As Election Day approaches, Americans would do well to remember they are targets of disinformation campaigns. Here’s what they could look like, and what’s being done about them.
Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Southeast Asian governments not only have to deal with the virus but also with the false information surrounding it.
Fake videos generated with sophisticated AI tools are a looming threat. Researchers are racing to build tools that can detect them, tools that are crucial for journalists to counter disinformation.
From 2017 to 2019, Twitter users in the United States saw many tweets related to vaccination but only rarely encountered anti-vaccine content and almost never saw content from bots.
African leaders blunt the transformative power of smartphones through censorship and internet shutdowns.
EFE-EPA/John Hrusha
It’s easy to edit video of public figures to make them appear asleep, confused, drunk or cognitively impaired when they are not. The technique is being used to undermine Joe Biden’s campaign.
Advance NZ leader Billy Te Kahika speaks at a Wellington protest in August 2020.
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Many people who participate in disinformation campaigns are unwitting accomplices and much of the information they spread is accurate, which makes it all the harder to identify the campaigns.
Twitter’s ‘blue tick’ club of influential users was locked out after financial scammers hacked celebrities’ accounts. But with ever more trust placed in social media, we stand to lose more than money.
Sophie Marineau, Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain)
The Covid-19 epidemic has given rise to an avalanche of fake news, and accounts managed by Russian interests lead the way. How does this misinformation work, and what are its aims?
To contain and mitigate the virus of misinformation needs multi-levelled, socio-cultural approaches.
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In Africa, people who report higher levels of exposure to disinformation also report lower levels of media trust.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) shakes hands with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Beijing on November 6, 2019. Also present is Élisabeth Borne, Minister of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition (left).
Ludovic Marin/AFP
China’s attempts to promote its actions and model of governance while discrediting the EU are not a short-term response to the pandemic, but part of a long-term strategy to build its international power.
All is not as it appears on social media.
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Unlike the US, Australia hasn’t yet been hit by a large-scale disinformation campaign focussed on meddling with elections. But this is a ‘realistic prospect’ moving forward.