All posts by : imthefastlane

On May 28-29 in Brussels, join the community working against disinformation: case studies, civil society initiatives and tools will be presented. Pre-registrations for EU Disinfolab conference are open. Take a look at the agenda.

En Marche Disinformation: when karma fights back

Last week, French newspaper Le Monde revealed that the communications team of “En Marche”,in close coordination with former Emmanuel Macron advisor Ismaël Emelien,used anonymous accounts to share false claims and manipulated videos to protect French President’s security officer Alexandre Benalla. The latter has been accused (among other things) to beat up demonstrators in Paris in May 2018. Ismaël Emelien justified these actions on TV by saying “you know, on Twitter, it’s the rule”. Eventually, En Marche and the President’s team used similar disinformation techniques to the ones they usually criticise. This story is inconsistent with the strategy of the French government, which pushed for the implementation of the new law against manipulated information during elections period.

French Government vs. Twitter

Last week, Twitter blocked the online campaign (#Ouijevote) of French government inciting people to vote in the upcoming European elections. According to the platform, this was not in compliance with both French law on disinformation adopted in December 2018 (which requires online political campaigns to disclose who paid for them and the amount spent), and Twitter’s own terms and conditions. Few days later, after meeting with government representatives, the social media platform announced being ready to authorise online campaigns encouraging participation in elections in France. It is also important to note that the targeting criteria for this campaign have not been disclosed.

The UK regulating social media platforms

The long awaited “Online Harms White Paper” released today by the British government wants the UK to be the safest place to go online. In the framework of the new legislative proposal, a consultation has been launched to gather views on various aspects of the government’s plans for tackling online harms. The new regulation describes a set of online harms and defines a duty of care that internet companies must provide, together with a code of best practices. Moreover, the plan argues that the regulator should have the power to demand information about the impact of algorithms in selecting content for users. The Webinar of EU DisinfoLab with Facebook Tracking Exposed initiative has well developed the logic behind the personalisation of Facebook algorithms. 

EU elections news and fact checks of the week

• Representation of the European Commission in France has started its new initiative ‘Les Décodeurs de l’Europe’, aiming to answer false claims made against the European institutions and regulations. On his Twitter account, journalist Samuel Laurent from Le Monde argues thatcommunications departments shouldn’t try to replicate journalism.
• In his interview with the French newspaper, Le Monde, the head of cybersecurity at Facebook said he has detected no suspicious activity related to the European elections in May.
• FactCheck EU has proven wrong the recent statement of Georgios Tsaousis to Sputnik that  Berlin will send at least 50,000 foreigners back to Greece in 2020.
• EU FactCheck has proven wrong the assumption that the Dutch have become considerably richer since the euro entered into circulation while Belgians have become poorer.

Library

• In the footsteps of Facebook personalisation algorithms: Summary article of the Webinar with Facebook Tracking Exposed is now available. 
• Facebook will soon introduce a new feature enabling its users to understand the reason behind the promoted posts and advertising campaigns.
• A report prepared for the European Commission by three Special Advisers on the future challenges of digitisation for competition policy, suggests how future tech deals might face greater scrutiny, for example by requiring dominant players to ensure data interoperability.
• According to a fact-checking website Poynter, misinformation is making people more violent, nevertheless, tech platforms don’t plan to prevent the worst.
• Research experts from the University of Southern California and the public-interest advocacy group Upturn have shown how Facebook delivers certain ads in a way that aligns with race and gender stereotypes.
• According to a recent analysis of The Guardian, pro-Brexit advertising posts on Facebook were overseen by Sir Lynton Crosby’s lobbying company. It is to note that Sir Crosby is an Australian political strategist who helped to run the last four Conservative general election campaigns.

Calendar and announcements

• 17 April – EU DisinfoLab Webinar: Rating Sources to Understand Disinformation with Global Disinformation Index. The link to join the video conference can be found here.
• 2-6 September @ Paphos, Cyprus: International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Please find the Call for Papers and Participation for the “Workshop on Challenging Misinformation: Exploring the Limits and Approaches”.
• 6-7 June @ Brussels: Annual Conference on European Media Law 2019.
• 19-20 June @ UNESCO Headquarters in Paris: 63rd meeting of the International Program for the Development of communication.

On May 28-29 in Brussels, join the community working against disinformation: case studies, civil society initiatives and tools will be presented. Pre-registrations for EU Disinfolab conference are open. Take a look at the agenda.

Don’t Put In, Put Out Please

Ukrainians, being confronted with Russian interference in domestic politics, have recently received a fake email about the election rules that was sent on behalf of Ukraine’s Minister of Interior. According to the Oxford Internet Institute, Ukraine may be home to “the most globally advanced case of computational propaganda.” In addition, Philip N. Howard in the New York Times has shown how in 2016 Russian ads target extreme right-wing voters in the US and encourage to put all ads in an accessible ad archive.

