Content and Tactics

Communalytic is a computational social science research tool for studying online communities and discourse. This resource uses advanced text and social network analysis techniques to automatically pinpoint toxic and anti-social interactions, detect bots, assess posts’ sentiments, identify influencers, map shared interests and the spread of misinformation, and detect signs of possible coordination among seemingly disparate actors.

There are two versions:

This working group for electoral management bodies was established to tackle challenges presented by social media and disinformation to the electoral process in May 2021. With nearly 50 election officials from 13 countries in the Eastern Partnership and Western Balkans, the group provides EMBs a platform for continued peer learning, skill-building, and developing best practices.  

A global call to action to raise awareness to stop violence against women in politics.

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This project seeks to understand the health of the UK online information ecosystem, including tracking the spread of divisive and misleading content.

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Supports original research into disinformation vulnerability and resilience with public opinion research, analytical pieces, narrative monitoring, and mainstream and social media monitoring, both in house and in collaboration with local partners in Europe.

(Copied from website)

The Share the Facts widget provides a new way for readers to share fact-check articles and spread them virally across the Internet. The compact Share the Facts box summarizes the claim being checked and the fact-checkers’ conclusion in a mobile-friendly format. The widgets have a consistent look but can be customized with the fact-checkers’ logos and ratings, such as Pinocchios or the Truth-O-Meter.

REVEAL aims to advance the necessary technologies for making a higher level analysis of social media possible. The project will enable users to reveal hidden ‘modalities’ such as reputation, influence or credibility of information.

PubliElectoral is a technological tool of social interest that allows the collection
of information related to electoral advertising on social networks without affecting the privacy of citizen users. PubliElectoral is an extension (or plug-in) that is downloaded and installed in the internet browser (computer or desktop). When the user browses a Facebook page, it detects the political advertisements that are shown according to their profile and stores them in a database, so that later the team of the Association for Civil Rights (ADC) can contrast them and analyze.

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.

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.