Mozilla’s Post

#InfoIntegrityLab #DisinfoAlert via Carnegie Mellon University "In an era where social media platforms have become battlegrounds for information integrity, a new study sheds light on the mechanics of disinformation spread and offers innovative solutions to counteract it. Conducted by a team of researchers from Brandeis University, George Mason University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University examined the dynamics of “disinformation wars,” which refers to the intentional spread of fake news while pretending to be an ordinary account or user on platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter). This method has proved to be alarmingly effective in misleading the public." Read more: https://ow.ly/NGpL50RvCOI

Meta announced today it is killing the disinformation research tool Crowdtangle, for good.  This is not a surprise to those in newsrooms who used this fact-checking tool for so many years, but it is still a shock anyway. Could they really do it? Will they really do it? Oh yes, they surely did.  This is just the latest example of platforms like Meta utterly abandoning, long-standing partnerships and relationships with newsrooms. It is so disheartening to watch. But in the much bigger picture, getting rid of this very important fact-checking tool says so much about how little these platforms care about democracy.  I am reminded of a piece I wrote in 2020, after the Insurrection, for The Poynter Institute. I interviewed top experts in disinformation and asked them to explain to the audience how online disinformation led to the siege of Capitol Hill on January 6. Please read this piece and understand that not supporting fact-checking newsrooms and journalists is doing a disservice to this country. Full stop. I don’t wanna end on such a low note and I do want to share that there are other tools and solutions out there and I have to give such great credit to the newsrooms and media tech companies looking to fill this void. One example I’m a very big fan of is Rolli and their Information Tracer tool. If anyone reading this would like to be introduced to the company and learn more about it, I’m happy to do an introduction. And to all the fact-checking newsrooms still reliant on major social platforms and tech companies for a significant portion of their revenue… Please wake up. This is all going to end sooner than you think. I hope you see the deprecation of Crowdtangle as the canary in the coal mine.  https://lnkd.in/gTPhy_aC

🗳️ In 2024, over 4 billion people will vote worldwide. This monumental year for democracy also brings unprecedented risks from deepfakes and misinformation. With the UK heading to the polls on July 4, it's crucial to address these challenges. techUK's new report explores the threats posed by deepfakes and the potential of synthetic media technologies. The UK has made strides with the Online Safety Act, but a coordinated effort involving tech companies, political parties, media, and government agencies is essential. We look at the strategies for a collaborative response and the importance of technological advancements, legal frameworks, and public education in our report. 🌐🔍 Read the full report here. 📄 https://ow.ly/j83150Sbw17 Check out our election coverage and more tech policy content here: https://ow.ly/OJj650Sbw02 #Deepfakes #Election2024 #TechForGood #Digital Regulation #Misinformation

New - Student Blog post by Ryan Mason and Galen Flanigan "JOURNALISM TARGETING ON THE DARK WEB" Due to the decentralized and anonymous nature of the Tor network, it is extremely challenging for nations to block its traffic (Wells 2020). This is ideal for journalist sites that are blocked or censored in countries. From our analysis, we have found seven news outlets serving 40 languages that provide hidden services to dark web users. While we may not be able to view where traffic is coming from, we can observe how these journalism sites use their hidden services and tailor to different countries. By analyzing the country-specific hidden service news sites and comparing them with Political Repression and Civil Liberties scores of the corresponding countries, we will create a picture of how digital oppression affects journalism on the dark web.  https://lnkd.in/gb9iDMGs #Tech4Humanity

Journalists and media friends, definitely check out Rolli, which nicely integrates Information Tracer core features to provide real-time social media intelligence. In addition, Rolli provides many more functions to help journalists do their job faster. For those who need a more in-depth investigation (i.e.: you need more data, more visualization, more customized controls), check our original Information Tracer platform (https://lnkd.in/gTXkm7TM). Information Tracer is just redesigned to offer the most powerful social media investigation capabilities. Simply fill in a form (https://lnkd.in/gTXkm7TM) to experience this investigation tool. 🕵♂️ #misinformation #cybersecurity #socialmediaanalytics #journalism

