Building Civil Society Capacity to Mitigate and Counter Disinformation

MozCheck is the first fact checking organization in Mozambique. Since December 2017, the team of volunteers has published verifications of electoral promises of the President of the Republic on social networks (Facebook and Twitter). In the coming months and years, MozCheck intends to check electoral promises of more Mozambican politicians from different party affiliations and levels of action. It also intends to develop other projects in the area of fact checking.

The Technology & Social Change Group (TASCHA) at the University of Washington's Information School explores the role of digital technologies in building more open, inclusive, and equitable societies. They are a center for multidisciplinary research, currently focusing on data equity, essential skills for digital life, women and technology, civic engagement, new geographies of knowledge, and public libraries. They are particularly interested in people and places that face social, economic, and political barriers.

Misinformation Detector is a "decentralized trust protocol" tool that tracks news credibility. The tool analyzes media content as well as how the information spreads. The tool then gives the news organization trust rankings. This fact checking tool also allows journalists and publishers to work with and be partners with the organization.

(Copied by website)

Mediabugs is an organization for reporting errors and problems with media coverage and journalism. The tool contacts journalists after users say there is an error in their stories in order to hopefully correct the stories. The tool allows for conversations about the errors and allows others to more easily identify disinformation.
(Independently writtten)

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC), founded in 2015, is an independent online media outlet. MBFC is dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices.

MBFC’s aim is to inspire action and a rejection of overtly biased media. We want to return to an era of straight forward news reporting.

MBFC follows a strict methodology for determining the biases of sources. Dave Van Zandt is the primary editor for sources. He is assisted by a collective of volunteers who assist in research for many sources listed on these pages.

Real411 was created to give all citizens the power to report digital disinformation during the run up to the 2019 South African National and Provincial Elections. When individuals report to the Real411, they are reporting to the Electoral Commission’s (IEC) Directorate for Electoral Offences. The IEC will rule on acts of disinformation for appropriate action to be taken.

Media Matters for Pakistan is a web based initiative, designed to act as an informal watchdog over the mainstream media in Pakistan. This platform aims to highlight issues of ethics and ideology in the mainstream media content. We aim to develop a counter narrative to the exceedingly right-wing, moral policing based programming that has taken hold of the media.

The Media Manipulation Initative takes a sociotechnical approach to understanding the social, political, and economic incentives to game information systems, websites, platforms, and search engines—especially in cases where the attackers intend to destabilize democratic, social, and economic institutions. Through empirical research, they identify the unintended consequences of socio-technical systems and track attempts to locate and address threats, with an eye towards increasing organizational capacity across fields, so that action can be taken as problems emerge.

Media literacy helps us understand, analyze and create media. While we rely on good journalism to provide accurate information, we also have responsibilities of our own in this media-saturated environment. We can no longer be passive consumers of media. We need to be active users of media, as readers, listeners, viewers and creators, so we are all better informed. Our goal is to help you do just that.

Never before has the need for News Literacy been more urgent. As news consumers are bombarded with a constant stream of fake news, propaganda, hoaxes, rumors, satire, and advertising — that often masquerade as credible journalism — it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. While the public’s faith in the news media erodes, purveyors of misinformation have helped give rise to troubling cultural trends and alarming political movements.