Should governments have more control on Facebook?

Following the statement of Mark Zuckerberg published in the USA, Germany, Ireland and France, governments should have a more active role in controlling content on social media and the internet. In his recent opinion in Washington Post, CEO of Facebook has stated: “Deciding whether an ad is political isn’t always straightforward. Our systems would be more effective if regulation created common standards for verifying political actors.” Specific attention in terms of regulation should be paid to harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability. The firm’s founder and chief executive warned that any advertising not properly registered will be blocked from mid-April.

Money is not enough

The European Commission has more than doubled its spending to 5 million euros to counter Russian interference and is enlarging its staff of analysts dedicated to tracking disinformation. However, according to the opinion of the editorial team of Bloomberg this is far from being enough, and “EU governments should engage citizens and deploy firm legal diplomatic countermeasures to clearly answer to the Russian disinformation strategy.”

EU fact checks of the week

• How the biggest collaboration between European fact checkers really works.
• The FactCheckEU initiative has proven wrong the statement of Lithuanian prime minister who claimed his country had no political contacts with Russia and Belarus.
• The EU FactCheck initiative has examined national, EU laws and regulations to determine the possibility for a judge to candidate for European elections, as it is the case in Croatia.

Library

• Podcast: Alina Polyakova explains social media manipulation and IT as a tool for authoritarian regimes to control political debate at home and disrupt democracy abroad.
• Google is launching an innovative tool: Real-time Content Insights. Focusing on telling publishers what’s happening on their site at this moment, RCI helps them identify trending news stories that could attract more readers.
• Mozilla and a cohort of 10 independent researchers have published five guidelines for an effective ad archive API — and more transparent elections.
• Facebook has updated its ad repository in Europe. Its weekly report is published in the USA, the UK and India only. 
• Digital Forensic Research Lab has detailed the key findings around the recent Iranian propaganda on Facebook.
• A report of the Reuters Institute’s Dr Richard Fletcher and Dr Joy Jenkins made for the European Parliament sees little evidence that the news media is responsible for polarisation. It also finds that social media can expose users to a wider range of viewpoints.

Calendar and announcements

• 17 April – EU DisinfoLab Webinar on Rating Sources to Understand Disinformation with Global Disinformation Index. The link to the video conference can be found here.
• 2 April is the International Fact Checking Day.
• 3-7 April @ Perugia, Italy: International Journalism Festival.
• A new groundbreaking digital literacy project called MediaWise will teach 1 million teenagers — half from undeserved communities — how to sort fact from fiction online by 2020.
• The shortlist for the European Press Prize 2019 is now available.
• 2-6 September @ Paphos, Cyprus: International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Please find the Call for Papers and Participation for the “Workshop on Challenging Misinformation: Exploring the Limits and Approaches”.

On May 28-29 in Brussels, join the community working against disinformation: case studies, civil society initiatives and tools will be presented. Pre-registrations for EU Disinfolab conference are open. Take a look at the agenda.

Facebook attracts an angry audience

A new report of NewsWhip shows the effects of the new algorithms of Facebook. Findings reveal that “Angry” is the top reaction when it comes to politics content and generally, the engagement is much higher than in 2018. On the algorithm matter, Facebook algorithm personalisation has been discussed during DisinfoLab webinar with Facebook Tracking Exposed. A summary will soon be available on our website.

Authoritarian regimes ready for the New Age of Warfare

The man in charge of Saudi Arabia’s campaign to stifle dissent took actions to spy on people he was considering as threats to the kingdom. Today, in this new age of warfare, internet mercenaries battle for authoritarian government by seizing on the tools for darker purposes.In addition, a report by Reporters Without Borders investigates Beijing’s strategy to control information beyond its borders, which is being a threat for journalism and is challenging western liberal democracy more and more.

EU elections

Good, but can do better

After publishing the second monthly intermediate results of the EU Code of Practice against disinformation, the European Commission urges major social media platforms to take further measures. Although delivering good results, the platforms are now demanded to show key performance indicators and to ban fake accounts in order to prevent the spread of disinformation before the upcoming EU elections.

Moreover, the European Council has adopted its Conclusions on securing free and fair elections and fighting disinformation and urges online platforms and social networks to fully implement the Code of Practice and ensure higher standards of responsibility and transparency.

Spain is getting ready for the elections period

A team of 100 officers from the Spanish Ministry of Interior will scour social networks and the so-called deep-web from early April to fight intentionally misleading or wrongful information before, during or after national and European elections.

EU fact checks of the week

• New initiative FactCheckEU, gathering fact checkers from 19 EU Member States will monitor politicians’ rhetoric and misinformation ahead of the May parliamentary elections.
• Another fact checking initiative to keep in favorites: EUFactCheck, led by journalist students. They have recently proven false the statement of the Dutch right-wing leader Thierry Baudet, about the increased homophobia in the Netherlands caused by uncontrolled immigration and open borders.
• A fake news about free brothels coupons for migrants spread from Germany to Greece.

