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The Internet's Challenge to Democracy: Framing the Problem and Assessing Reforms

Nathaniel Persily

Geneva: Kofi Annan Foundation (2020), 65 pp.

"The unique dangers of the new communication revolution fall into several categories: Velocity – The lightning speed of online communication is in tension with democracy because well-timed lies immediately preceding an election can gain a national audience before they can be rebutted; Virality – ... more

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Engendering Hate: The Contours of State-Aligned Gendered Disinformation Online

Ellen Judson, Asli Atay, Alex Krasodomski-Jones, Rose Lasko-Skinner, Josh Smith

London: Demos (2020), 40 pp.

"Online spaces are being systematically weaponised to exclude women leaders and to undermine the role of women in public life. Attacks on women which use hateful language, rumour and gendered stereotypes combine personal attacks with political motivations, making online spaces dangerous places for w ... more

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Fake News und Desinformation: Herausforderungen für die vernetzte Gesellschaft und die empirische Forschung

Ralf Hohlfeld, Michael Harnischmacher, Elfi Heinke, Lea Sophia Lehner, Michael Sengl (eds.)

Baden-Baden: Nomos (2020), 361 pp.

"Desinformation ist eine Konstante der politischen Kommunikation. Doch mit der Wahl Donald Trumps zum Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten und der Brexit-Abstimmung in Großbritannien erhielten bewusst lancierte Falschnachrichten eine neue gesellschaftliche Bedeutung. Denn nun wurde sichtbar, welche ... more

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Online Temptations: COVID-19 and Religious Misinformation in the MENA Region

Mahsa Alimardani, Mona Elswah

Social Media + Society, volume 6, issue 3 (2020), pp. 1-4

"Issues of verification in the age of mass media, and now social media, have been a long-discussed topic among Islamic media scholars. While Islam might be a common thread in COVID-19 religious misinformation, there is nothing inherently Islamic to the religious tinged elements of misinformation on ... more

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Entre información y conspiración: Comunicación digital en tiempos de crisis

Gil Castillo, Juan Sebastián Delgado (coord.)

Montevideo: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) (2020), 102 pp.

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Lügen, Hass und Desinformation: Lateinamerika in postfaktischen Zeiten

Perspectivas , issue 6 (2020), 36 pp.

"In Lateinamerika haben Politiker wie Bolsonaro in Brasilien oder Bukele in El Salvador die Präsidentschaftswahlen nicht zuletzt durch ihre Abgrenzung vom politischen Establishment gewonnen, ungeachtet dessen, dass auch sie schon lange zu diesem von ihnen so diskreditierten Politikbetrieb gehören. ... more

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Exploring Turkey's Disinformation Ecosystem: An Overview

Baris Kirdemir

Istanbul: Edam Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (2020), 28 pp.

"The study’s key findings revealed that the Turkish information landscape is exposed to nearly all kinds of false information at very high rates. Frequent botnet and troll activity in Turkey’s social media use brings about more disinformation, fueling polarization and subversive discourse. Above ... more

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Countering Russian & Chinese Influence Activities: Examining Democratic Vulnerabilities & Building Resiliency

Cyrus Newlin, Heather A. Conley, Amy Searight, Tim Kostelancik, Rachel Ellehuus, Jeffrey Mankoff, Devin Stewart

Washington, DC: Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) (2020), v, 31 pp.

"With their heavily censored and restricted civil societies at home, China and Russia exploit the asymmetry of democratic systems by targeting open information environments, freedom of expression, participatory civic discourse, and pluralistic and fluid politics. Democracies have unique vulnerabilit ... more

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FactShala User Study: Executive Summary. Baseline Status of Internet Users in India

Internews;DataLEADS;fact India Media Literacy Network (2020), 29 pp.

"The study revealed some clear patterns about why people fall for misinformation, regardless of their age, gender or education level. Some of the key trends common across city and village respondents were: 1. Majority of the respondents do not question the source of the information, or assess if the ... more

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Port-Au-Prince Information Ecosystem Assessment

Internews;Panos Caribbean (2020), 70 pp.

