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Disinformation in Georgia

Koba Turmanidze (ed.)

Caucasus Analytical Digest, issue 145 (2026), 24 pp.

"One highly at-risk cluster is defined by socio-economic and geographic disadvantages. Vulnerability is greater among women, rural residents, and those with lower education and income, according to Bandzeladze and Chkhetiani. The authors further highlight that women living in rural areas with lower ... levels of education and income are collectively most at risk, as assessed by their ability to recognize information correctly. Similarly, Atchaidze and Fabos found that individuals living in rural settlements and those with lower reported income were most likely to receive low scores on the media literacy index, often inaccurately identifying answers as true or false, particularly on themes related to EU integration. A critical finding regarding vulnerability relates to ethnic minorities. The study by Atchaidze and Fabos demonstrated a clear media literacy divide, reporting that ethnic Azerbaijanis and ethnic Armenians scored far lower on the media literacy index compared to ethnic Georgians. These groups’ struggle to accurately assess politically relevant information makes them prime targets for false narratives. Political and ideological factors are also strong predictors of susceptibility. Crucially, politically unaffiliated individuals (nonpartisans or those declining to disclose party affiliation) are the most vulnerable group, reporting the lowest rates of fact-checking and the lowest accuracy in evaluating information, as demonstrated by Bandzeladze and Chkhetiani. Conversely, Bandzeladze and Chkhetiani note that partisan attachment, particularly among opposition supporters, can foster heightened vigilance, leading to greater skepticism and accuracy. Furthermore, subscription to conspiratorial beliefs significantly increases susceptibility to manipulation. Bandzeladze and Chkhetiani found that belief in narratives, such as the state-sponsored “Global War Party,” substantially undermines the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood. The analysis by Chkhetiani delves deeper into the profile of believers in this specific state-driven narrative, noting that men, older citizens (aged 55 and older), the unemployed or self-employed, pro-government TV consumers, and especially supporters of the Georgian Dream party are consistently more receptive to these conspiratorial narratives. This belief system is potent because the state-sponsored Global War Party theory channels diffuse suspicion into a coherent, anti-Western geopolitical attitude. The work of Kobaladze and Gagunashvili explains the mechanism by which such narratives are strategically constructed and disseminated through a “pre-suasion” strategy—framing the West as an enemy and discrediting civil society organizations months in advance—thereby preparing these vulnerable segments of the public to accept controversial legislation, such as the Law on the Transparency of Foreign Influence. These intersecting vulnerabilities—where low objective media literacy meets political disengagement and the acceptance of state-sponsored conspiracy theories—create a fertile environment for manipulation. This collective insight underscores the critical gap between public awareness of disinformation as a threat and the actual media literacy skills necessary to resist it effectively." (Page 2) more

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Information Manipulation in Sudan: A Baseline Assessment of Actors, Narratives and Tactics

Aida Al-Kaisy, Amal Hamdan

Thomson Foundation (2026), 81 pp.

"The destruction of Sudan’s established information infrastructure at the outset of the conflict in April 2023 has created an environment where systematic information manipulation and disinformation campaigns now flourish unchecked. This has intersected with increasing systematic information manip ... more

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World Disasters Report 2026: Truth, Trust and Humanitarian Action in the Age of Harmful Information
Deep Insights

Charlotte Lindsey Curtet (ed.)

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (ICRC) (2026), 372 pp.

"The World Disasters Report 2026 calls on governments, humanitarian actors, media, technology companies and communities, to recognise that the trustworthiness of information is a matter of life and death. Just as we plan for logistics, shelter and health care in emergencies, we must also plan for th ... e information environment. This requires investing in community engagement, prioritizing listening over speaking, building resilience against harmful narratives and consistently upholding humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence in every interaction and message. In 2024, 32 Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers and staff were killed while on duty; in 2025, a further 27 lives were lost. This is a painful reminder of the risks borne by those who put humanity first, often in the most dangerous circumstances. Their deaths underscore the urgent need to protect humanitarian staff and volunteers, and to safeguard the space they need to save lives. Anything that deepens mistrust, fuels hostility or turns the emblem of protection into a target must be confronted with urgency. Honouring their memory compels us to meet this crisis with urgency and resolve. Hope must also be part of our response. Harmful information thrives on fear and confusion, but hope – rooted in trust, solidarity and human dignity – can be just as contagious. Balancing threats with hope and fostering narratives of agency and possibility offers a vital counterforce. Around the world, communities respond to crises not only with resilience but also with creativity and compassion, often leading the way in finding solutions. By amplifying authentic stories and voices, we do more than counter falsehoods: we inspire action, strengthen trust and remind people that even in the darkest moments, there are paths forward. The IFRC and its member Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have always worked at the heart of communities, earning trust through presence, transparency and respect. In today’s information crisis, this role matters more than ever. Our commitment is clear and unwavering: act with humanity and based on evidence, uphold trust and put people in need first – so that in moments of fear and uncertainty, the voices that carry furthest are those that heal, aid and protect. Each of us has a role to play. By staying informed, questioning, verifying and amplifying only what is trustworthy and constructive, we strengthen the information environment and ensure that hope speaks louder than harm." (Foreword) more

