Alto Analytics (2019). Public digital debate ahead of EU parliamentary elections
Data analysis company Alto Analytics conducted a study to understand the public debate at the time of the 2019 elections. Themes such as immigration, Islam, Brexit, and the Yellow Vest Movement, were among the pressing issues.
Avaaz (2019). Far-right Networks of Deception
Avaaz uncovered that far-right and anti-EU groups had weaponised social media to spread false and hateful content. The study led to the taking down of dozens of Facebook pages around Europe, which were seen over half a billion times over the election campaign period.
Claire Wardle (2017). ‘Fake news, it’s complicated’
A useful overview to understand the current information ecosystem.
EU DisinfoLab for the European Parliamentary Research Service (2019). Automated tackling of disinformation
This study maps and analyses current and future threats from online misinformation, alongside currently adopted socio-technical and legal approaches. The challenges of evaluating their effectiveness and practical adoption are also discussed.
Fallis (2015). What is Disinformation?
This paper surveys the various analyses of the concept of disinformation that have been proposed by information scientists and philosophers.
Frau-Meigs (2018). Societal costs of fake news in the digital single market, a study requested by the IMCO Committee, European Parliament (PE 626.087)
This study explores the mechanisms of “fake news” and their societal costs to the Digital Single Market.
Innes (2019). The Internet Research Agency in Europe 2014-2016
This report documents the scale of Russian interference in European democracies and is evidence of the Kremlin-backed Internet Research Agency’s long-term interest in European politics and elections.
Institut Montaigne (2019). MEDIA POLARIZATION ‘À LA FRANÇAISE’? Comparing the French and American Ecosystems
This is a comparative analysis of the French and American ecosystems and the polarisation of their media. The report notes that the polarisation of the French media space is less aligned with political actors than that of American media, due to the multiplicity of political actors in France.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (2019). 2019 EU Elections Information Operations Analysis: Interim Briefing Paper
This paper addresses the groups and parties behind the malign influence operations active in the 2019 EU elections and analyses the techniques they use. It also assesses the record of the tech companies in addressing these threats to electoral integrity
Konstantinovskiy et al. (2018). Towards automated fact-checking: developing an annotation schema and benchmark for consistent automated claim detection
In an effort to assist fact-checkers in the process of fact-checking, the authors tackle the claim detection task, one of the necessary stages prior to determining the veracity of a claim. The authors develop an annotation schema and a benchmark for automated claim detection that is more consistent across time, topics and annotators than previous approaches.
Marwick and Lewis (2017). Media manipulation and disinformation online
The study analyses how internet subcultures take advantage of the current media ecosystem to manipulate news frames, set agendas, and propagate ideas.
McNamee (2019). ‘Zucked – Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe‘
The New York Times bestseller about a noted tech venture capitalist, early mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, and Facebook investor, who wakes up to the serious damage Facebook is doing to our society – and sets out to try to stop it.
Oxford Internet Institute (2019). Junk News During the EU Parliamentary Elections: Lessons from a Seven-Language Study of Twitter and Facebook
By analysing tweets with hashtags on EU elections, the Oxford Internet Institute found that the majority of news pieces shared on the elections came from mainstream news outlets. The study also focuses on junk news networks in Europe.
Polyakova and Fried (2019). Democratic Defence Against Disinformation
This paper analyses the rapid development of policy responses of governments and social media companies to the challenge of disinformation.
Ramsay and Robertshaw (2019). Weaponising news: RT, Sputnik and targeted disinformation
The report comprises of a comprehensive analysis of how Russian state-linked news outlets play a variety of roles in different situations, ranging from coordinating damage-control messaging to amplifiers of Russian prestige and aggregators of negative content about Western domestic politics.
Shore, Baek, and Dellarocas (2016). Network structure and patterns of information diversity on Twitter
The authors seek to prove whether Twitter’s network structure facilitates online echo chambers by analysing hyperlinks posted on Twitter.
Tucker et al. (2018). Social media, political polarization, and political disinformation: A review of the scientific literature
The article presents an overview of the current state of the literature on the relationship between social media; political polarization; and political “disinformation.
Valenzuela et al. (2019). The Paradox of Participation Versus Misinformation: Social Media, Political Engagement, and the Spread of Misinformation
In this study, the authors argue that the effects of informational uses of social media on political participation are inextricable from its effects on misinformation sharing.
Wardle and Herakhshan (2017). Information Disorder: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policymaking, Council of Europe DGI
This report attempts to comprehensively examine information disorder and its related challenges, such as filter bubbles and echo chambers.