"Key finding 1: A trusted thirdperson is the most important information provider. When asked for their main source of information, family, friends, and religious leaders accounted for 89% of the response choices combined. Additionally, 97% stated they trust their family and friends. Key finding 2: S ... ocial media, the new player in the game? Even though radio remains the main channel of information used by the population (76%) – followed by television (48%) – WhatsApp (29%) and Facebook (28%) combined total 57% of respondents’ choice. Moreover, among participants who have Internet access, the leading applications to receive news areWhatsApp (82%) and Facebook (70%). Key finding 3: News on current events and sports are the most preferred content in traditional media channels. Participants mostly responded they like to see “news on current events” and “sports news” in traditional media channels. Radio listeners mostly enjoy “news on current events” (61%), newspapers readers like to read about “news on current events” (65%) and “sports” (33%), and television consumers mostly favor “news on current events” (49%) and “sports” (37%). Sports are ahead of educational and/or health programs in all types of media. Key finding 4: Residents in Port-au-Prince have unmet information needs. When asked about the information they need the most – at the time –, 52% of participants selected “how to find a job”, followed closely by “general news about what is happening in the country including COVID-19” (51%). Respondents also mentioned the need for information on “access to food and drinking water” (48%), as well as information about the “security situation in Port-au-Prince” (47%). Key finding 5: Information consumers are not passive actors: trust and relevance are key points. Content and source are the two main factors affecting the information ecosystem in Port-auPrince. Even among their preferred source of information – family and friends – or their preferred channel – radio –, trust is not blindly granted. In the focus groups, participants point out the lack of training of journalists, the fact that many confuse facts with opinions or place greater value in sensationalism, often leading to unsubstantiated claims and misinformation [...]" (Pages 5-14) more

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Internet y pandemia en las Américas: Primera crisis sanitaria en la era digital

Elaine Ford, Winfried Weck (eds.)

Ciudad de Panama: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS);Democracia Digital (2020), 286 pp.

"[...] se identificaron rápidamente las principales temáticas a incluir en el libro. Estas son: acceso a Internet y derechos humanos online, populismo y desinformación, privacidad, ciberseguridad, big data y datos abiertos, teleeducación, teletrabajo, cooperación digital y transformación digit ... more

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Desinformation aufdecken und bekämpfen: Interdisziplinäre Ansätze gegen Desinformationskampagnen und für Meinungspluralität

Martin Steinebach, Katarina Bader, Lars Rinsdorf, Nicole Krämer, Alexander Roßnagel (eds.)

Baden-Baden: Nomos (2020), 217 pp.

"Was macht Desinformation im deutschsprachigen Internet aus? Wie wirkt Desinformation? Wie kann sie mithilfe technischer Mittel erkannt werden? Was kann und könnte mit regulatorischen und rechtlichen Maßnahmen gegen Desinformation getan werden? Aus den Erkenntnissen von Journalistik, Medienpsychol ... more

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Artificial Intelligence and Disinformation: How AI Changes the Way Disinformation is Produced, Disseminated, and Can be Countered in Security and Human Rights

Katarina Kertysova

Security and Human Rights, volume 29, issue 1/4 (2020), pp. 55-81

"This article explores the challenges and opportunities presented by advances in artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of information operations. The article first examines the ways in which AI can be used to counter disinformation online. It then dives into some of the limitations of AI solut ... more

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Assessing Digital Threats to Democracy, and Workable Solutions: A Review of the Recent Literature

Kathleen Kuehn, Leon A. Salter

International Journal of Communication, volume 14 (2020), pp. 2589-2610

"Concerns surrounding the threats that digital platforms pose to the functioning of Western liberal democracies have grown since the 2016 U.S. election. Yet despite a preponderance of academic work in this area, the precise nature of these threats, empirical solutions for their redress, and their re ... more

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Industrialized Disinformation: 2020 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation
Quick Overview

Samantha Bradshaw, Hannah Bailey, Philip N. Howard

Oxford: University of Oxford, Oxford Internet Institute (2020), 23 pp.

