Disinfo Docket 18 September
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* The viral spread of propaganda on Facebook in lead up to Sri Lanka’s 2024 presidential election
* Print media in Haiti is on the brink of extinction
* Trump ‘assassination attempt’ unleashes flood of misinformation on Chinese social media...
Highlights
2024 is a historic year for elections, with nearly half the world’s population voting. In our latest Policy Brief, ISD examines the critical role of key stakeholders and their strategies to safeguard the electoral process from online threats. https://t.co/4bTGOnwzT0
— Institute for Strategic Dialogue (@ISDglobal) September 17, 2024
- EVENT: CrowdTangle Funeral (In-person and online) (Georgetown, 30 September)
- Russia targets Harris campaign with wave of fake videos (The Record, 17 September)
- How much security does Donald Trump get? (BBC, 17 September)
- Belarus: 17 September – a day to remember but not the way Lukashenka wants (EUvsDisinfo, 17 September)
🚨Following a second assassination attempt on #Trump, far-right extremists are fueling conspiracy theories & antisemitic rhetoric in platforms like 4chan & Gab, the risk of political violence is growing as these dangerous narratives continue to flourish.👇https://t.co/oTwfaJrx0x
— Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (@globalextremism) September 17, 2024
1. Academia & Research
- Why can’t artificial language contain the truth? A focus on Foucault’s and Heidegger’s discussions (Nature, 17 September)
- Algorithmic Behaviors Across Regions: A Geolocation Audit of YouTube Search for COVID-19 Misinformation between the United States and South Africa (arXiv, 16 September)
Scientific summaries written by GPT-4 led to more positive perceptions of scientists, making them appear more credible and trustworthy, though somewhat less intelligent, compared to more complicated human-written abstracts.
— Valerio Capraro (@ValerioCapraro) September 17, 2024
Moreover, participants understood scientific writing… pic.twitter.com/TLT2pT8ygK
2. Platforms & Technology
A panel of three judges hearing arguments around the potential US TikTok ban expressed "a great deal of skepticism towards TikTok’s case," during hearings on Monday writes @lauren_feinerhttps://t.co/zrVdwqTSHA
— Reuters Institute (@risj_oxford) September 17, 2024
- TikTok ban goes to the court: 5 essential reads on the case and its consequences (The Conversation, 16 September)
- Instagram to bolster privacy and safety features for millions of teen users (The Record, 17 September)
Meta will ban RT and related RU entities globally (not just within the EU) according to media reports. I have been asked whether such bans can be effective? I got you covered! In 2022 YouTube did something similar. My coauthors and I wrote a data memo documenting the aftermath 👇 https://t.co/2v4c0hbyCI
— Yevgeniy Golovchenko (@Golovchenko_Yev) September 17, 2024
3. Russia & Ukraine
- Amid Russia's deepening authoritarianism, journalists set the foundation for a democratic future (IJNet, 16 September)
- The Kursk advance and new Kremlin narratives: a perfect storm for the ‘Temnik’ (EUvsDisinfo, 16 September)
- ‘Perhaps it’s all part of a clever plan’: Russian pundits and politicians react to Putin’s latest army expansion order (Meduza, 17 September)