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Disinformation: A Multi-Disciplinary Analysis
Deep Insights

Lisa Ginsborg, Paula Gori (eds.)

Cham: Springer (2026), xvi, 654 pp.

"This volume provides a multidisciplinary analysis of disinformation and strategies for tackling it. Authored by a diverse group of scholars and experts, chapters in this volume are divided into three thematic sections. The first section delves into disinformation from various disciplinary perspecti ... more

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Threats, Disinformation, and Regulations in the European Digital Environment

Katerina Turková, Veronika Macková (eds.)

New York: Bloomsbury Academic (2026), xii, 252 pp.

"In this edited volume, contributors explore the various threats-both security- and (dis)information-related-that are present within the European digital environment, along with the subsequent regulations imposed across the region in response to these threats. Due to the fluctuating evolution of EU- ... more

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Donetsk Don’t Tell: ‘Hybrid War’ in Ukraine and the Limits of Social Media Influence Operations

Lennart Maschmeyer, Alexei Abrahams, Peter Pomerantsev, Volodymyr Yermolenko

Journal of Information Technology & Politics, volume 22, issue 1 (2025), pp. 49-64

"Many fear that social media enable more potent influence operations than traditional mass media. This belief is widely shared yet rarely tested. We challenge this emerging wisdom by comparing social media and television as vectors for influence operations targeting Ukraine. This article develops a ... more

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When Fact-Checking Is Not WEIRD: Negotiating Consensus Outside Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic Countries

Otavio Vinhas, Marco Bastos

International Journal of Press/Politics, volume 30, issue 1 (2025), pp. 256-276

"This study unpacks the emerging framework of detection, verification, and correction of falsehoods developed by fact-checkers outside Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic countries. We explore a series of semistructured interviews carried out in several languages with thirty-seve ... more

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WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech
Deep Insights

Sahana Udupa, Herman Wasserman (eds.)

New York: New York University Press (2025), vii, 375 pp.

"Known by the popular nickname “ZapZap” in Brazil and synonymous with the Internet across Africa and South Asia, WhatsApp has emerged as a major means of communication for millions of people around the world. Unlike social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, WhatsApp offers a closed, e ... more

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Redefining objectivity: Exploring types of evidence by fact-checkers in four European countries

Regina Cazzamatta

European Journal of Communication (2025), 21 pp.

"Fact-checking journalism challenges procedural norms of objectivity by providing truth verdicts. By actively evaluating statements and online rumors based on evidence weight, fact-checkers aim for robust, scientific objectivity. Despite this trend, there is a lack of studies analyzing evidence type ... more

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How effective are fact-checks in Pakistan and who engages with them?

Waqas Ejaz, Sacha Altay, Itlefaq Muhammad

Information, Communication & Society (2025), 23 pp.

"For fact-checks to be effective, they must first and foremost reach their intended audience. Yet, little is known about what determines engagement with fact-checks and how to enhance their reach. We conducted a pre-registered online survey experiment in Pakistan (N participants = 302, N observation ... more

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Global Communication and Propaganda

Richard C. Vincent

In: Global Communication: A Multicultural Perspective

Yahya R. Kamalipour (ed.)

Lanham et al.: Rowman & Littlefield (2025), pp. 153-198

"Propaganda involves the persuasive communication process to influence and convert individuals and the public at large, directly or implicitly, through the use of purposively chosen and partial, or even fabricated, disinformation [...] Regarding the understanding of propaganda, the first mistake is ... more

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Determinants of fake news diffusion on social media: A systematic literature review

Khurram Shahzad, Shakeel Ahmad Khan, Abid Iqbal, Omar Shabbir, Mujahid Latif

Global Knowledge, Memory and Communication (GKMC), volume 74, issue 7-8 (2025), pp. 2069-2092

"This paper aims to explore the determinants causing fake information proliferation on social media platforms and the challenges to control the diffusion of fake news phenomena. The authors applied the systematic review methodology to conduct a synthetic analysis of 37 articles published in peer-rev ... more

