Bans, Blocks and Bad Political Actors
Potential Telegram ban in Brazil, Political Misinformation in Côte d’Ivoire and YouTube bans in India
Hey Checklisters!
Here are the stories we’re paying attention to this week.
Brazil’s highest electoral court, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), could ban Telegram in the country. The TSE has entered into partnerships with most of the main social media platforms operating in Brazil to curb the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of the country’s electoral system ahead of polls in October 2022. Telegram, which is the second most-used platform in Brazil, is yet to send a representative to meet with the TSE.
We also look at the impact of misinformation in Côte d’Ivoire, where a new report has found that political actors in the country used anonymous proxy accounts and sophisticated PR operations to weaponize false information in order to gain political clout, and this led to real world harm.
We also look at the most recent online conflict between Pakistan and India, which has seen 35 Pakistan-based YouTube channels and two websites for being banned in India for ‘spreading anti-India fake news in a coordinated manner over digital media’, the second such action by the Indian government in one month.
If there are updates you would like us to share from your country or region, please reach out to us at checklist@meedan.com.
The Checklist is currently read by over 1000 subscribers. Support us by sharing this issue with friends and colleagues.
The latest top stories
Brazil electoral court could ban Telegram app for not fighting fake news (Reuters)
Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) is considering whether to ban the messaging app Telegram during the run-up to October elections because it has not responded to requests to help combat the spread of misinformation. Telegram is the second-most popular messaging service in Brazil, and the head of the TSE electoral court, Luis Roberto Barroso, has sought to meet with the company’s executive director and founder Pavel Durov to discuss ways to combat the spread of false information.
"No relevant actor in the 2022 electoral process can operate in Brazil without adequate legal representation, responsible for complying with national legislation and judicial decisions" - Luis Roberto Barroso, head of the TSE electoral court
The genocide that never was and the rise of fake news in Côte d’Ivoire (African Arguments)
A recent report by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) shows that misinformation and disinformation played an influential role in Côte d’Ivoire's 2020 presidential elections, causing offline harm in several instances. The report states that political actors in the country used anonymous online avatars, cyber activists and teams specialising in digital reputation management to promote their parties and policies, in the process contributing to incidents of violence around the 2020 election in which more than 50 people were killed.
“Fake news is a political weapon in Côte d’Ivoire. It is very, very, very politicised… Around the elections, everyone was using fake news to destabilise their opponents” - Ivorian journalist interviewed for the CDD report
India blocks 35 YouTube channels, calls them ‘Pakistan’s fake news factories’ (Hindustan Times)
India has ordered blocking of 35 Pakistan-based YouTube channels and two websites for “spreading anti-India fake news in a coordinated manner over digital media”, the government said on Friday. This is the second instance in one month of the Indian government blocking Pakistan-based YouTube channels and websites. On December 21, 20 YouTube channels were blocked for fake news.
"These channels were toxic and spreading anti-India propaganda. More and more such channels will continue to be blocked. Not only intelligence agencies, we urge the people to come forward and notify us of such content...This is also the responsibility of the intermediaries. YouTube should also see that these are absolutely fake news." - Apurva Chandra, information and broadcasting ministry secretary
What’s new at Meedan
Omidyar Network Supports Meedan on Misinformation Response
Thanks to renewed funding from Omidyar Network, Meedan’s Digital Health Lab is expanding its health misinformation response efforts in support of journalists and fact-checkers, and the research team is digging further into the dynamics of misinformation on closed and encrypted messaging platforms and building tools to help fact-checkers.