Europe is looking to online platforms and influencers to help fight disinformation and promote democracy according to a European Commission strategy presented on Wednesday amid concerns over interference by foreign governments in national elections.
Reuters
The Trump administration has dismantled a number of U.S. government defenses against foreign disinformation campaigns. But the French government has been doubling down on its efforts to call out foreign propaganda efforts.
The New York Times
Former U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams says there is still a lot of ‘misinformation circulating’ around vaccines in the U.S., despite data indicating that most Americans follow their doctor’s recommendations.
The Hill
The Innovation Incubator at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, is launching a new pop-up course this upcoming spring titled, Drowning in BS: Conspiracies, Urban Legends and AI Slop in the Digital World, which will examine how misinformation spreads in online spaces.
Cal Poly Pomona News
Someone I know became a conspiracy theorist seemingly overnight. It was during the pandemic, and out of nowhere, they suddenly started posting daily on Facebook about the dangers of covid vaccines and masks, warning of an attempt to control us and keep us in our places.
MIT Technology Review
The European Union today plans to announce the creation a Centre for Democratic Resilience to counter disinformation from Russia and other authoritarian regimes, according to a leaked paper.
The Guardian
At the University of Illinois Office of Civic Life’s Democracy Summit last month, author Barbara McQuade of the University of Michigan addressed the growing threat of misinformation and its impacts on society.
The Daily Illini
Comments from ordinary users on social media platforms can be a force for good, helping others identify false information and navigate what is accurate, new research shows.
Science X / Phys.org
Michael Miller, MD, helps us understand misinformed people and their sources of misinformation, which research shows begins with bad health care experiences that leads people to mistrust the health care system, clinicians and scientists.
Psychology Today
Falsehoods, fabrications, fake news – disinformation is nothing new. For centuries, people have taken deliberate action to mislead the public. In medieval Europe, Jewish communities were persecuted because people believed conspiracy theories suggesting that Jews spread the Black Death by poisoning wells.
BBC
OpenAI’s new text-to-video AI generator Sora 2 produced realistic videos advancing provably false claims 80 percent of the time (16 out of 20) when prompted to do so, a NewsGuard analysis found,
NewsGuard
Every day we interact with endless media all around us: pictures, articles, T.V. shows, podcasts, advertisements, social media posts, and headlines just to name a few.
National Association for Media Literacy Education
Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwan government departments have increased by 17% so far this year compared to 2024, reaching an average of 2.8 million per day, data from the National Security Bureau showed.
Reuters
Russia has dismissed claims that it had pushed conspiracy theories following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on September 10 at Utah Valley University. A report by The Associated Press said that bots from Russia, as well as other rivals like China, and Iran, had spread disinformation about Kirk's killing on social networks.
Newsweek
At frozen-in-time Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, people in the National Park Service are navigating shoals that federal storytellers across the nation must now negotiate. How do you tell the truth if it might not be the whole truth amid Presidential orders to revise history?
The Associated Press
The violation of Polish airspace with Russian drones on the night of Sept. 9-10 is one of the most straightforward examples of how the West is already experiencing direct Russian aggression. At the same time, the intrusion was accompanied by a coherent, multi-layered Russian information operation
The Moscow Times
The assassination of Charlie Kirk has been divisive online, and some officials believe foreign governments are trying to make things worse.
National Public Radio
Thanks to the First Amendment, the ability to parody U.S. Presidents dates back to our earliest days. “To receive the adulation of the public, those entrusted with the power of the people must also be able to accept criticism,” second U.S. President John Adams said.
The Integrity Project
Google admitted earlier this week that its COVID-era censorship policies were enacted at the explicit behest of the Biden administration, and the company now says it will allow any content creator that was silenced for this reason to return to YouTube.
The Hill
The State Department recently halted ‘all frameworks’ to counter misinformation from foreign countries when Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the closure of the department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, formerly known as the Global Engagement Center.
The Hill