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Don’t Talk to Strangers? The Role of Network Composition, WhatsApp Groups, and Partisanship in Explaining Beliefs in Misinformation About COVID-19 in Brazil

Patricia Rossini, Antonis Kalogeropoulos

Journal of Information Technology & Politics, volume 22, issue 1 (2025), pp. 113-130

"The spread of disinformation has been a topic of heightened concern, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the response to a public health crisis relies on the ability for public officials to inform citizens. Using a representative two-wave panel of internet users in Brazil, we examine the ... more

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Why do people spread fake news? Modelling the factors that influence social media users’ fake news sharing behaviour

Yan An, Yinan Huang, Ndonima Uhwe Danjuma, Oberiri Destiny Apuke, Elif Asude Tunca

Information Development, volume 41, issue 1 (2025), pp. 48-60

"This study modelled the factors that influence fake news spreading behaviour among social media users. To gather our data, we used an online survey to sample 385 social media users in Nigeria, using a chain referral approach. Smart PLS structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data (SEM ... more

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The Alternative Truth Kept Hidden From Us: The Effects of Multimodal Disinformation Disseminated by Ordinary Citizens and Alternative Hyper-Partisan Media. Evidence From the US and India

Michael Hameleers, Darian Harff, Désirée Schmuck

Digital Journalism, volume 13, issue 8 (2025), pp. 1351-1372

"The affordances of social media potentially amplify the effects of disinformation by offering the possibility to present deceptive content and sources in credible and native ways. We investigate the effects of two aspects related to the dissemination and modality of digital disinformation: (In)auth ... more

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Nachrichten, Fake News und Wahlen

Uli Gleich

Media Perspektiven, issue 5 (2025), 10 pp.

"Voraussetzung dafür, dass (politische) Fake News Wirkung entfalten, sind gewisse Vulnerabilitätsfaktoren auf Seiten der Userinnen und User. Laut den Studien von Daunt und anderen (2023) sowie von Gupta und anderen (2023) gehören dazu zum Beispiel der Glaube an Verschwörungserzählungen, Patriot ... ismus, Konservatismus und die Tendenz zu kollektivistischen Ideen von Gesellschaft. Die Analysen von Schnaudt (2024) zeigen, dass Verschwörungserzählungen nicht nur in den USA, sondern auch in den europäischen Ländern eine Herausforderung für demokratische Prozesse (z. B. Wahlen) darstellen, wenn Menschen die falschen Informationen für glaubwürdig halten. Auch Mauk und Grömping (2024) fanden in ihrer Studie heraus, dass Autoritarismus und Verschwörungsmentalität, also die Neigung, sich die Welt über Verschwörungstheorien zu erklären, das Vertrauen in Wahlen mindern, weil Informationen motiviert, das heißt in Richtung einer bestehenden Voreinstellung, verarbeitet werden. Fake News können diese motivierte Verarbeitung unterstützen und damit einen destabilisierenden Effekt erzeugen. Laut Stachofsky, Schaupp und Crossler (2023) besteht gerade bei Wählergruppen, die ihre Informationen aus Quellen beziehen, die häufig (politische) Fake News verbreiten, eine besondere Anfälligkeit, die Integrität von Wahlen in Zweifel zu ziehen. Besonders interessant ist in diesem Zusammenhang die Erkenntnis, dass die Herausforderung durch Falschinformationen und Verschwörungserzählungen ironischerweise gerade in denjenigen Ländern hoch ausgeprägt ist, in denen die Rahmenbedingungen für demokratische und unbeeinflusste Wahlen objektiv am günstigsten sind (vgl. auch die Studie von Vliegenthart und anderen, 2024). Und selbst wenn keine tatsächlichen Erkenntnisse über Anomalien bei der Durchführung von Wahlen vorliegen, können Informationen über die Wahrscheinlichkeit von Unregelmäßigkeiten die oben erwähnte motivierte Informationsverarbeitung in Gang setzten und das Vertrauen in die Integrität von Wahlen bedrohen (vgl. die Studie von Kuk, Lee und Rhee (2024)). Studien, die den direkten Einfluss von Fake News auf Wahlentscheidungen untersuchen, sind methodisch schwierig und selten zu finden. Iida und andere (2024) konnten nur geringe Effekte feststellen und betonen, dass eine entsprechende Wirkung eher bei Personen entsteht, die keine ausgeprägten politischen Überzeugungen haben und/oder politisch weniger gut informiert sind. Auch Cantarella, Fraccaroli und Volpe (2023) konnten nur kleine Effekte ermitteln, die jedoch signifikant zum Wahlergebnis zugunsten populistischer Parteien in Italien beigetragen haben." (Zusammenfassung, Seiten 1-2) more

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Disarming Disinformation: Brazil
Deep Insights

Julie Posetti, Nabeelah Shabbir, Kaylee Williams (eds.)

