Category: Media

Countering Truth Decay: Digital tech leaves democracy in ‘permanent flux’

     

Hillary Clinton says she’s “dumbfounded” that the U.K. government has failed to release a report on Russian influence in British politics before the country holds a national election next month…. Read more »

Online techniques & social media business model distorting democratic process

     

The business model of social media makes the algorithmic amplification of messages like hate speech and disinformation a lucrative proposition and a destabilizing force in a democratic society, the International… Read more »

How to address the global media crisis

     

The feeble response to the global media crisis by the world’s democracies reflects more a lack of political will than a lack of solutions, argues Mark M. Nelson, Senior Director… Read more »

‘Trojan horse for tyranny’: Disinformation boosting digital authoritarianism

     

Digital platforms have emerged as the “new battleground” for democracy, with disinformation the most commonly used tactic to undermine elections, according to a leading watchdog. “Populists and far-right leaders have… Read more »

AI, big data and democracy’s future: Misinformation, echo chambers & targeted propaganda?

     

While digital transformation has enriched societal discourse, it has also led to an increase of “misinformation, echo chambers and targeted propaganda” and provided authoritarian states with new means of surveillance… Read more »

‘Tsunami Democràtic’: Emerging risk of virtual societal warfare

     

Virtual societal warfare is a new category of cyberaggression that seeks to manipulate or disrupt the information essential for the effective functioning of economic and social systems, RAND researchers Michael… Read more »

From Gutenberg to Google: Disinformation wars ‘only just getting started’

     

British populist Nigel Farage and his Brexit party have voted against stronger European Union measures aimed at countering “highly dangerous” Russian disinformation, the Guardian reports: The party cast their votes… Read more »

Global Disinformation Order: organized social media manipulation in at least 70 countries

     

Organized social media manipulation has more than doubled since 2017, with at least 70 states employing computational propaganda to shape public opinion, according to a new analysis.  In Vietnam, citizens… Read more »

Kremlin exporting ‘political technologists’: West confronts Russian (dis)information machine

     

Russians deserve to live in a free democracy and the the world must come to their defense, according to an open letter signed by prominent democracy advocates.* The violations of… Read more »

Can democracy survive if the media fail?

     

In countries where a free press was just beginning to emerge, a cocktail of rising authoritarianism, audience cannibalization by social media, and financial weakness has thrown it into reverse. Independent journalism… Read more »