Library

• European Parliament’s Science and Technology Assessment Panel has published a report drafted by EU DisinfoLab on challenges around the automated tackling of disinformation. (Summary available here).
• A study commissioned by the LIBE Committee of the European Parliament shows how strategic political propaganda through social media can cause a threat to the rule of law in the EU and its Member States.
• Instagram’s recommendation engine has let to anti-vaccine accounts promotion.
• In-depth look at whether the so-called “backfire effect” really exists and what it means for fact checkers.  
• Bellingcat played “Catch me if you can” on Instagram with a fugitive convict from the Netherlands. Thanks to the help of 60 Twitter users, the location of the criminal was revealed.

Calendar and announcements

Congratulations to DW Innovation, Fraun Hofer, and iLab ATC: their project on audio deepfake detection has been awarded by DNI Fund of Google. Here you can find all the DNI-funded projects.

See all past and upcoming events in our agenda

HR Corner

• EU H2020 project EUNOMIA is seeking for a postdoctoral research fellow in data analytics and machine learning for information trustworthiness.
• The Department of Politics and International Relations of the University of Oxford is looking for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Digital News.
• Warsaw Euro-Atlantic Summer Academy have opened its application process for the summer program on the topic of “4Humans, Machines, Politics, Truth”.

Our weekly newsletter on disinformation issues.

You wish to receive this by email? Subscribe here.

On May 28-29 in Brussels, join the community working against disinformation: case studies, civil society initiatives and tools will be presented. Pre-registrations for EU Disinfolab conference are open. Take a look at the agenda.

EU elections: The empire strikes back

On 12th of March, the European Parliament has adopted the amended regulation on the protection of personal data in the context of elections to the European Parliament. The adoption of the final text by the Member States is planned for 19th of March. This text is part of a package for securing free and fair elections. Moreover, in another resolution (a non-binding decision), parliamentarians urge the EU to prepare itself to fight back hostile disinformation campaigns of Russia along with China, Iran and North Korea.

Moreover, the European Data Protection Board has adopted a Statement on the use of personal data in the course of political campaigns and it is to note that today, the 18th of March, the rapid alert system between EU Member States is entering into force.

Can the web be fixed?

In an interview for the 30 years of the internet, Sir Tim Berners-Lee qualifies manipulation of information online as “cybercrime”, that should be combated by a refoundation of the web, updated with fresh legal and technical rules. The inventor of the World Wide Web is urging governments to protect people’s rights and freedoms online by translating laws and regulations for the digital age.

Brexit and far-right supporters: deal or no deal?

Just when the British parliament rejected a no-deal Brexit last week, a study shows how bots and automated tweets have amplified specific messages from a very small number of users during Brexit. According to the study of F-Secure, these tweets mainly came from outside of the UK and from accounts promoting a far-right agenda.Another study of the University of Cambridge and YouGov shows that pro-leavers are more likely to believe at least one conspiracy theory about how the country is run. According to the findings, 47% of leave voters in the UK and 44% of Trump voters in the US believe the government is deliberately hiding the truth about the number of immigrants in their country.

Library

What to read, watch and listen to this week:  

• European Parliament has published a report drafted by EU DisinfoLab on challenges around the automated tackling of disinformation.
• Spain is getting ready for the upcoming elections by creating new special intelligence unit guard against possible cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns. 
• Attacks in New Zealand and how to avoid spreading misinformation and fear mongering.
• Elizabeth Warren has accused Facebook for censoring her posts, while Mrs. Warren did not respect the terms and conditions of the platform.
• Whatsapp will help users find out if an image is real or has been photo-shopped and even learn the background of an unaltered photo that has been stripped of its context.
• Chinese propaganda is now on Reddit.
• The line is too thin between empirical and emotional truth. Read the story about the real reasons behind posting fake news.
• Podcast: Adam Reichardt, Maciek Makulski and Jakub Kalenský discussing the differences between disinformation and misinformation, what the West is doing to combat fake news – all ahead of the May EU parliament elections.

Calendar and announcements 

• March 20 – EU DisinfoLab Webinar with Facebook Tracking Exposed: first initiative showing how Facebook feed algorithm is personalised. Link to video conference can be found here.
• March 21-22 @ Brussels: during EU Council meeting, the heads of state or government will review progress in tackling disinformation and the need to protect the democratic integrity of the European and national elections across the EU.
• March 22 @ Brussels: 30 years of the Web – where do we go next? The event organised as part of the European Commission’s Next Generation Internet initiative.
• March 18-22: European Media Literacy Week. Events will take place across all European member states.

