Building Civil Society Capacity to Mitigate and Counter Disinformation

The African Academy for Open Source Investigations (AAOSI) is an initiative supporting media and NGOs in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Senegal to identify and address problematic behaviour in the information space. The initiative will supply training and mentorship, as well as resources and support from the ICFJ's other teams and partners.
 

Leading up to and following the Kenyan election on August 9 2022, the Sentinel Project is expanding its previous work in the area, from Una Hakika to 15 of Kenya's highest risk counties. The project is monitoring, verifying, and countering the spread of harmful rumors and misinformation, and setting up an early warning system for violence.

Annir is a non-partisan digital initiative specialized in raising awareness about Media & Information Literacy and Digital Safety. Annir works on creating safer digital spaces for Libyan internet users through promoting the culture of verification, critical analysis of content on the network and encouraging responsible information sharing. Annir also conducts factchecking and reports local harmful content to social media platforms.

Mnemonic is an NGO dedicated to archiving, investigating and memorializing digital information documenting human rights violations and international crimes. Mnemonic also provides trainings, conducts research, engages in content moderation advocacy, and develops tools to support advocacy, justice and accountability.

Center for Media Research – Nepal (CMR Nepal) is an autonomous, research and policy-oriented, not-for-profit non-governmental policy think tank registered with Nepal Government and Social Welfare Council  and is based in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.

CMR-Nepal’s main focus is to enhance the knowledge content of policy making and media development by conducting researches aimed at informing Nepal’s policymakers and media stakeholders.

Within the disinformation and memory studies direction, the Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) team is developing tools in several ways. Firstly, IDFI research historical roots and disinformation narratives that are weaponized in contemporary times. Secondly, IDFI develops academic courses that are offered to the students in schools of media and social sciences, and to representatives of CSOs and civil servants.

The implementation period for Suara Masyarakat (SM) or ‘Community Voices’ in Bahasa Malaysia, officially began in January 2020. SM is a three-year project funded by the EU and implemented by Internews in Malaysia together with local partners to build the capacity of Malaysian journalists to deliver high quality investigative and data journalism on the reform processes in the country. Moreover, SM aims to develop community information media and networks to improve governance by providing two-way communication between citizens and local authorities mainly through ‘MOJO Kita!

The USAID-funded Media Program in Ukraine will empower local media to expand Ukrainian citizens’ access to high-quality news and information. This project, implemented by Internews from 2018-2023, is the largest media development activity in Ukraine’s history, and represents a significant US $35m investment in Ukraine’s independent media sector. The last four years have seen a raft of important media reforms in the realms of access to information, transparency of media ownership and public service broadcasting.

A report analyzing the online environment and potential risks for the 2021 German Federal Elections. It studies topics ranging from online advertising, hate speech, disinformation and foreign interference. The end of the report provides recommendations for improvements and regulations in each category. 

Rooted in Trust is a pandemic information response plan countering the unprecedented scale and speed of the spread of rumors and misinformation about COVID-19. The plan is global in reach and grounded in hyper-local information ecosystems in the Philippines, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Mali, Sudan, the Central African Republic and Colombia to ensure impact on the global level and on the local level directly in vulnerable communities affected by humanitarian crises.