International Center for Journalists (ICFJ); University of London, City St George's (2025), 35 pp.

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Fact-Checking Organisations in the Balkans after US Funding Cuts

Manuela Anastasova

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), Media Programme South East Europe (2025), 6 pp.

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Climate Disinformation in Thailand: Negating Indigenous Peoples’ Identity

Bangkog: Asia Centre (2025), viii, 60 pp.

"This report examines how climate disinformation reinforces the systemic negation of Indigenous People's (IP) identity, undermining traditional practices, weakening advocacy for rights and obstructing inclusive climate and forest governance by making three key contributions. First, it identifies fou ... r distinct forms of climate disinformation in Thailand: one-sided reporting, where the media spotlights government and corporate initiatives while omitting their social and environmental harms, whether due to political pressure or economic incentives; greenwashing, where corporations exaggerate or misrepresent their sustainability practices to obscure their ongoing environmentally destructive activities; false climate solutions promoted as climate action which fails to address the root causes of climate change while leaving IP communities socially and economically disadvantaged; scapegoating of IPs where Indigenous communities are falsely portrayed as primary drivers of deforestation, legitimising displacement and marginalisation. Second, it demonstrates four ways in which climate disinformation harms IPs, each reinforcing the negation of their identities: exclusion from decision-making: by either barring their participation outright or dismissing their inputs in decision-making processes, IPs’ Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is removed thereby negating their identities as owners and stewards of their land; criminalisation: the strategic misuse of “climate change” laws to negate IP identity and erase the legitimacy of IPs’ traditions and practices in environmental stewardship; and the use of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs) intimidate advocates for challenging climate disinformation; forced evictions: conservation and development narratives justify deterritorialisation that severs spiritual, cultural and economic ties to ancestral lands which forms the core of IPs’ identities; intimidation and violence: harassment, threats and attacks undermining the capacity of IPs to resist projects and actions that harm them, their environment and their way of life. Third, to address climate disinformation and safeguard Indigenous Peoples’ (IPs) rights and identities in Thailand, this report outlines a list of multi-stakeholder recommendations: UN bodies should integrate climate disinformation into their human rights monitoring and climate action frameworks and provide guidance to Thailand on implementing its international obligations; the Thai government should embed safeguards against climate disinformation into national climate and environmental policies, strengthen legal protections for IPs, ensure meaningful participation of IP communities in decision-making and improve transparency and accountability in environmental governance; international NGOs (INGOs) should collaborate with IP organisations to map, document and respond to climate disinformation, provide sustained technical capacity-building and funding, and support advocacy and litigation to defend IP rights; civil society organisations (CSOs) should monitor disinformation targeting IPs, co-develop counter-narratives with IP communities and educational content to empower both IPs and the broader public and expand legal aid support; the media sector should prioritise constructive and investigative journalism on climate, environmental, and IP issues; expand coverage in Indigenous languages and culturally appropriate formats; collaborate with IP organisations on fact-checking and monitoring disinformation; and amplify Indigenous perspectives through both national and international outlets; technology companies should strengthen content moderation against climate disinformation, flag misleading project information and invest in digital literacy and connectivity initiatives for rural and Indigenous communities; indigenous communities and organisations should build monitoring networks to identify and counter disinformation, strengthen alliances with independent and Indigenous media, conduct and participate in capacity-building workshops and use digital tools to amplify their voices and safeguard knowledge." (Executive summary, pages vi-vii) more

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Destruktive Diskurse: Digitale Verbreitung von klimabezogener Mis- und Desinformation

Hanna Börgmann, Dominik Hammer, Jan Beyer, Jonas Ziock, Fiete Stegers, Philipp Keßling, Felix Münch

Berlin; Hamburg: Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD); Hans-Bredow-Institut (2025), 52 pp.

World Disasters Report 2026: Truth, Trust and Humanitarian Action in the Age of Harmful Information Deep Insights

Disinformation: A Multi-Disciplinary Analysis Deep Insights

WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech Deep Insights

Disarming Disinformation: Brazil Deep Insights

World Disasters Report 2026: Truth, Trust and Humanitarian Action in the Age of Harmful Information
Deep Insights

Disinformation: A Multi-Disciplinary Analysis
Deep Insights

WhatsApp in the World: Disinformation, Encryption, and Extreme Speech
Deep Insights

Disarming Disinformation: Brazil
Deep Insights