See all past and upcoming events in our agenda

HR Corner

• EU H2020 project EUNOMIA is seeking for a postdoctoral research follow in data analytics and machine learning for information trustworthiness.
• The Department of Politics and International Relations of University of Oxford is looking for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Digital News.
• Specialized in open source reporting, Christiaan Triebert joins the investigative group Bellingcat.

On May 28-29 in Brussels, join the community working against disinformation: case studies, civil society initiatives and tools will be presented. Pre-registrations for EU Disinfolab conference are open. Take a look at the agenda.

Health misinformation online and how to deal with it

The algorithms of Amazon are recommending misinformation conspiracy and anti-vaccine propaganda.  In consequence, people can make harmful purchases that could potentially put their health in danger. The issue of anti-vaccine propaganda is also a particular concern in the United States, where lively hearings were held by the Congress. As described by the New York Times, in Oregon, the hospital stay of a child found to have tetanus due to non-vaccination costs 800 000$. Also under pressure, Facebook, announced they will reduce the visibility of anti-vaccine propaganda.

Alt-right US billionaires funding misinformation campaigns in Europe

Since a few years, a small group of American billionaires, financing the right wing of the Republican Party, have supported campaigns to disseminate false information in several EU countries. Small groups of activists and specialized political communication companies were funded, along with the purchase of ads on social networks to amplify conservative messages (such as the anti-abortion campaign in Ireland).

Regulation from the Atlantic to the Urals

After the white paper release by the British DCMS inquiry committee of the House of Commons earlier this year, the House of Lords released last week its report: “Regulating in the digital world”.The document calls for creation of a new regulation authority, or the extension of Ofcom’s oversight powers to online platforms. In a broader way, the House of Lords considered regulators should be granted responsibility for enforcing a duty of care on those companies.

In the meantime, Russia’s parliament has passed two bills outlawing “disrespect” of authorities and the spreading of what the government deems to be “fake news”, the bill is supposed to be signed by the Russian president on March 13.

Disinfo week

Last week three European capitals: Athens, Madrid and Brussels hosted the Atlantic Council#DisinfoWeek. The events offered a series of strategic dialogues on how to address the challenge of disinformation. Experts and officials from both sides of the Atlantic such as Ben Nimmo, Alina Polyakova, Guillaume Chaslot and Damian Collins shared their analyse and strategies to tackle the phenomenon of disinformation, through AI, debunking storytelling and regulation. Videos of the event can be seen here.

Library

What to read this week:

• Mark Zuckerberg has promised to start working on an updated and more private version of messaging and data sharing on Facebook.
• Google’s decision to ban political ads did not please to the candidates of presidential elections in Canada
• US Ambassador to the EU promised to reinforce transatlantic cooperation on disinformation fight.
• Researchers of Cornell University have proven how the recommender systems of major media platforms can shape people’s mind, create filter bubbles, echo chambers and shift user’s world view.
• The elections in South Africa and how to track bots and fake news in political context.
• Facebook is clearing up inauthentic accounts on Facebook and Instagram platforms: DFR analysis of takedown of suspicious Pakistani owned accounts.
• According to Jochai Ben-Avie, senior global policy manager for Mozilla, India should look at Europe as its model for data privacy GDPR, instead of turning to Chinese-style rules to control citizen’s data.

Calendar and announcement

• March 20 – EU DisinfoLab Webinar: Collecting data to research algorithms personalization. Link to videoconference can be found here.

See all past and upcoming events in our agenda

HR Corner

• EU H2020 project EUNOMIA is seeking for a postdoctoral research follow in data analytics and machine learning for information trustworthiness.

More details, please

The European Commission has published reports by Facebook, Google and Twitter covering the progress made in January 2019 on their commitments to fight disinformation (most of them were expected, as explained in our previous newsletter of 25/02). Homework half-heartedly done because these platforms have not provided enough metrics to clearly measure the results of activities undertaken, especially with the scrutiny of ads placements. Next reports will be published in March 2019 and platforms already have a task assigned. They are expected to implement effective policies to ensure the integrity of electoral process for the European elections due in May 2019. 

Cybersecurity first

As part of the elections integrity toolkit, strong cybersecurity is key to ensuring the transparent functioning of the election system. In this context, the EU cybersecurity agency – ENISA- has released an opinion on the cybersecurity during electoral processes. Among its recommendation, the agency suggests that “Member States should consider introducing national legislation to tackle the challenges associated with online disinformation while protecting to the maximum extent possible the values set down in the Treaty of Lisbon and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU”. 
Last week, Microsoft announced it detected attacks targeting think tanks working on democratic integrity in Europe. As part of its “defending democracy” programme, the company announced it will extend its “AccountGuard” programme in several EU countries in order to provide protection to political candidates, parties and also think tanks and non-profits working on issues related to democracy and electoral integrity.  

