Facebook's failings in India & coordinated disinformation campaigns around the world
We hope you had a great week. In this edition, we look at the worrying trend of governments and other actors setting up fake social media accounts in order to spread misinformation and manipulate public opinion, as well as continued revelations from the Facebook Papers in India.
Facebook has been accused of failing to contain and remove incitements to violence by Hindu nationalists in India, the platform’s biggest market. The Facebook Papers have shown that Facebook has declined to put enough resources into ensuring the safety of its platforms on languages other than English.
We also look at disinformation on Kenyan social media that attempted to exonerate Uhuru Kenyatta, the country's president, whose family has been mentioned in the Pandora Papers as having holdings in offshore tax havens. Additionally, we examine how Myanmar's government is using fake social accounts to denounce critics and monitor their online activity
Finally, a PR firm was found to be spreading disinformation in Honduras ahead of elections in the country. The firm was found to have set up a network of websites and fake pages that impersonate news outlets.
That's it for your weekly roundup of misinformation news, updates and threats. Please share your feedback and invite your friends to sign up here.
The latest top stories
Facebook Let an Islamophobic Conspiracy Theory Flourish in India Despite Employees' Warnings (Time)
Facebook has deemed India a “tier one” country—its highest ranking in a tier system that decides how the company prioritizes its resources building safety systems in countries at risk of violence. But the documents show that Facebook spends only a small minority of its total investment in the safety of its platforms on languages other than English, and on jurisdictions outside the U.S. In India, Facebook’s biggest market, with more than 300 million users, the company has been accused by watchdogs and opposition politicians of wilfully turning a blind eye to incitement to violence by Hindu nationalists.
"Internet and telecommunication services were disconnected for most of the day to prevent dissemination of the violent act on news outlets and social media. We are deeply concerned that the army and its co-perpetrators will resort to more violence." — Hussein Malik, political analyst
New Research: In Kenya, Disinformation Campaigns Seek to Discredit Pandora Papers (Mozilla Foundation)
As Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta faces blowback from the bombshell Pandora Papers, online disinformation campaigns are attempting to exonerate the leader, according to new research by the Mozilla Foundation.
The investigation found that well-paid disinformation influencers in Kenya have used sophisticated tactics to impersonate prominent individuals and manipulate Twitter’s trending algorithm, using manufactured tweets to get hashtags in support of the president to trend.
"When the Pandora Papers were first released, Kenyan Twitter users were outraged that their president was implicated. But like clockwork, an alternative sentiment quickly emerged, supporting the president and his offshore accounts. Some of the tweets promoting this alternative sentiment included outright lies. But other tweets were more nuanced: technically true, but clearly inauthentic and coordinated to feign public support" — Odanga Madung, Mozilla fellow
'Information combat': Inside the fight for Myanmar's soul (Reuters)
Facebook's failure to deploy enough resources in India's 22 officially recognised languages and a lack of cultural sensitivity has left it struggling to combat misinformation in the country, reported New York Times. The reality is more complex and multi-layered. This includes Facebook's poor content moderation and the social network's algorithms, organized and carefully mined disinformation campaigns in the country and allegations that Facebook favours the governing party.
"Soldiers are asked to create several fake accounts and are given content segments and talking points that they have to post, said Captain Nyi Thuta, who defected from the army to join rebel forces at the end of February. "They also monitor activity online and join (anti-coup) online groups to track them."
Prominent PR firm spreading disinformation ahead of Honduran elections (Rest of World)
A new investigation by Honduran investigative outlet Contracorriente suggests that a disinformation effort tied to a renowned Latin American political communications agency is running a network of websites and Facebook pages made to look like news outlets in order to disseminate misinformation campaigns. These efforts are intensifying ahead of Honduras’ presidential elections, which will be held on November 28.
"It’s just the easiest way to play with emotions and to create fear and increase distrust in the whole system,” — Tiziano Breda, a Central America analyst for the International Crisis Group.
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