DisinfoDocket 11 December

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Highlights
- Misinformation is the symptom, not the disease (iai, 7 December)
- AI art and T-shirt spam: Analysis of a network of inauthentic X accounts that posts AI-generated images and spams popular political accounts with ads for T-shirts (Conspirator Norteńo, 10 December)
Harvard claims that they own my life’s work. So much that they were willing to lie to the public about the origin of the FB Archive project. If they admit that I started it then they have to admit the project was taken from me and my progress was stopped. pic.twitter.com/NK1xs99iPV
— Joan Donovan, PhD 🦫 (@BostonJoan) December 10, 2023
1. Academia & Research
- How Big Tech is buying influence in academia (Coda Story, 7 December)
- Attacked by conservatives, UW misinformation researcher gears up for 2024 (Seattle Times, 10 December)
2. Platforms & Technology
- New Study Suggests Right-Wing Bias in YouTube Recommendation Algorithm (Tech Policy Press, 7 December)
- Elon Musk's Grok AI Is Pushing Misinformation and Legitimizing Conspiracies (Vice, 8 December)
- How social media is fuelling a global learning crisis (SCMP, 10 December)
- Child safety groups and prosecutors criticize encryption of Facebook and Messenger (Guardian, 8 December)
X (Twitter)
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has had his account on X reinstated by Elon Musk.
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) December 10, 2023
Jones was banned from Twitter in 2018 for breaching the platform's rules on abusive behaviour.https://t.co/EsBXS7gWNW
- Elon Musk brings conspiracy theorist Alex Jones back to X following poll (Al Jazeera, 11 December)
- Listen: Musk’s War on Free Speech (Slate, 10 December)
3. Russia & Ukraine
- Why Wagner is winning hearts in the Central African Republic (BBC, 11 December)
- Kremlin’s ‘doppelganger’ propaganda so convincing it is hard to tell from real news (Telegraph, 10 December)
🔟 December - using food as a weapon is not beneath the Kremlin's propagandists, so they comfortably spread lies about the Black Sea Grain Initiative. #DontBeDeceived, read more: https://t.co/OPUiQS5Bow #ChristmasCountdown #DisinfoCalendar pic.twitter.com/4Iq8e4Jjh4
— EUvsDisinfo (@EUvsDisinfo) December 10, 2023