Last week, Open Technology Fund hosted two Internet Freedom Expos to highlight seven open source technologies that exemplify our Congressional mandate to advance internet freedom globally. They included large-scale circumvention solutions, internet shutdown mitigation technologies, and tools for journalists and human rights defenders to communicate safely and privately. Today, over two-thirds of the world’s population live in countries where internet access is restricted, and that number is growing as authoritarians aggressively control, censor, and manipulate online content. The Chinese government alone spends billions of dollars each year to maintain its complex censorship and surveillance apparatus, while Russia and Iran are each making significant investments to build “national intranets.” Collectively, these efforts are re-shaping the internet from a shared, global platform to isolated networks of censorship and control, making it increasingly difficult and dangerous for journalists, sources, and audiences – particularly United States Agency for Global Media networks – to engage in and share fact-based news online. In this context, internet freedom technologies have become critical information lifelines for people living in authoritarian countries. Over 2 billion people worldwide regularly use OTF-supported technologies, and over 40 million people rely on OTF-supported circumvention tools each month to access the uncensored internet. These technologies are essential for journalists to report and disseminate news in restrictive markets, and for audiences to safely receive and share content online. Learn more about OTF’s featured partners – Psiphon Inc. nthLink, eQualitie, Guardian Project, RFE/RL’s Patrick Boehler, OONI (Open Observatory of Network Interference), and GreatFire.org’s AppleCensorship – at opentech.fund. We are grateful to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman McCaul and Ranking Member Meeks, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Cardin and Ranking Member Risch for their support. We are also appreciative of USAGM CEO Amanda Bennett, our Board Chair Zack Cooper, and Board member Pablo Chavez for their strong support of our mission.

This month, Meta shut down CrowdTangle, the tool researchers were using to investigate mis-and-disinformation and other tech harms on Facebook and Instagram. What's next for social media researchers when faced with Big Tech obstruction? Digital Action’s Africa lead, Bulanda T Nkhowani has some answers, with our open-source guidebook, aptly titled ‘How to Monitor Social Media during elections when you don’t have Rockstar resources’. The guide is intended for civil society organisations, journalists, academia and election authorities as practical guidance to monitoring online platforms on a tight budget.  https://lnkd.in/eM7epewu

New - Student Blog post by Ryan Mason and Galen Flanigan "JOURNALISM TARGETING ON THE DARK WEB" Due to the decentralized and anonymous nature of the Tor network, it is extremely challenging for nations to block its traffic (Wells 2020). This is ideal for journalist sites that are blocked or censored in countries. From our analysis, we have found seven news outlets serving 40 languages that provide hidden services to dark web users. While we may not be able to view where traffic is coming from, we can observe how these journalism sites use their hidden services and tailor to different countries. By analyzing the country-specific hidden service news sites and comparing them with Political Repression and Civil Liberties scores of the corresponding countries, we will create a picture of how digital oppression affects journalism on the dark web. https://lnkd.in/gb9iDMGs #Tech4Humanity

For the dissenting voices in organisations wrangling to enlighten on what seem obvious challenges and opportunities requiring more urgent attention, read this fantatsic piece by Kara Swisher, chronicling her own heralding of the slow-moving catastrophe of tech obliterating media. Quote after quote are stingers: “Most … media executives seemed to have a genetic predisposition to oppose change and innovation and spent many years refusing to bend to the coming disaster to their bottom lines … In their place came an army of fleece-clad adult toddlers, also mostly white men — some things are enduring — whose knowledge of media and history and, most important, what it took to keep a democracy humming was dangerously thin.” “Most techies now dabbling in the media are arrogant amateurs who think that because they excel in one area, they are masters of all domains. What they really are is incompetent at giving any insight or illumination beyond their own narrow self-interests while decidedly cheapening discourse.” And of course, when people/organisations tell you who they are, believe them: “…the media has folded again and again to the memelords of tech in the hopes that they do not want what they clearly want, which is domain over all they survey. It was right there as bright as day in Google’s original mission statement: ‘to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’.” AI is the next battleground…the warning signs and ‘dissenting’ voices are abundant. Proceed with eyes wide open.