"Our 2020 report highlights the recent trends of computational propaganda across 81 countries and the evolving tools, capacities, strategies, and resources used to manipulate public opinion around the globe. We identify three key trends in this year’s inventory of disinformation activity: 1. Cyber ... more

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Misinformation, Disinformation, Malinformation: Causes, Trends, and Their Influence on Democracy

Lejla Turcilo, Mladen Obrenovic

Sarajevo: Heinrich Böll Stiftung (2020), 38 pp.

"The aim of this paper is to investigate the phenomena of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation, as well as their impact on the political sphere. In addition, the paper attempts to explain the harmful influence of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation on public debates, dem ... more

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Mapping Fake News and Disinformation in the Western Balkans and Identifying Ways to Effectively Counter Them

Samuel Greene, Gregory Asmolov, Adam Fagan, Ofer Fridman, Borjan Gjuzelov

European Parliament, Directorate General for External Policies of the Union (2020), 101 pp.

"Disinformation is an endemic and ubiquitous part of politics throughout the Western Balkans, without exception. A mapping of the disinformation and counter-dis in for mation landscapes in the region in the period from 2018 through 2020 reveals three key disinformation challenges: external challenge ... more

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10 Things to Know About Misinformation and Disinformation

Jonathan Tanner

London: Overseas Development Institute (ODI) (2020), 13 pp.

"By accident or design, the internet and social media have created the ideal conditions for a huge increase in false information and conspiracy theories. This can cause real harm offline, especially because digital literacy and digital policy are both currently unable to keep up with the pace of cha ... more

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10 Tips for Reporting on Disinformation

Data & Society Research Institute (2020), 4 pp.

"For journalists, disinformation presents a unique challenge; while they are guided by the mission of exposing wrongdoing to hold power to account, they are also one of the most common targets of disinformation campaigns. Without realizing it, journalists can amplify disinformation simply by doing t ... more

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Combatting Digital Disinformation: An Evaluation of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's Disinformation Strategy

Amy O’Hara, Jodi Nelson

Hewlett Foundation (2020), 29 pp.

"The Hewlett Foundation’s decision to add a focus on disinformation to its 2017 US Democracy strategy was motivated by a desire to figure out how best to encourage social media platforms to reduce polarization exacerbated by disinformation.1 The foundation invested in two major efforts to support ... this ambition: a multi-funder partnership with Facebook to create data access for independent researchers to study the impact of social media on democracy and elections; and a grant making portfolio conceived to build an academic field to deepen the understanding of disinformation and identify policy solutions that mitigate its spread and impact on society . We found compelling the suggestion that disinformation is better considered a topic than a coherent field, and that multi-disciplinarity brings richness in framing, methods, and applications. Among Hewlett grantees, scholars self-identify as members of different fields that carry with them important epistemological and philosophical differences. We found evidence that there are perceived gaps between researchers, platforms, journalists, policy makers, civil society and others that obstruct the development of policy solutions. The missing competency among many academics to translate research findings for use, and of the need for tighter connections between scholars and decision makers were additional insights we gained about important gaps in the current landscape. During the two-year grantmaking period, the disinformation portfolio invested in varied policy and academic institutions and supported a diverse group of principal investigators. This is in contrast to the perceptions we heard about the foundation’s lack of a diverse grantee portfolio and approach. We learned from key informants and secondary research that there is an inextricable link between disinformation, racial and social equity and justice. A stronger communication strategy about the foundation team’s approach to diversity, equity and inclusion is warranted, as is a deliberate effort to showcase the work of all their grantees and their distinct perspectives. The foundation’s significant role in creating momentum for this body of work was widely noted, as was the need for continued leadership and support." (Executive summary, page 2-3) more

Industrialized Disinformation: 2020 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation Quick Overview

Industrialized Disinformation: 2020 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation
Quick Overview