Disinfo Docket 20 March

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Highlights

1. US supreme court to hear case about government requests to social media companies (The Guardian, 19 March)
2. Europe’s far right uses TikTok to win youth vote (Politico, 19 March)
3. Potential 2024 ‘Chaos’: Election Deniers Refusing to Certify Results (Rolling Stone, 17 March)
4. Russians who oppose Putin can do little but change the atmosphere of the presidential election (Chatham House, 15 March)

Fascinating talk from @lkfazio at the @ShorensteinCtr showing in a new mega-tournament study of #misinfo interventions that unlike debunking, #inoculation does NOT make people more skeptical of true news, but it DOES reduce belief & sharing of false news. https://t.co/2Sy9VulACG pic.twitter.com/ncadqaYImi

— Sander van der Linden (@Sander_vdLinden) March 19, 2024

1. Academia & Research

1. Rumble's self-proclaimed “absolute real best” content promotes conspiracy theories (Media Matters for America, 19 March)
2. Radicalisation And Counter-Radicalisation Research: Past, Present And Future (Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats, 18 March)
3. Adversarial Intelligence: Red Teaming Malicious Use Cases for AI (Recorded Future, 19 March)

2. Platforms & Technology

1. How GenAI could give threat actors a disarming advantage (Tech Radar, 19 March)
2. Big Tech says AI watermarks could curb misinformation, but they're easy to sidestep (NBC, 19 March)

YouTube released a new "tool in Creator Studio requiring creators to disclose to viewers when realistic content – content a viewer could easily mistake for a real person, place, or event – is made with altered or synthetic media, including generative AI." https://t.co/8CCUmY7pt1

— Social Media Lab (@SMLabTO) March 19, 2024

“Done well, red teaming can identify and help address vulnerabilities in AI. What it does not do is address the structural gap in regulating the technology in the public interest,” Brian Chen says in a conversation with @IEEESpectrum. https://t.co/teZbS324Fy

— Data & Society (@datasociety) March 19, 2024

Meta

1. How Spammers, Scammers and Creators Leverage AI-Generated Images on Facebook for Audience Growth (Stanford Internet Observatory, 18 March)
2. Meta unveils ‘comprehensive’ plan for tackling misinformation during upcoming Lok Sabha elections (Mint, 19 March)

TikTok 

1. Is TikTok really a danger to the West? (BBC, 19 March)
2. Libs of TikTok is going beyond anti-LGBTQ attacks to spread extreme bigotry around immigration and race (Media Matters for America, 15 March)

X (Twitter)

1. Elon Musk calls X ‘number one source of news in the world’—and also a ‘hardcore, player versus player platform’ (Fortune, 18 March)