Disinfo Docket 11 December

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Highlights

1. Misinformer Tactics: Home Alone Edition (Science Up First, 10 December)
2. The Need to Make Content Moderation Transparent (Tech Policy Press, 11 December)
3. This fearless science sleuth risked her career to expose publication fraud (Nature, 9 December)
4. Holiday Hoaxes Unwrapped: Fake Trees, Freebies, & Shopping Sprees (Graphika, 10 December)
5. The Onion's purchase of Alex Jones's Infowars rejected by judge (BBC, 11 December)
6. The Bizarre Normalcy of Trump 2.0 (The Atlantic, 9 December)

LISTEN - Is the Misinformation Crisis Overblown? (Undark, 9 December)

1. Academia & Research

1. Melodies of Malice: Understanding How AI Fuels the Creation and Spread of Extremist Music (GNET, 11 December)
2. Disinformation and calculated care beyond the Global North: comparing refugee discourses in Australia and India (Frontiers, 11 December)

Misinformation research "builds researchers’ political biases into their research, transforming research into little more than partisan combat by another name", defining misinformation as "ideas with which I, the researcher, personally disagree."

It assumes that that "only… pic.twitter.com/gLsaHkcWSP

— Brandon (@BrandonLukeMc) December 10, 2024

2. Platforms & Technology

1. Brussels probes Google and Meta secret ads deal to target teens (Financial Times, 10 December)
2. Amazon forms an AI agent-focused lab led by Adept’s co-founder (Tech Crunch, 9 December)
3. 5 Things to Know about the Digital Services Act’s First Risk Assessments and Audits (Tech Policy Press, 11 December)

3. Russia & Ukraine

1. Russian victory in Ukraine would spark a new era of global insecurity (Atlantic Council, 10 December)
2. A key gateway: Russia is at risk of losing its military bases in Syria. Here’s what that means for its Africa operations. (Meduza, 11 December)

"The implications of Russia’s interference onslaught in Moldova reverberate far beyond the small country’s borders.

🇲🇩, after all, is likely just a testing ground for Russian interference elsewhere", @VNtousas and @LaurentiuPl wrote earlier this year. ⤵️https://t.co/LkfxHMmOW5

— Alliance for Securing Democracy (@SecureDemocracy) December 11, 2024