and offline. They need more streamlined approval processes that allow them to respond to disinformation more quickly. In the longer term, they also need to shift toward preventive approaches, including by proactively reshaping narratives about the UN and contributing to a healthier information environment through support to local journalists." (Executive summary)
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"This report examines the destabilizing effects of social media in two key places in the Balkans: Serbia and Republika Srpska, the majority Serb entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The leaders of both – President Aleksandar Vucic in Serbia and President Milorad Dodik in Republika Srpska – ar
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e key allies of Vladimir Putin in Europe. Social media has been weaponized by their ruling parties to consolidate political power. This is exacerbated by the control exercised over traditional forms of media such as television, radio and print. Rather than offering a space where political debate and the freedom of the press can thrive, social media platforms have in large part become a tool for advancing pro-government narratives and attacking critical voices. Understanding the role of social media in the declining information environment is of particular importance at this time, as both Serbia and BiH will hold elections in 2022." (Page 5)
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"This paper aims to conduct a review on fake news detection models that is contributed by a variety of machine learning and deep learning algorithms. The fundamental and well-performing approaches that existed in the past years are reviewed and categorized and described in different datasets. Furthe
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r, the dataset utilized, simulation platforms, and recorded performance metrics are evaluated as an extended review model. Finally, the survey expedites the research findings and challenges that could have significant implications for the upcoming researchers and professionals to improve the trust worthiness of automated fake news detection models." (Abstract)
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"Como indica o título do livro há em seus 21 textos diversos cenários que se apresentam em torno daquilo que conceitualmente é definido como “desinformação”, ou seja, reflexões sobre o nosso tempo concomitante de vida em que se dá crédito a teorias absurdas, se reescreve o passado a par
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tir da lógica das falsificações históricas e se constrói perigosas verdades alternativas. Como enfatizou Roger Chartier (2022), num recente artigo sobre a questão da verdade, há que se remarcar também as ameaças que o estatuto de desinformação confere à própria interpretação do passado: “nossa relação com o passado está ameaçada pela forte tentação de histórias imaginadas e pelas tentativas políticas de reescrita do passado” (página 9). Exemplar neste sentido, no Brasil, tem sido a volta da idolatria ao período ditatorial levada a cabo por representantes políticos da extrema-direita, capitaneada pelo Presidente Jair Bolsonaro, que incontáveis vezes tem feito apologia à ditadura civil-militar instaurada em 1964 e homenagens a torturadores do período, nas inúmeras ocasiões a que se refere, por exemplo, ao coronel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, que foi chefe do DOICodi. Refletir sobre desinformação e as teias comunicacionais nos tempos contemporâneos torna-se, portanto, urgente." (Prefácio, página 11)
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"Organized propaganda and public opinion manipulation are increasing in Indonesia’s cybersphere. Specifically, since 2019, there has been a marked rise of cyber troop campaigns that serve to mobilize public consensus for controversial government policies. Cyber troop operations played a crucial ro
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le in three controversial events in which public opinion had been initially critical of the government policy at issue. These were, first, the revision of the Law on the Corruption Eradication Commission in September 2019; second, the launch of the New Normal policy during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020; and third, the passing of the Omnibus Law for Job Creation in October 2020. In all three cases, there is clear evidence of cyber troops manipulating public opinion in support of government policy. In all three cases, the cyber troops manufactured consent by flooding social media with narratives that promoted the governing elite’s agenda, often using deceptive messages and disinformation that were amplified by numerous “buzzer” and “bot” accounts. Thereby they effectively drowned out oppositional discourses on social media and neutralized dissent, especially as mainstream media simultaneously echoed the cyber troops’ narratives. The ever more systematic use of cyber troops—and the considerable resources spent on such operations—indicates increasing co-optation of Indonesia’s cybersphere for elite interests. This threatens to undermine the quality of public debate and democracy in Indonesia because cyber troop operations not only feed public opinion with disinformation but also prevent citizens from scrutinizing and evaluating the governing elite’s behaviour and policy-making processes, which further exacerbates Indonesia’s ongoing democratic regression." (Executive summary)
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