The Checklist: We're back! 🎉

The Checklist has a brand new design! We’d love to know what you think of the new look. Send feedback, suggestions, brickbats our way. Talking about *new* things, this newsletter was made in New Delhi and New York! 

We hope 2020 has been off to a good start for you. It’s been a busy January for us as some of our plans take concrete shape—watch this space for an exciting launch next week! We’re also taking our work to many events this year. Catch Megan at NewsLab '20 in New York this weekend. 

We ended 2019 by releasing Meedan’s report on fact-checking health misinformation. This week, as we read news reports about misinformation on the outbreak of a new coronavirus in China and neighbouring countries, we're thinking a bunch about how important it is to have public health standards of care for reporting and fact-checking health content.   

 If you’d like to send an update from your region, ping us on Twitter or Facebook or email us. Until then, happy Year of the Rat to all of you!  

- Megan and Shalini

The latest top stories

Singapore uses fake news law against Malaysian watchdog (South China Morning Post)

Can a country enforce its fake news laws in areas outside its jurisdiction?
Lawyers for Liberty (LFL), a human rights watchdog based in Malaysia, has flagged this issue against the Singapore government. LFL claims that prison officers in Singapore were told to kick the necks of prisoners 'whenever the rope broke' during executions. Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs said the allegations were baseless. The ministry issued a correction order against LFL under its Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma). 

"Singapore should learn to accept criticism. They have no monopoly over what constitutes facts and the truth." - Press statement issued by Lawyers for Liberty 

India likely to force Facebook, WhatsApp to identify the originator of messages (TechCrunch)

Will India be able to enforce traceability on closed apps like WhatsApp and Telegram? This debate started in 2018, a year that witnessed several violent incidents and lynchings because of suspicious rumours on WhatsApp. The same year the Indian government proposed intermediary guidelines for social media companies and closed messaging apps. The controversial guidelines require platforms to trace the originators of a potentially problematic messages. The proposed amendments will be submitted to India's Supreme Court this month. 

In January 2020, international security experts wrote an open letter to the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology in India, expressing concerns about the amendments and urging him to drop traceability demands. 

  "Asking companies to comply with such a requirement would be “devastating” for international social media companies." - A New Delhi-based policy advocate 

Sifting truth from lies in the age of #fakenews (Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan)

In January 2020, the Pakistani research-based advocacy organization Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) released its report "Sifting truth from lies in the age of fake news", discussing the issues of false information and diminishing credibility of journalism in Pakistan. The report points towards the poor quality of fact-checking practices in Pakistani newsrooms and stresses on the urgent need to introduce media literacy trainings for journalists and media practitioners. 

  "Social media, particularly WhatsApp, is a hotbed for spread of false information"
- Digital Rights Foundation 

Human rights organizations condemn Qatar's 'fake news' law (Human Rights Watch)

A new law in Qatar claims to address the spread of false and misleading information by imposing tough prison sentences and a fine of more than $25,000. The new law outlines criminal penalties for anyone who “broadcasts, publishes, or republishes false or biased rumors, statements, or news, or inflammatory propaganda, domestically or abroad, with the intent to harm national interests, stir up public opinion, or infringe on the social system or the public system of the state.”

Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the move to impose tough penalties for spreading false information. Amnesty International also said earlier that the law would “significantly restrict freedom of expression in Qatar.”

  “Qatar should be removing legal provisions that restrict free expression, not adding more vague provisions like ‘fake news’ that chill critical public debate on important issues.” - Human Rights Watch 

Russian trolls impact protests in South America (Estadao Internacional)

According to US State Department analysts,Twitter accounts and bots linked to Russia helped spread “confusion” fueling protest in South American countries that opposed Nicolas Maduro's Moscow-backed government in Venezuela. In Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Columbia, Russia-linked accounts posted similar messages within minutes of one another. This campaign appears to be the latest evidence of a global disinformation war. 

  "In a few cases we can say that this is a continuation of the Cold War".
- Javier Lesava Equiroz, Researcher at Columbia University, New York 

YouTube actively promotes climate misinformation- study (The Guardian)

A report released by the non-profit Avaaz in mid-January reveals that YouTube has been “actively promoting” videos containing misinformation about climate change. The group analysed 5,537 videos by search terms 'climate change', 'global warming' and 'climate manipulation'. Videos in YouTube's 'up-next' feature contained information that goes against the scientific consensus on climate change. Avaaz also found that brands, including Samsung, L'Oreal and Decathalon had their adverts being played before and during the videos. 

  “YouTube should not feature, suggest, promote, advertise or lead users to misinformation.” - Julie Deruy, senior campaigner, Avaaz 

Open Source Investigation 

Black Gold Burning: In Search of South Sudan's Oil Pollution 
Bellingcat

What kind of health risks are posed by local oil spills?  During Sudan’s second civil war (1983-2005), the oil concession areas in the south became epicentres of conflict and massive human rights abuses. During the war, petrol companies from all over the world invested billions into the exploration and extraction of the oil. Yet absence of enforcement of environmental regulations, corruption, and lack of proper maintenance in oil infrastructure have been haunting the production since. Bellingcat's environment-focused open source investigation article is both a deep-dive into the numerous disturbing incidents and a small guide on monitoring oil spills and fires in the north of South Sudan.

Based on different media reports, Bellingcat identified various locations where oil spills contaminated land, resulted in large oil fires, and sparked social unrest in nearby villages. The full impact of oil fires on lives and livelihoods needs urgent on-the-ground investigation.

Open source investigation combined with freely available earth observation and remote sensing tools can be a powerful instrument to document and visualize incidents like the oil spills and fires and can be a helpful tool to hold both oil companies and governments accountable.

A more sustained and mainstreamed effort is needed to address the direct and long-term impacts of armed conflicts on the environment, the responsibility of governments and (international) corporations in relation to dealing with natural resource management and dealing with toxic substances in conflict-affected industries.