Research

NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence

The NATO StratCom COE, based in Riga, Latvia, contributes to improved strategic communications capabilities within the Alliance and Allied nations. Strategic communication is an integral part of the efforts to achieve the Alliance’s political and military objectives, thus it is increasingly important that the Alliance communicates in an appropriate, timely, accurate and responsive manner on its evolving roles, objectives and missions.

Myth Detector is Media Development Foundation’s (MDF) project aimed at debunking fake news and studying propaganda methods and strategies revealed in Georgian language media. It is mostly fact checking in the Georgian media environment but also includes a media literacy component.

This system shows the most shared image, video, audio, messaging, and URLs content across over 300 WhatsApp public groups daily. Such groups are open groups, accessible through invitation links that are published on websites as well as on various social networks like Facebook and Twitter. In this way, the system views which images, memes and news are more frequent in the chats of the Brazilians. We hope that this system will make all information shared by Brazilians in public WhatsApp groups more transparent.

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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.

Disinformation, misinformation, and “fake news” are longstanding phenomena that, in the wake of the digital revolution, have become newly politicized and consequential. Citizens around the world have instant access to a vast variety of information – some of which is purposely misleading or manufactured for political ends. The known uses of disinformation include coordinated campaigns aimed at influencing elections and undermining democratic processes. In response to these developments, new research on mis- and disinformation is rapidly emerging from a range of academic disciplines.

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.

Hoaxy is a tool that visualizes the spread of articles online. Articles can be found on Twitter, or in a corpus of claims and related fact checking.

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HabLatam is a regional project in Latin America that will be implemented in its first phase in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Colombia . Through it, the following is sought:
- Obtain and publish quality data in an open and accessible way, on the daily practices and perceptions of youths regarding their digital skills and content gaps.
- Develop and implement innovative and participatory methods that capture the perspectives, practices and skills of young people, avoiding adult-centered gazes and practices.

The Global Disinformation Index (GDI) aims to disrupt, defund and down-rank disinformation sites. We collectively work with governments, business and civil society. We operate on three core principles of neutrality, independence and transparency.

Their mission is to catalyse change within the tech industry to disrupt the incentives to create and disseminate disinformation online.

Today, we need access to the truth more than ever before. But in this polluted information environment, it’s never been harder to know what to trust, and never easier to be misled. Misinformation is targeting and damaging our communities, all around the world.

At First Draft, our mission is to protect communities from harmful misinformation. We work to empower society with the knowledge, understanding, and tools needed to outsmart false and misleading information.