"Disinformation existed in the past, but the growing ubiquity of social media grants political actors increasing capacity to spread dangerous rhetoric and imagery in their pursuit of power. Incendiary content has the potential to catalyze mob violence, riots, and vigilantes taking the law into their ... own hands. Disinformation and fostered distrust in legitimate news sources can lead to threats and violence against journalists, further undermining the institutions that could provide accurate information. In the cases we discuss here—the U.S.-Mexico border, India and Sri Lanka, and three Latin American 2018 elections—disinformation inflamed existing cleavages and caused violence. While these illustrative cases are spread across the world, and the violence in each place is related to distinct histories, close analysis highlights five common challenges for addressing disinformation in areas vulnerable to violence. These common challenges include: • The growing ubiquity of social media, usually combined with low trust in traditional forms of media, creating a situation in which disinformation can spread quickly. • Low or declining trust in government institutions, causing a rise in vigilantism—which social media encourages and fuels. • Low levels of media literacy, and sometimes also low levels of general literacy, among perpetrators who do not have consistent access to formal school systems. • No transparency in social media company policies, making it difficult to evaluate and improve upon content moderation policies that could quell or spur violence. • Finally, government actors that could legislate change have an interest using disinformation to their own ends." (Page 2) more

"The scale of the Internet’s underworld is immense. The number of non-indexed web sites, known as the Deep Web, is estimated to be 400 to 500 times larger than the surface web of indexed, searchable web sites. And the Deep Web is where the dark side of the Internet flourishes. While there are plen ... ty of law-abiding citizens and well-intentioned individuals (such as journalists, political dissidents, and whistleblowers) who conduct their online activities below the surface, the part of the Deep Web known as the Darknet has become a conduit for illegal and often dangerous activities. This policy brief outlines what the Deep Web and Darknet are, how they are accessed, and why we should care about them. For policymakers, the continuing growth of the Deep Web in general and the accelerated expansion of the Darknet in particular pose new policy challenges." (Summary) more