Disinformation campaigns, hate speech regulation and climate information
Disinformation targeting protestors in Sri Lanka and a presidential candidate in the Philippines, shortcomings in Kenya's speech regulation, and a new climate information initiative
Hey Checklisters!
We hope you’ve had a great week.
In this edition, we look at disinformation campaigns attempting to undermine the ongoing protests in Sri Lanka over rising food and fuel prices, questions over hate speech regulation in Kenya, a disinformation campaign targeting the only female presidential candidate in the Philippines using fake sexual material, and a new project by Maldita.es to respond to questions from the public about climate change.
We also welcome Haramoun Hamieh, who joins Meedan and the Check Global team as the program manager for the North Africa/West Asia (NAWA) region.
If there are updates you would like us to share from your country or region, please reach out to us at checklist@meedan.com.
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The latest top stories
Disinformation campaigns attempt to undermine Sri Lankan protests (Rest of World)
As protests demanding for the ouster of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa due to rising food and fuel prices continue, online influence operations attempting to undermine the integrity of the protests are growing. Disinformation researcher Dr. Sanjana Hattotuwa has identified hundreds of proxy accounts and Facebook pages associated with the Rajapaksa family publishing memes to discredit the mass protests.
"There’s an attempt that is ongoing [to discredit the protests] that has been engineered by a cluster of pages linked to the Rajapaksa family... It’s what I call 'narrative corruption'. If I were to put it in one sentence, the thrust of the pages is to deflect attention and anger away from the First Family, whereas in the past it was to generate hate, hurt, and harm against a specific community — Dr. Sanjana Hattotuwa, disinformation researcher
Latest approach to Kenya election hate speech raises more questions than answers (The Conversation)
Kenya's National Cohesion and Integration Commission has published a list of words and phrases it deems likely to foment ethnic hatred in the country ahead of general elections in August 2022, but the commission lacks legal mechanisms to act against perpetrators and can only make recommendations to relevant authorities, meaning that politicians, musicians, media practitioners and other actors are likely to get away with hate speech charges.
"Political sloganeering will always be about competition, rivalries and staking out turf. It will indicate rivalries and antagonism and will often seek to demonise the other side. Some of that will, indeed, be extremist and objectionable but it can hardly be deemed as hate speech" — Macharia Gaitho, Kenyan political commentator
Fake sexual material targets the only woman running for president in the Philippines (NPR)
Leni Robredo, the current vice president of the Philippines, and the only female presidential candidate in the upcoming national election, has been the target of a disinformation campaign, with fake sexually explicit material targeting her daughter Aika emerging online. Ms Robredo is the chief rival of frontrunner Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr, whose campaign denies any involvement, accusing Robredo of "black propaganda."
In an election campaign swimming in disinformation, the attempt to smear the Robredo family is "a new low". "This is gutter politics at its lowest. And the most debased act any partisan can engage in. However, this is the social media ecology that has developed over the last almost six years" — Ronnie Holmes, president of the polling firm Pulse Asia
What is Maldito Clima? (Maldita.es)
Spanish fact-checking initiative Maldita has launched Maldito Clima (Cursed Climate), a project that aims to help the public interpret the climate crisis, debunk false climate-related content and, with the help of expert sources and scientific evidence, to explain how the climate crisis is a reality that affects health, the economy, energy, urban planning, agriculture and migration.
"The urgency of the climate crisis and its repercussions in all areas of life are essential. Maldito Clima is a space where, in addition to fighting climate misinformation, Maldita’s team will answer the public’s questions about the environment that come through their Whats App tipline, Twitter and website” — Maldita.es statement
What’s new at Meedan
Welcome Haramoun Hamieh, our Program Manager for NAWA
We are pleased to welcome Haramoun Hamieh, our new Check Global Program Manager for the North Africa/West Asia (NAWA) region. Haramoun has a background in political science, and he brings a wealth of experience, having worked as a news editor, digital storyteller, and content producer, helping to transform social and economic policy research into accessible infographics and visual explainers.