Posts in category: Newsletter

You wish to receive this by email? Subscribe here.

A bad week for OSINT

For journalists, fact-checkers and NGO’s using Open-Source information to document disinformation, war crimes and propaganda, last week has just been hell. Just after Michael Bazzell’s website was hacked, forcing the very useful (and free) IntelTechniques tools to be removed (more info here on Michael’s podcast), Facebook also took a decisive step against OSINT community. 

By cutting off its Graph search tools, Facebook didn’t leave any possibility for the fact-checkers and journalists to search for public posts around keywords or UID. Meanwhile, Facebook also published a paper last week on preserving privacy while fostering meaningful research on elections and democracy. The company is describing some of the approaches it is taking towards external contributions on this issue.

To look at the first impact on the civil society: Nick Waters from Bellingcat had to launch a call for help on Twitter in order to document air strikes in Yemen. Facebook commented its decision saying they “paused” these features because they want to improve keywords search. This last move from Facebook raises many questions around how civil-society can act as a counter-power to assess accountability of malicious actors on platforms. A topic that will surely be heavily discussed at RightsCon this week in Tunis. Our workshop on building cross-expertise to fight disinformation is scheduled on Thursday 2 PM. Feel free to join.

EU vs Disinformation

A mysterious online campaign targeting leading European Commission presidential candidates Weber and Timmermans was featured on Google and Facebook, despite breaching both companies’ rules on political advertising. In fact, social media channels have witnessed numerous disinformation campaigns targeting the EU candidates. We have collected several reports related to the European parliamentary elections on this resources webpage. Additionally, an analysis of BBC Newsnight has illustrated how disinformation was spread in Facebook groups during the EU elections. The EU Observer has published six takeaways on digital disinformation at EU elections. It is to note that the upcoming EU DisinfoLab Webinar with ISD Global will elaborate on “Propaganda and Digital Campaigning in the EU Elections“. Join us on 20th of June at 16:00 CEST following this link.

Falling in the Deepfake

The development of new technologies and software tools does not seem to be always force for good. Today, with the latest examples of deepfake technology, users can add, delete, or change the words coming right out of somebody’s mouth. Scientists have shown that creating realistic fakes is becoming easier every day by designing a new technique to produce AI deepfakes that only requires entering in the text you want the person to say. The Witness Media Lab has explained the 11 things we can do now to prepare for deepfakes. Dr. Regina Rini, referring to the deepfake video of Nancy Pelosi in an opinion piece for the New York Times says: “You should only trust a recording if you would trust the word of the person producing it.”

Library

• The EU DisinfoLab has published its article on the Media Literacy session of the EU DisinfoLab Annual Conference that took place on 29/09. The session was part of the European project ‘Open Your Eyes‘. 
• The publicly available presentations of speakers of the EU DisinfoLab conference and a selection of photos are available here.
• Social media platforms have become overrun with fake news, creating the need for smart AI-based filters to separate fact from fiction.
• Fact-checkers launch Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram stickers to gently warn about false news.
• The Global Disinformation Index has published its Weekly Reading List.
• Twitter has entirely rewritten its policies on Platform Manipulation and Spam.
• Naturalnews, a far-right conspiracy website promoting vaccine disinformation and mass arrests of the left, was banned by Facebook.
• Nigeria’s “Fake News” Ecosystem: The exponential growth in use and availability of mobile phones with access to the Internet, as well as the sheer amount of information accessible online, has made filtering out false information difficult.

Calendar and announcements  

• 11-12 June @ Riga: Riga Stratcom Dialogue 2019.
• 13 June at 2:15pm – 3:30pm @ Tunis: Session on “How to build civil society cross-expertise in response to disinformation” hosted by EU DisinfoLab at RightsCon Summit.
• 19-20 June @ UNESCO Headquarters in Paris: 63rd meeting of the International Programme for the Development of Communication.
• 20-21 June @ London: DFR Lab Digital Sherlocks 360/OS.
• 25 June @ Brussels, European Parliament: #MEDIA4DEMOCRACY: Strategy for media ecosystem 2019-2024, with ‘Democracy Commissioner’ and ‘MEP media intergroup‘.
• KnightFoundation launches its podcast series that examines how museums and cultural institutions are evolving to keep pace with a changing world.

