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The Propagation of Misinformation in Social Media: A Cross-Platform Analysis

Richard Rogers (ed.)

Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press (2023), 246 pp.

"In a cross-platform analysis of Google Web Search, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, Instagram, 4chan and TikTok, we found that hyperpartisan web operators, alternative influencers and ambivalent commentators are in ascendency. The book can be read as a form of platform criticism. It puts on disp ... more

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Safety at Stake: How to Save Meta's Trusted Partner Program

Internews (2023), 33 pp.

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Regulating Disinformation on Twitter and Facebook

Corinne Tan

Griffith Law Review, volume 31, issue 4 (2023), pp. 513-536

"The spread of disinformation in recent years has caused the international community concerns, particularly around its impact on electoral and public health outcomes. When one considers how disinformation can be contained, one often looks to new laws imposing more accountability on prominent social ... more

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State of Internet Freedom in Africa 2023. A Decade of Internet Freedom in Africa: Recounting the Past, Shaping the Future

CIPESA (2023), 71 pp.

"This special edition honours the efforts of various state and non-state actors in the promotion of internet freedom in Africa. The report takes a deep dive into the dynamic landscape of internet freedom on the African continent and offers contextual information and evidence to inform ICT policymaki ... more

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Moderación de contenidos en línea y construcción de paz en el posconflicto: Una revisión al marco normativo de Colombia

Juan Sebastián Salamanca Calle et al.

Bogotá: Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP) (2023), 86 pp.

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WhatsApp and Transparency: An Analysis on the Effects of Digital Platforms’ Opacity in Political Communication Research Agendas in Brazil

Viktor Chagas, Gabriella Da-Costa

Profesional de la Información, volume 32, issue 2 (2023), 14 pp.

"This article aims to discuss what we call environmental opacity, a condition of mobile instant messaging services (MIMS) that operates on the basis of end-to-end encryption systems. Utilizing WhatsApp as a specific example, the article presents two fundamental dilemmas around which some issues conc ... more

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Social Media Platforms and Challenges for Democracy, Rule of Law and Fundamental Rights

Beatriz Botero Arcila, Rachel Griffin

Brussels: European Parliament, Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs (2023), 151 pp.

"This study, commissioned by the European Parliament’s Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the LIBE Committee, examines risks that contemporary social media - focusing in particular on the most widely-used platforms - present for democracy, the rul ... more

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Challenges and Perspectives of Hate Speech Research
Deep Insights

Christian Strippel, Sünje Paasch-Colberg, Martin Emmer, Joachim Trebbe (eds.)

Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin, Institute for Media and Communication Studies (2023), 482 pp.

"This book is the result of a conference that could not take place. It is a collection of 26 texts that address and discuss the latest developments in international hate speech research from a wide range of disciplinary perspectives. This includes case studies from Brazil, Lebanon, Poland, Nigeria, ... more

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Policy Brief: Ensuring Ethical AI Practices to Counter Disinformation

Federica Urzo, Elisabetta Panico, Salvatore Custureri

MediaFutures; Luiss Data Lab (2023), 15 pp.

"In particular we recommend to strengthen collaboration (platforms should adopt a collaborative approach involving various stakeholders, including governments, civil society organisations, and fact-checkers, to counter the spread and impact of disinformation. This can include sharing information, be ... st practices, and resources to develop effective strategies); enhance transparency (platforms should prioritise transparency by providing clear and comprehensive information on their policies, algorithms, and content moderation processes. Users should have a better understanding of how their data is used, and how algorithms work to prevent the amplification of false and misleading narratives); implement effective content moderation (platforms need to allocate sufficient resources to effectively monitor and moderate harmful content. This includes investing in advanced AI systems and human moderation teams to detect and remove disinformation in a timely manner. Transparent and consistent guidelines should be in place to ensure fairness and accountability in content moderation decisions); promote fact-based information (platforms should prioritise the promotion of fact-based information from reliable sources. This can be done by partnering with credible news organizations and fact-checkers to provide accurate information and combat false narratives. Advertising promoting climate change denial or other forms of misinformation should be prevented); improve the access to data for researchers (platforms should make efforts to provide access to data for independent researchers to evaluate the effectiveness of their policies and initiatives in countering disinformation. This will enable better analysis and understanding of the impact of disinformation and the effectiveness of countermeasures); comply with regulatory frameworks (platforms should fully comply with regulatory frameworks, such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) or other relevant International, EU and National laws and regulations, that provide for obligations on addressing disinformation and mitigating associated risks, the Code of Practice on Disinformation that aims to commit signatories to a range of actions to counter disinformation. These actions include providing transparency reports on political advertising, restricting advertising placements on disinformation websites, disrupting advertising revenue for purveyors of disinformation, and enabling user feedback and fact-checking mechanisms. In this framework, compliance should not be limited to large platforms but extended, with adjustments, to smaller platforms to ensure a comprehensive approach)." (Recommendations, page 6) more

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Platform Responsibility, Legitimacy Building and Harmful Social Media Content: Report on Two Scientific Papers

Mervi Pantti, Yang Xu

Nordic Oberservatory for Digital Media and Information Disorders (NORDIS) (2023), 28 pp.

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Platform Responses to Misinformation: A Meta-Analysis of Data
Deep Insights

Zurich: International Panel on the Information Environment (IPIE) (2023), 70 pp.