Moderation at all costs?

An article published in The Verge rose emotion over the working conditions of content moderators. Major tech platforms outsource content moderation to “process executives” working under difficult management and traumatizing mental conditions. From developing PTSD-like symptoms and even beginning to embrace the fringe viewpoints of the videos and memes, human moderation does have impactful consequences. This raises the issue of content moderation processes that should imply both AI and humans without ultimately being dehumanizing outcomes. A shared framework and guidelines between platforms and contractors could be a strong element of discussion.

Number of the week

77.8% of Europeans said they believed fake news and “politically motivated disinformation” posed a threat to the legitimacy of European elections according to a poll by Yougov for Avaaz. 

Library

What to read this week:

• New podcast Power 3.0 “The intersection of globalization and polarization: a conversation with Moisés Naím”: in this episode, featured guest Moisés Naím discusses how illiberal political actors and authoritarian regimes are leveraging the increasingly complex globalized information space to exploit societal cleavages created by political polarization, employing a problematic mix of media manipulation and disinformation.
• Google says it’s fighting misinformation, but how hard? Mathew Ingram investigates the efforts announced around the media of the company and point several weaknesses, especially regarding Youtube. 
• Facebook won’t renew two-thirds of existing Facebook Watch news shows: Facebook is showing a greater willingness to ax news programming that’s not working on Facebook Watch.
• ‘Deep fake’ videos threaten the world order: Nina Schick argues we must prepare for an age when AI allows anyone with a grudge to create convincing bogus clips.
• Beyond fixing Facebook: authors from Free Press make the case for a taxation supporting innovative journalism.
• Amazon anti-vax problem: how recommendations on Amazon can drive you to conspiracy theories.
• How to build a disinformation business: meet the man behind one of the Czech Republic’s most influential fake-media sites.

Calendar and announcements

• Pre-registrations for EU Disinfolab conference on May 28-29 in Brussels are open Pre-register
• March 4-8 the Atlantic Council is organising its Disinfoweek in Madrid, Brussels and Athens
• March 6 @ European Parliament – David Alandete will present his new book “Fake news: La nueva arma de destrucción masiva”
• Call for papers: Nordic network on the study of online disinformation
• EU project “EU algorithms” is seeking your input on emerging findings and knowledge gaps regarding the relationship between AI and disinfo. 

See all past and upcoming events in our agenda

Platforms progress

Implementation reports from signatories of the EU code of practice are expected to be published by the European Commission this week. Here’s what to expect:

Twitter is expanding transparency around political ads. An ad endorsing a party or a candidate will be viewable in Twitter Ads Transparency Centre, with details such as billing information, ad spend and impressions data per Tweet. Enforcement of this policy will begin on 11 March, after which only certified advertisers will be allowed to run political campaigning ads.

Google has released a white paper on the sidelines of Munich cybersecurity conference. This paper summarizes in a single document the efforts across the products of the company in fighting intentional spread of disinformation. Nothing much new, but a good recap.

Facebook: Also in Munich, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook head of cybersecurity, hold a discussion with DFR Lab Graham Brookie, discussing the importance of industry partnerships.

Zuckerberg fireside chat part II

As expected in his new year wishes, Mark Zuckerberg hosted its first discussion with thinkers on tech and society. In a conversation with Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain, Zuckerberg said that Facebook has been developing private communication tools since the service’s early days at Harvard, and that the company continues to focus on improving them.

Discussing the problem of disinformation on the platform at 0:38, Zuckerberg explains that it should not be up to Facebook to decide what is true or false, a reason why the company relies on the work of fact-checkers. According to him, the challenge is to strike a difficult balance between limiting the spread of misinformation and not positioning itself as arbiter of the truth.

How to cure the virus?

Anti-vaccine theories have been spreading online just as a virus. Information discouraging people from vaccinating their children might indeed have contributed to an increase in several diseases. In fact, the conspiracies on vaccine are getting more engagement on Facebook, despite being fact-checked.

In this context, politicians are trying to pressure social platforms to act and stop recommending such content. Also related to health misinformation, House Democrats are pressing Facebook on the privacy protection it has in place for people who share sensitive health information in groups.

As Google and Facebook struggle on the measures to take, Pinterest has stopped showing vaccination results as it was showing false health claims. Users can still pin fringe images to their own boards, but they can no longer use Pinterest for free viral distribution. This approach can be referred to as “freedom of speech versus freedom of reach.” Casey Newton calls it a perfect r

The reason why Mickey Mouse left Youtube

Youtube has been under growing scrutiny for its recommendation algorithms, which according to some might lead to clickbait videos and conspiracy theories. In the New York Times, Kevin Roose comes back to the booming of conspiracy theories on the platform. Walt Disney withdrew its advertising spending from YouTube, joining other companies including Nestle, after a blogger detailed how comments on Google’s video site were being used to facilitate a “soft-core pedophilia ring.” This move is particularly interesting as advertisers are increasingly scrutinized for their support in the ad economy financing misleading content. (On this issue, join our Webinar on Wednesday to discuss online advertising with Johnny Ryan from Brave).