EU DisinfoLab Annual Conference; Is Facebook a dictatorship?

First glance at disinformation around the EU elections; Call me maybe?; Are you coming to the EU DisinfoLab Annual Conference?

April edition of the EU Code of Practice against disinformation; International call for action on content moderation; Platforms fighting anti-vaccination propaganda.

Reconsidering a business model? Who are the judges?

Populist believing on conspiracies; rating disinformation; fact-checking monopoly?

Last week, the major online platforms have published their monthly report on the EU Code of Practice against disinformation.

Elections coming, ads leaving; It’s Mueller’s time!; Hoaxes around the Lady of Paris.

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 updated agenda.

They don’t stop to intervene

Recently, media channels have reported numerous cases when foreign entities have tried to influence internal policies in the context of elections. For instance, Alyza Sebenius has revealed how Russian internet trolls appear to be shifting strategy in their efforts to disrupt the 2020 U.S. elections or influence the upcoming elections in Finland. In the context of the presidential elections in Israel, Twitter has also suspended dozens of Hebrew-language accounts run by a strange Chinese religious sect. Even though the Communications Security Establishment’s Report did not refer to any specific threat from Russia, Foreign Minister of Canada has recently expressed her concerns about possible Russian meddling in this October’s elections. Lastly, a BBC investigation has revealed that at least six candidates were offered money by Russians in the lead up to last year’s presidential elections in Madagascar.

UK news

While negotiating the new Brexit deadline which is now set for Halloween 2019, the UK Government Communication Service has published guidance for government departments to tackle disinformation. Nowadays, governments communications troops need to be well equipped for battle in the escalating disinformation war. After the UK government has released the Online Harms White Paper last week, The Guardian has published a critical opinion of six civil liberties organisations’ representatives explaining how the UK White paper would make China’s state censors proud and would give the UK the widest and most prolific internet censorship in an apparently functional democracy.

You can be better, better 

Facebook is taking actions to manage problematic content across the Facebook family of apps. The platform has also announced sweeping changes to its anti-misinformation policies. This includes reducing the reach of groups that repeatedly spread misinformation, exploring the use of crowdsourcing to determine which news outlets users trust most and adding new indicators to Messenger, groups and News Feed to inform users about the content they’re seeing. Meanwhile, in his recent article, Henk van Ess from Bellingcat explains how you can verify content on Instagram using 10 specific tools.

EU elections news and fact checks of the week

• Data Analyst Luca Hammer has started a continuous Twitter thread about the upcoming EUelections.
• The news site called V4NA was registered in London in December 2018, by the director of Duna TV, which is a Hungarian media channel close to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. 
• With the EU elections approaching, right-wing populists are being offered help from Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon. In filmmaker Alison Klayman’s ‘The Brink’, viewers will follow Bannon through the 2018 midterm elections in the US, and how he mobilizes far-right parties in order to win seats in the May 2019 European Parliamentary elections.
• FactCheckEU has explained false claims about the deployment of soldiers during French Yellow Vests protests.
• EUFactCheck has proven right the news that Britain began issuing passports without the words “European Union” on the cover.

Library

• Blogger Wishcrys has traced the forms and mechanics of K-pop fan labour involved in generating or refuting misinforming content online.
• WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange was arrested last Thursday, almost seven years after he sought refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy.
• For the first time since 1848, Switzerland’s Supreme Court has ordered a revote in a referendum. Country’s highest court has explained that voters were informed erroneously by the Federal Council before voting on different points and that the revote was a necessity.
• To reduce the number of its old stories that get recirculated as new, The Guardian is making a story’s age more prominent, both to readers and to those who might only see a link on social media without clicking through.

Calendar and announcements 

• The Bad News Game is now live in 13 different languages, and most of them have junior versions.
• 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.
• 28-29 May @ Brussels: The program of the Annual EU DisinfoLab Conference has been updated. Check it out here and don’t forget to pre-register.
• 6-7 June @ Brussels: Annual Conference on European Media Law 2019.
• 19-20 June @ UNESCO Headquarters in Paris: 63rd meeting of the International Programme for the Development of Communication.
• 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”.

See all past and upcoming events in our agenda

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.