"This Synthesis Report examines the effectiveness of countermeasures against misinformation on social media platforms, focusing on the two most examined remedies: content labeling and corrective information interventions. A meta-analysis is a research process for synthesizing and aggregating the fin ... more

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Community Stewards and Social Cohesion in Digital Spaces

Search for Common Ground (2023), 27 pp.

"[...] There are 70 million individuals who are administrators of Facebook groups. Many more coordinate groups across other platforms such as WhatsApp, Signal, and others, which are often run on mobile devices - with a global user base of 5.34 billion unique mobile users. Group administrators and mo ... derators act as “community stewards.” They are individuals in charge of reviewing user-generated content to ensure users adhere to rules, regulations, and community standards of social media platforms. They hold tremendous influence over the experience of their users, but they often step into these roles without fully understanding the scope of responsibilities they are taking on. Many community stewards describe their role as a “labor of love,” representing a substantial opportunity to catalyze large-scale, positive social change across societies. Yet, they face many challenges. Stewards cite myriad challenges, risks, rewards, and opportunities they face in managing their online groups and pages. This report focuses on the role of community stewards in promoting healthier relationships in their online and digital groups in conflict-affected and fragile countries. There is growing evidence of the societal impacts stewards are driving through their platforms, such as mobilizing aid during crises, raising awareness on important issues, and fostering solutions to community challenges. Given their unique reach, influence, and trust, community stewards hold great potential to not only mobilize positive social change, but also to foster connection and belonging in a way that positively transforms relationships and disrupts the toxic polarization that divides societies and fuels violence. The potential of community stewards is clear; it is less clear how civil society, the private sector, governments, and others can best support and scale up this potential. Understanding the needs and incentives of community stewards to proactively use their roles for building healthier online (and offline) communities can help build on what works. Understanding the barriers and challenges they face in doing so, will serve as critical entry points for mobilizing the right support to stewards. This report looks to uncover the barriers and opportunities that stewards face in their efforts to build healthier and safer online communities in conflict-affected and fragile places." (Introduction) more

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Hate Speech in Lebanon: The Shortcomings and Responsibilities of Social Media Platforms

Afef Abrougui, Mirna Ghanem, Farah Rasmi

Metn: Samir Kassir Foundation (2023), 49 pp.

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Legal and Normative Frameworks for Combatting Online Violence Against Women Journalists

Angelique Lu, Julie Posetti, Nabeelah Shabbir

November 2022: UNESCO; International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) (2022), 35 pp.

"In this chapter, international, regional and State-level legal and normative frameworks for responding to online violence against women journalists are examined, while exemplar judgements are catalogued, and gaps in law enforcement are highlighted. Here, insights gleaned from 184 in-depth interview ... more

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Comunales 2020 au Benin: Gestion d'une campagne électorale exclusivement mediatique. Livre blanc

Cotonou: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) (2022), 96 pp.

"Le présent livre blanc passe au peigne fin le parcours trépidant de la HAAC pendant cette campagne inédite au Bénin et dans le monde. Il retrace et analyse les activités menées par la HAAC dans le cadre des communales de 2020, en pointant singulièrement la période de campagne électorale qu ... more

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Freedom of expression in the digital public sphere: Strategies for bridging information and accountability gaps in algorithmic content moderation

Josh Cowls, Philipp Darius, Valentina Golunova et al.

Berlin: Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) (2022), 20 pp.

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"Wait, Who's Timothy McVeigh"? A Translation Review of Facebook and YouTube Content Moderation Policies in Amharic, Arabic, Bengali, and Hindi

Orla O'Sullivan et al.

Localization Lab; Internews (2022), 54 pp.

"The report documents the quality and usability of Facebook and YouTube content moderation policies in four languages. It found that the translations of Facebook and YouTube's content moderation policies in these languages are far below a standard that would be considered acceptable by the average u ... more

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The Dynamics of Racism, Antisemitism and Xenophobia on Social Media in South Africa

Thierry Rousset, Maluleke Gavaza, Adam Mendelsohn

Johannesburg: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) (2022), x, 221 pp.

"This study examines racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia on Facebook and Twitter. The authors were looking for patterns in the mass of posts, tweets, and images that circulate on social media. To do this, they focused on a series of case studies. These demonstrate that political discussion on socia ... more

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Double Standards in Social Media Content Moderation

Angel Díaz, Laura Hecht-Felella

New York: Brennan Center for Justice (2022), 39 pp.

"While social media companies dress their content moderation policies in the language of human rights, their actions are largely driven by business priorities, the threat of government regulation, and outside pressure from the public and the mainstream media. This report demonstrates the impact of c ... more

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Policy Paper: Unpacking Content Moderation in Pashto and Dari

Shmyla Khan et al.

Meedan; Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) (2022), 25 pp.

"Content moderation at scale is an extremely complicated issue, however by looking at specific examples such as the case studies and data highlighted in this study, the conversation can start to take into account more diverse experiences and context that is normally overlooked. Emerging from these e ... more

Challenges and Perspectives of Hate Speech Research Deep Insights

Platform Responses to Misinformation: A Meta-Analysis of Data Deep Insights

Challenges and Perspectives of Hate Speech Research
Deep Insights

Platform Responses to Misinformation: A Meta-Analysis of Data
Deep Insights