This reaction happens just when the video service announced it is tweaking its algorithms in the US to “begin reducing recommendations of borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways”.

Library

What to read, watch and listen to this week:

• Coda story has launched its new coverage topic “authoritarian tech”: global reporting on how governments abuse the power and potential of emerging technologies such as AI, facial recognition, digital tracking and social media and will explore how these technologies are strengthening autocratic regimes and stifling dissent.
• How to spot when news is fake? by Naja Bentzen for EP Think Tank.
• The story of activists who managed to manipulate Google to return the Pakistani flag when searching for the key-words “toilet paper” might have been a meme according to Google, who found no evidence of this query.
• An AI that writes convincing prose risks mass-producing fake news: the designers have opted not to release the full results of their research while they pause to consider the ethical implications of the technology.
• Do not trust even if you hear it: WhatsApp audios that are mobs about immigrants: in Spain, Whatsapp is used to share misleading informations about migrants.
• Zeynep Tufekci in Wired: the imperfect truth about finding facts in a world of fakes.
• ‘No image can be taken on face value’: Fake photos flood social media after a terrorist attack in India in Poynter.

Calendar and announcements

• 27 February – Disinfolab Webinar. The ad economy of disinformation: does an alternative model exist? With Johnny Ryan from Brave.
• Call for Nominations – 2019 GUE/NGL Award for Journalists, Whistleblowers and Defenders of the Right to Information: applications until 01/03.
• 19-20 March @ Dresden. Dresden Forum for International Politics 2019: “Participation or Polarisation? Social media and societal peace”.

The EU announced it will make 2.2 Million EUR available for three separate pilot projects in the area of media freedom and pluralism geared at promoting quality journalism and cross-border cooperation between media professionals and media councils in the digital age.

See all past and upcoming events in our agenda

HR Corner

Full Fact is looking for:

• A Designer to strengthen our visual identity
• A Product Manager to overhaul our website
• A Web Developer to refresh our website
• A Policy and Impact Officer to turn our fact checking into action

More open positions in our past newsletters

Westminster final report, still waiting for final answers from Facebook

Today, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons will release its final report on disinformation and “fake news”, concluding an 18 months inquiry. The report will call on the government to launch an independent investigation into foreign interference in British elections since 2014, amid documents showing data mishandling in the context of Brexit referendum. MPs require more transparency in the digital sphere, especially from big tech companies, naming Facebook and its data-sharing business model. The report envisages a new compulsory code of ethics enforced by an independent regulator with statutory powers to launch legal action against Facebook, Google and other social media giants.

The aforementioned Committee has been leading a coalition of elected representatives of 8 countries as an “International Grand Committee”, to promote further cross-border co-operation in tackling the spread of disinformation.

Only the truth, nothing but the truth

Ten European and American personalities (among them former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Dutch ALDE MEP Marietje Schaake and former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen) have released a pledge aimed at countering foreign interference in the next European Elections. The document urges those running for office to promise not to use stolen or falsified data, not to spread doctored audio or video material, to disclose the use of bots in campaigns, to train staff in cybersecurity, and to make campaign financing public. Politico reported that the Spitzenkandidaten of five European party groups have already signed the pledge.

On the same topic, former Facebook public policy Alexander Mäkelä released a guide on tools and best practices for civic engagement on social media, directed to candidates.

To be consumed with moderation

France plans to release a law on hate speech moderation and online harassment. A law strengthening the obligations of social networks in this area will be presented before the end of the first semester. The government is still drafting its copy, but it is already possible to discern the contours of this future text: they are reflected in the action plan of the government against hate in online content, published on Thursday by digital Minister Mounir Mahjoubi. This law would facilitate the reporting of “explicitly illicit content”, that might be put under quarantine. The law might as well introduce a mandatory delay for removal of illicit content as well as an appeal mechanism. A new regulator over online content might also be created. A task force involving several regulators and ministerial experts is currently conducting a collaborative mission with Facebook that might be expanded with other platforms. Even if the project only concerns hate speech, let’s figure out if this law might also be considered as an appropriate regulation to tackle disinformation online content.

