Weekly Roundup 6/22/17

In preparation for DisInformation Week, NDI hosted Philip Howard and Samuel Woolley from the Computational Propaganda Lab at the Oxford Internet Institute to talk about their new report on the effects of online disinformation. NDI President Ken Wollack began by noting that the vision of social media as a means to create open societies around the world has given way to an acknowledgement that social media has instead turned into yet another battleground for democratic practices. Ken also quoted the Oxford report on the need for tech companies to “design for democracies” and ensure platforms are designed in a way that discourages disinformation. Phil talked about the need for public policy to help address this issue and not simply relying on tech companies to self-regulate, but noted that policy must not be overly burdensome or restrictive.

A common topic was how disinformation campaigns often involve pushing out multiple contradictory false narratives to muddy the water and make it unclear what’s true. As Sam put it, “The goal is to confuse. It’s not to necessarily sell a fake story, it’s to make people so apathetic about politics and policy in general that then they don’t really want to engage anymore.” Another point made was that there are multiple types of bots: those that are trying to act like real users and share stories with real people, and those that clearly aren't real people and are there purely to like or retweet stories to game a site’s metrics and get a story trending. One interesting finding was that many groups of bots are being run not by organizations but by individuals looking to push a certain view or advance a cause. Other notable trends mentioned were bots being used in conversations to attack individuals, targeting prominent women in particular, and the use of bots by organizations to test out and refine their messaging.

Other News:

Civic Tech:

• Tech companies are linking hashes to extremist content to quickly remove it

• Youtube implements “redirect method” that responds to searches for radical content with ads for video debunking radical propaganda

ICT4D:

• Low cost solar-powered Community Cellular Networks bring cell coverage to rural areas

• Drones in Rwanda used to transport blood and supplies to remote clinics

• Farm Radio International’s new report details “Interactive Radio” method of getting real-time feedback from listeners

Open Internet:

• UN report released on the importance of internet freedom and the role of tech companies in ensuring it

• Mexican government used spyware meant for combating criminals to monitor activists

Cyber Security:

• New ransomware infects vulnerable computers simply through viewing an ad

• Web hosting firm pays $1m ransom to ransomware group

Blockchain:

• New plan seeks to use blockchain to make remittances easier and cheaper