Upgrade Democracy

Meet one of the pioneers in the fact-checking game: Chequeado If you have never heard of the oldest fact-checking organisation in the Southern Hemisphere, it's about time: Chequeado was founded in 2010. Fact-checking wasn't huge back then, but Chequeado has always been a little ahead of its time, and still is today. Located in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Chequeado earned its spot among the top ten fact-checking organiaations in the world. A quick look into their toolbox tells you why: A monitoring software powered by machine learning, WhatsApp chatbot tiplines for citizens to report disinformation, or the Chequabot, a real-time transcription software that implements automated fact-checks - Chequeado is a cutting-edge example of how to scale fact-checking in the digital world. Learn more in a detailed interview featuring Olivia Sohr here: cc Virginia Kirst https://shorturl.at/bQF92 #PerspectivesOnDemocracy #Inspiration #Chequeado

“We have to predict the narratives,” says Věra Jourová, vice president of the European Commission. In light of rising concerns over electioral interference, officials globally are adopting "prebunking" strategies to protect the integrity of voting processes. The approach aims at exposing people to weakened falsehoods, disinformation narratives and respective explanations to build defenses before it spreads. The Washington Post recently detailed these efforts in an interesting article. Prebunking initiatives are being implemented from Arizona to Taiwan. The effectiveness of prebunking, however, is debated. Critics argue that reliably spotting disinformation is complex and time-consuming, and those most likely to do so are not the ones most affected. Further, vastly emerging artifical intelligence tools are making it easier - and cheaper - to create convincing fabricated content. Prebunking represents a strategic shift from reactive fact-checking to proactive education, drawing from inoculation theory. As Jourová suggests, predicting narratives is key, and prebunking is one of many methods necessary to safeguard democratic processes. As we approach the critical election cycles, these strategies aim to create a more informed electorate and protect democratic processes from the growing threat of mis- and disinformation. How effective do you consider this approach to be? Read more in the original article by The Washington Post: 🗳️ https://buff.ly/4bEIslS #ElectionIntegrity #Prebunking #CounteringDisinformation

India's media ecosystem is huge, diverse and struggling with disinformation. Meet AltNews, who are up for the challenge! AltNews is a media company focusing on countering disinformation in India. While employing classic methods of journalistic fact-checking, AltNews has earned a reputation for being more successful than others in uncovering and countering disinformation, not only from extremist groups but also from government branches. Despite government repressions, AltNews has been relentless in calling out disinformation in India's highly complex political and media landscape, which is why they were shortlisted for the Nobel peace prize in 2022. With their efforts, AltNews greatly contributes to holding public figures accountable, providing trustworthy information, and upholding basic human rights. To find out more about AltNews and their work, visit: ➡ https://lnkd.in/ePaf8cFr #PerspectivesOnDemocracy #CounteringDisinformation #Inspiration #AltNews #India

Sleeping Giants Brasil - Disrupting the Profitable Business of Disinformation Sleeping Giants is part of the global Sleeping Giants movement, founded in the U.S. in 2016, aiming to remove ads from websites that actively promote hate speech and disinformation. According to the organisation, they have prevented 71.6 million Brazilian real (approx. 13.4 million EUR) in ad revenue from being earned by websites that spread hate speech and/or false information online. 📢 Success Story: Their "Demonetise Jovem Pan" campaign after the Brazilian elections cut ad funding for a major far-right media outlet and helped preventing potential destabilising actions by that. As for its business model, Sleeping Giants Brazil relies on donations as well as subscriptions supported by their community. Amazing work, team! Learn more about them here: https://buff.ly/3VajKnf #SleepingGiantsBrazil #PerspectivesOnDemocracy #CounteringDisinformation

💡 Labelling for AI-generated content is coming to TikTok Content labelling on social media has been a hotly debated topic: What needs to be labelled, by whom, through which means, how visible, and when is it simply too much and only adding to people's confusion? Yet, it is also clear that disinformation risks to undermine trust in our information ecosystem. This can be amplified through content, which is auto-generated, manipulated, or created with the help of AI tools, without clearly indicating that this content has been manufactured. On that note it is laubable that TikTok has pledged to roll out labels for AI-generated content to all their users, globally. However, that alone will not curb the spread of disinformation on the platform -- that requires a slate of different tools. To quote Sam Gregory from WITNESS: This "is [not] a silver bullet, not now or when they are fully utilized and provided - they are a form of harm reduction that makes it easier to discern when and how AI was used." [...] "Malicious and deceptive creators and distributors will still find a way around them, but most of us will be happy to use them if they don't compromise our privacy or our ability to create." Yes to Content Credentials, they are one tool in our much needed, growing toolbox to fight back. No to this being the job done. More background on this development: https://buff.ly/3WB3o8x #AI #PlatformGovernance #ContentLabels #UpgradeDemocrocy

Moldova, "whose population is roughly equivalent to that of Paris or Chicago — has become ground zero in the battle between disinformation, much of it fueled by AI, and elections." Bordering Ukraine, with a sizable Russian-speaking minority, Moldova holds two critical votes in October: A presidential election and a referendum on joining the EU. Here is an insightful piece on how the country and its leadership are tackling the disinformation challenge and foreign interference in particular: https://buff.ly/3WH2W8L #MoldovaElections #EUintegration #PerspectivesOnDemocracy

Countering disinformation builds trust and community. Case in point: JamiiForums! JamiiForums is an independent social platform in Tanzania with over 660,000 registered users. Since 2022, it also runs a collaborative fact-checking section, JamiiCheck, where experts answer questions and users can contribute with their knowledge. This collaborative, trust-checking effort is making waves not just in Tanzania, and definitely one to pay close attention to! We applaud their community-based approach, the local context, and their proven success in building trust. Kudos to the team and keep going! More on their work in this interview by Virginia Kirst here: https://lnkd.in/eQ92Ea2n #PerspectivesOnDemocracy #CounterDisinformation #FactChecking #Inspiration #JamiiCheck