Moldova fake story 

Earlier last week, Facebook took down 168 Facebook accounts, 28 Pages and eight Instagram accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behaviour targeting people in Moldova. The pages posted about local news and political issues such as required Russian or English language education and reunification with Romania. They also shared manipulated photos, divisive narratives and satire and impersonated a local fact checking organization’s Page that called out other Pages for spreading fake news. Some of these activities might be linked to employees of the Moldovan government. This campaign happens just when the parliamentary elections will be held on February 28 in the country

Library

• Disinformation campaigns are distorting global news: BBC director-general calls media organisations to take action against disinformation
• A guide to anti-misinformation actions around the world: The sections for Bangladesh, Cambodia, Cameroon, France, Singapore and the United States were updated with the latest news. New entries were created for Canada, Ivory Coast, Thailand and Vietnam.
• I Was A Facebook Fact-Checker. It Was Like Playing A Doomed Game Of Whack-A-Mole: why Snopes and Associated press left the partnership with Facebook
• Draft opinions from committee of the Regions: tackling online disinformation: a European Approach
• Sharing and Discussing News in Private Social Media Groups: using focus groups to study people in private FB & WhatsApp groups around location, work or leisure, Joelle Swart et al find “communication within social media communities whose members consider their ties as weak generally tended to be more news-centred”
• Client-Side Context: A defense against misinformation in the encrypted WhatsApp: this is a proposition to maintain a list of rumours along with corresponding fact-checks, similar to what Facebook uses when identifying misinformation in its news feed.

Calendar and announcements

• 27 February – Disinfolab Webinar: The ad economy of disinformation: does an alternative model exist? With Johnny Ryan from Brave.
• Call for Nominations – 2019 GUE/NGL Award for Journalists, Whistleblowers and Defenders of the Right to Information: applications until 01/03

Open letter to Facebook: A coalition of European academics, technologists and human and digital rights groups, led by Mozilla, has signed an open letter to the company demanding far greater transparency about how Facebook’s platform distributes and amplifies political ads ahead of elections to the European Parliament which will take place in May.

YouTube: won’t the earth be flat anymore?

Google-owned video service announced it is tweaking its algorithms to “begin reducing recommendations of borderline content and content that could misinform users in harmful ways—such as videos promoting a phony miracle cure for a serious illness, claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11.” For the time being, the change will be operated gradually and will only affect recommendations of a very small set of videos in the United State. “It is a great victory”, former Youtube engineer Guillaume Chaslot commented.

Trolls are humans too

Inspired by her research on the Internet Research Agency interference during the 2016 US campaign, Camille François tried to find out the humans behind the trolls. She talked to some of the actual persons who worked on these influence campaigns. What she discovered could help countries fight foreign-sponsored attempts to influence elections in the future.

“This number is no longer in service”

In a white paper on “stopping abuse” published last week in India, Whatsapp says it has been deleting 2 millions accounts per months in an effort to hinder the spread of disinformation. The company had discovered examples of “attackers” rigging hardware to be able to control several accounts simultaneously. Others used emulators to run multiple accounts on the same computer. One giveaway was that messages sent by automated accounts rarely displayed a “typing” status. Suspicious accounts also tended to send high volumes of messages soon after registering.

Matt Jones, who leads anti-spam engineering team in the company said that WhatsApp had seen evidence in earlier Indian state elections of a major party appearing to create multiple groups of voters based on demographic data.

Oooh Canada

The federal government of Canada has unveiled a series measures aimed at protecting Canada’s electoral system from foreign interference and enhancing Canada’s readiness to defend the democratic process from cyber threats and disinformation. This will be done through a “Critical Election Incident Public Protocol” that will be overseen by a working group of five senior level non-political government officials. This “Bill C-76” also gives Canada’s Elections Commissioner new powers to conduct investigations into election interference and compels social media platforms to create databases of their advertising during the campaign.

Duty of care

The British government has signalled it will make social media firms sign a legally binding code of conduct that imposes on them a duty of care towards young users. Margot James, the minister for digital and creative industries, announced the measures during her speech at the Safer Internet Day conference. The British government will be bringing forward laws to tackle social media giants in the coming weeks.

Library

• How did normal get so weird? a podcast with Peter Pomerantsev
• Lies spread faster than the truth: published in Science, this study from MIT concludes that The degree of novelty and the emotional reactions of recipients may be responsible for the differences observed.
• To this study, Poynter reacts that journalists need to get better at covering studies about fake news as too often the evidence that is starting to trickle out from academia is being trivialized and distorted.
• Partisanship, Propaganda and Post-Truth Politics: Quantifying Impact in Online: in the Brexit debate, misinformation from politicians was 10 times more impactful than Russian bots
• Bellingcat Chemical Weapons and Absurdity: The Disinformation Campaign Against the White Helmets: disinformation story against the Syrian Civil Defense.
• Why Fears of Fake News Are Overhyped: Brendan Nyham comes back to the known extent of the problem and analyses a drop-off in fake news since 2016.

