Disinformation Workshop: Tools & Techniques
Workshop: Disinformation Workshop: Tools & Techniques
Who: Amanda Quinn, Joel Masselink and Leo Senai
Date: Thursday, March 25th
Time: 10:00am EST / 2:00pm UTC+0
Language: English
Add this event to your calendar.
Join us for an interactive workshop introducing you to tools and techniques for detecting disinformation. Some of the approaches presented will use geolocation, digital literacy, social media research and web scraping. By attending, learn how to:
- Differentiate between bots and real accounts on social media
- Perform more sophisticated search online when verifying information
- Verify photos and videos
- Review how far a disinformation narrative has spread online and perform basic analysis on such data.
This is a hands-on workshop where participants will be presented with demos of tools, as well as group and individual activities. In addition, a handout will be provided with further resources and ideas for verifying disinformation.
// We will be hosting a 25 minute post-workshop networking exercise to allow folks to meet others who share their interest, and strengthen collaborations across various lines. Make sure to schedule in 25 minutes extra on your calendar, if you are interested in joining //
Amanda Quinn is a Data and Media Analyst at Creative Associates International in Washington, DC where she develops and implements project activities using media and technology, focusing on elections, conflict prevention, and governance. Prior to joining Creative’s Development Lab in February 2019, she worked on data coding and analysis for conflict early warning and peacebuilding programs in West Africa.
Leo Senai is the Manager of Technology for Communities in Transition at Creative Associates International in Washington DC. His work focuses on leveraging new partnerships and his colleagues' expertise to infuse technology and media programming for projects in governance, stabilization, elections, political transitions, and citizen security. Leo also volunteers on the steering committee for the local coalition, Community Oversight of Surveillance for Washington, DC (COS-DC; @TakeCtrlDC)
Joel Masselink is the Geospatial and Data Services lead with Creative Associates where he provides mapping support and guides data for decision-making in Creative's portfolio of education, economic growth, governance, and civic engagement. Prior to joining Creative, Joel provided mapping and data analysis for international conservation and natural resource management initiatives. Joel volunteers on the board of Tusubira, a nonprofit that supports education and youth empowerment in Uganda.
>> Check out notes from other sessions here
Notes
Definitions and Background
Definitions
- Disinformation: Information that is false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organization, or country.
- Misinformation: Information that is false, but not created with the intention of causing harm.
- Mal-information: Information that is based on reality, used to inflict harm on a person, organization, or country.
Key Terms
- Coordinated inauthentic activity: when groups of pages or people work together to mislead others
- “Information laundering” – used create a façade of legitimacy around disinformation narratives
- Placement: posting disinformation on a website or social media
- Layering: spread to more credible sources
- Integration: disinformation is adopted by credible news sources or is widely disseminated by real users
Steps for Detecting Disinformation
- Provenance: Are you looking at the original account, article, or piece of content?
- Source: Who created the account or article, or captured the original piece of content?
- Date: When was it created?
- Location: Where was the account established, website created, or piece of content captured?
- Motivation: Why was the account established, website created, or the piece of content captured?
Additional reading:
- Operation Secondary Infektion
- Operation Infektion: A three-part video series on Russian Disinformation
- Digital Forensic Research Lab Reports
- Journalism, Fake News & Disinformation: Handbook for Journalism Education and Training
Recent disinformation stories:
- Misinformation at the pulpit (Nigeria)
- A ruthless Sudanese militia is using Covid-19 to launder its image
- What We Ask About Coronavirus in Africa
- Google queries in Africa reveal how coronavirus disinformation is evolving
- Prominent Ugandan news websites implicated in government-aligned social media campaign
- Coordinated Behavior in Libya’s Regional Disinformation Conflict
- Libyan Hashtag Campaign has Broader Designs: Trolling Qatar
