World Update: will Trump’s hurricane disinformation counter Harris’s media blitz?: The next phase of the US election campaign is coming right at us and it’s even nastier than the last. As hurricanes Milton and Helene rolled in to Florida and North Carolina and at least four other states, bringing tornadoes, storm surges, and miles of …
Five disinformation tactics Russia is using to try to influence the US election: The White House’s recent exposure of Russian attempts to influence this year’s US presidential election will come as little surprise to anyone who followed disinformation tactics during the last US election. During the 2020 campaign, the Kremlin used its state-sponsored media outlets, …
In 2024, we’ll truly find out how robust our democracies are to online disinformation campaigns: I'm Friday / Shutterstock Disinformation, sharing false information to deceive and mislead others, can take many forms. From edited “deepfake” videos made on smartphones to vast foreign-led information operations, politics and elections show how varied disinformation can be. Hailed as …
Deepfakes and disinformation swirl ahead of Indonesian election – podcast: A screenshot from a deepfake video shared on X purporting to show former Indonesian President Suharto. Erwin Aksa via X Indonesia, the world’s third-largest democracy, goes to the polls on February 14 to elect a new president. It’s one of the largest elections to take …
I watched hundreds of flat-Earth videos to learn how conspiracy theories spread – and what it could mean for fighting disinformation: Darryl Fonseka / Shutterstock Around the world, and against all scientific evidence, a segment of the population believes that Earth’s round shape is either an unproven theory or an elaborate hoax. Polls by YouGov …
The mathematics of human behaviour: how my new model can spot liars and counter disinformation: Maths can describe how we update our views to make a decision based on the information available. Triff/Shutterstock Understanding the human mind and behaviour lies at the core of the discipline of psychology. But to characterise how people’s behaviour changes …
Why public trust in elections is being undermined by global disinformation campaigns: Public trust in elections is being undermined by disinformation campaigns. Shutterstock Public trust in elections is being targeted around the world by a series of disinformation campaigns from a range of international players. This is giving rise to an increasing lack of trust …
Tackling COVID disinformation with empathy and conversation: The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by an “infodemic” of false information and conspiracy theories since the virus first emerged nearly two years ago. Exposure to misinformation can reduce plans to get vaccinated, and may potentially put more people at risk. This tension between those who are vaccinated …
South Africa in the news: ‘Soviet disinformation in Indian newspaper echoed for decades’ (Book Review): The Soviets used an Indian newspaper in 1983 to spread disinformation that the AIDS virus had been invented by the US military as a “biological weapon to kill black and gay men” and this echoed for …: “South Africa” – …
Cultural factors are behind disinformation pandemic: why this matters: To contain and mitigate the virus of misinformation needs multi-levelled, socio-cultural approaches. GettyImages The prevalence of disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic has prompted Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn that: We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an …