Agenda and announcements

• February 11 @ Brussels – Europe votes 2019: How to unmask and fight online manipulation organised by European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS)
• February 14 @ Washington DC – NATO Malicious Use of Social Media : From Russian Disinformation to the Black Market of Manipulation Services

HR corner

• Avaaz is building up its team for a European elections project. Find the job descriptions here.
• Reboot is seeking eight consultants across Nigeria to work on a project aimed at understanding the misinformation and disinformation on closed messaging apps in Nigeria.
• Poynter has been awarded a $5 million grant from Craig Newmark Philanthropies to establish the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership.

Exams

Last week was the first exam session for the signatories of the EU code of practice. This week’s newsletter will come back to the first reports by the signatories (Google, Twitter, Facebook, Mozilla and trade associations representing the advertising industry), presenting their efforts to comply with their commitments. 

Facebook (link to Facebook’s report)

• Will extend the transparency on political advertising already in place in the US, Brazil, and UK. The person paying for the ad will need to confirm its location and identity. The ads will be archived for seven years.
• Will strengthen the verification process of content authenticity and detection of fake accounts.
• Will continue to rely on a network of fact-checkers to detect false stories and will promote trusted content in the News Feed.
• Will establish a European research advisory commission to award research identified as relevant to the Academic community.

Google (link to Google’s report)

• Has already implemented obligations for advertisers to comply with policies against misrepresentation complemented by a “valuable inventory policy”. In 2019, the company should provide additional metrics specific to EU member states and upgrade implementation mechanisms before the European elections.
• Regarding political ads in the context of EU elections, Google will also introduce an election-ads transparency report and searchable ad library in a downloadable format.
• The company also underlines its efforts to surface fact-check content and support projects to surface indicators of credibility. 

• Hired dedicated staff to work on disinformation project.
• Will roll out a new version of Firefox with additional privacy settings and tracking protection targeted to reduce user’s exposure to disinformation campaigns. A specific version including relevant add-ons should be released in March.
• Mozilla foundation also recruited a cohort specifically working on disinformation issues

Mozilla (link to Mozilla’s report)

• Hired dedicated staff to work on disinformation project.
• Will roll out a new version of Firefox with additional privacy settings and tracking protection targeted to reduce user’s exposure to disinformation campaigns. A specific version including relevant add-ons should be released in March.
• Mozilla Foundation also recruited a cohort specifically working on disinformation issues.

According to Mozilla, Facebook ad archive doesn’t provide enough technical feature to allow third-party to efficiently use their data to provide apps that would bring more transparency to political targeting. Mozilla is currently developing an add-on to its Firefox browser that would analyse ad targeting on Facebook.

Twitter (link to Twitter’s report)

• Also underlines its ad policy, draws attention to its annual transparency report and ads transparency centre launched in 2018. Promoted content are also clearly labelled as such.
• Twitter will continue its efforts to address spam, malicious automation, and fake accounts.
• In terms of support to the research community, Twitter released account suspected of information operations and provides support to organisations focusing on the European environment (including EU Disinfolab, which received support from Twitter in 2018).

Advertising trade associations (reports from World Federation of Advertisers, European Association of Communication Agencies and Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe)

When it comes to the trade associations representing the advertising sector, they committed to raise awareness about the Code amongst their members. But one can regret the absence of corporate signatories, while brands and advertisers should play a greater role in the efforts to demonetize purveyors of disinformation.

Commission wants more efforts

At a conference in Brussels, European Commissioner for digital affairs Mariya Gabriel welcomed the efforts made by the signatories of the code of practice but stressed remaining weaknesses to be improved ahead of the upcoming European elections in May:

• Most of the initiatives are deployed only in some members states
• The platform’s mostly commit on transparency over political ads
• KPIs should be detailed for each member states
• Support to research should be strengthened
• Users should be empowered with relevant tools

The Commissioner also announced a week dedicated to media literacy in March.

Such efforts by tech companies should be welcomed and supported. From our perspective, we still regret a lack of transparent access to data from several actors. As each of the signatories are focusing on political advertising transparency, and repositories of political ads, we can regret the lack of harmonisation in this matter, as a common repository would help analyse cross-platforms campaigns.

Library

• Researchers at Cardiff University will study the rise of online alternative political media and public attitudes towards mainstream media.  The three-year project will investigate the production, content and consumption of both left and right-wing alternative online political media.
• Facebook restricts campaigners’ ability to check ads for political transparency: Social media network says the change was part of a crackdown on third party plug-ins
• Could ‘fake news’ be good news for journalism? What is the future of journalism in a world of ‘fake news’, social media and citizen journalism? LSE professor Charlie Beckett takes a look.
• Disinformation and democracy: The home front in the information war: In this Discussion Paper, Paul Butcher assesses the various efforts that have been made to fight the spread of disinformation and finds that the results are mixed

Agenda and announcements

ASD seeking input on a study on institutionalizing hybrid threat response. Take part to the survey

HR corner

• The world wide web foundation has open positions as policy manager and communication officer.