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Aviv Ovadya on the future of fighting disinformation

Aviv Ovadya’s work focuses on ensuring information ecosystems, and the platforms that provide them, have the proper safeguards in place to inhibit false information and prevent bad faith actors from influencing discourse.

The democratization of information sharing through ICT has had significant positive impacts, Aviv points out. By circumventing the channels of authoritarianism, access to information and its content is more democratic than ever before. The cost of rumours and disinformation, of course, is the downside of these same tools developing and becoming wildly available. Because of the way information spreads in 2018, ethnic tensions are inevitably going to be vulnerable to such tools, Aviv points out. 

One of the strange ironies of the newfound mis-and-disinformation problems being experienced in the US is that the existence of this phenomenon in the developing world is garnering attention, now that the problem is a US one as well. As academic researchers, as well as practitioners on the ground seek the best paths forward to fight disinformation in the West, rumours and falsities being used to stoke tensions in conflict-fragile states can also start receiving the pushback they need.

The nature of disinformation: Interview with Ben Nimmo

Ben Nimmo’s research at the Digital Forensics lab at the Atlantic council explores how disinformation is spread, what form it takes and what its motivations are. At the recent Contentious Narratives conference at GW’s Elliot School of International Affairs, Ben outlined the best examples he has encountered which combat disinformation.

The majority of disinformation is often poorly constructed and executed, Ben outlines – which in turn means some of the best tools available to combat it are also simple. Amnesty International in Iraq have produced an online tool that allows users to determine the date of a video, so as to avoid footage misleading communities about when an atrocity took place.

The simplicity of methods such as these on ICT platforms enable all individuals, not just journalists and mediators, to identify disinformation being spread. Ben also points out how these ICT methods serve as the Launchpad for educating populations about the existence of disinformation and how they can prevent it from influencing events in the future.

Whenever a new communications platform is developed, disinformation inevitably appears, Ben outlines. This disinformation moment is no different, expect in one regard – that new tools are appearing far more rapidly. These upstart platforms will need to just as rapidly find ways to police themselves.

Mass Media and Nationhood: Interview with Camber Warren

Camber Warren’s research explores how concepts of nationhood and group identity have evolved as the modern tools of mass communication have expanded into developing nations that are conflict-fragile.

Camber highlights Nigeria as the ‘textbook example’ of a nation where a disjuncture has arisen due to the appearance of smart phones and social media. The rich and vibrant mass media environment in the more developed south is now buttressing up against a rapidly developing social media infrastructure in the previously isolated north, which he contends is spurring on the existing religious and cultural divides – and perhaps even violence itself.

The Nigeria example contrasts with the high levels of national integration we find in Europe, which have among the oldest mass media infrastructures in the world. The new horizontal structures arising due to ICT appear to be threatening this in developing nations without this existing nationhood framework.

What are the best examples we can find in countries like Nigeria where mass media is being used to build bridges and encourage national solidarity, rather than disrupt it? Radio Dandal Kura, operating in northern Nigeria, broadcasts in the same languages used by Boko Haram and creates a new public sphere across the region that is dampening the effectiveness of extremists in recruiting and radicalizing.

Cell phones, in the aggregate, do appear to have enabled violence to be more easily organized, Camber claims. Establishing a stable, united nation will depend on these same tools encouraging a solidarity and a shared conversation that can overcome the divisions that, in some cases, have been exacerbated by ICT.

A disinformation 'moment', or a long term trend? Interview with Kate Starbird

Kate Starbird's research is situated within human-computer interaction (HCI) and the emerging field of crisis informatics—the study of the how information-communication technologies (ICTs) are used during crisis events. More specifically, her research examines how people use social media to seek, share, and make sense of information after natural disasters (such as earthquakes and hurricanes) and man-made disasters (such as acts of terrorism and mass shooting events). Kate's research deals firsthand with the nature of disinformation that flourishes in the developing world, now often transmitted through ICT technologies. She points out how the spread of misinformation following disaster events or violence is often accidental - where events move so fast that the proper information is obscured. This would sometimes even occur among journalists, where due to the need for stories to be broken as early as possible, errant facts would spread like wildfire. As for whether this current proliferation of false information is a blip or a long-term trend, Kate suggests that it is here to stay as long as technology is not evolving to keep pace with this new rapid-fire spread of information. But she also makes it clear that moreso than the need for a technological development, the symptoms of the misinformation crisis are more to do with culture and education than anything else.

Strategic Narratives: Interview with Professor Laura Roselle

At the recent Contentious Narratives conference at GW's Elliot School of International Affairs, Professor Laura Roselle discussed her conception of 'strategic narratives' - the use of communicative tools by political actors to shape their roles in a rapidly changing world order.

The presence of new ICT technologies in developing nations is a similar phenomenon, in terms of its ability to present new narrative possibilites for both leaders and sub-groups within a state. In conflict-fragile states such as South Sudan, ethnic rivalries have been exacerbated by ICT enhancing group solidarity and amplfying perceived aggression or hostility from other groups - narrative arcs that can lead to bloodshed.

These same strategic narratives can also be used to reconcile divided societies. In Kenya, there have been successful cases of inter-ethnic cooperation following periods of violence, through ICT. Rather than encouraging division, these tools were used to crowdsource inter-group policing under the banner of a united Kenya.

The use of a strategic narrative can both hinder and encourage violence in these conflict-fragile states. Roselle's conception of these narrative arcs, and how they can come to define the consequences of political change, is vital to consider when examining the effects of ICT in the developing world.