Action:  Following consultations with leading health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), it is expanding the list of false claims it will remove to include additional debunked claims about the coronavirus and vaccines. This includes claims such as: 

Facebook is continuing to improve Search results on platforms. When people search for vaccine or COVID-19 related content on Facebook, it promote relevant, authoritative results and provide third-party resources to connect people to expert information about vaccines.

Evidance:  Mis- and disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines based on the VAERS database has traveled internationally: false narratives citing VAERS reports have been posted on a lot of platforms, including mainstream social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Telegram, YouTube etc. Problematic claims about Covid-19 vaccines leaning on VAERS’ credibility have also been published in online articles and broadcast on television. 

 

Actions: create the ways to decrease the level of misinformation in media and social life

Political: 
*VAERS publications

a)      Delay publication of relevant data for the particular period to allow medical experts to assess it. 

b)     Do not publish publication online, or create the strong security system.

*Law 

a) Knowingly filing a false VAERS report is a federal offense

 

Civic: 

*First Draft 

a) Recommendations to journalists 

Ensuring VAERS reports are published with overlays or watermarks that provide disclaimers or context 

b) Recommendations to the health agencies 

Health agencies aware of the misuse of their data could publish prebunks to lessen the effect of common misinformation narratives.

 

Technological: 

*CDC 

a) The web-site with answers to common questions and myths about Covid-19 vaccines

b) Prebunks that specifically address misinformation relating to the VAERS database and reports

Evidence: Indians has shared on social media lots of tweets under the hashtag #UnitedAgainstJehad including references to the theory “love jihad”, the sexual violence perpetuated by Muslims and cases in which the rejection of the Muslim culture and costume lead a person to be violated, tortured, or killed. The hashtags have been also misspelled intentionally to avoid content moderation. Everything is done to vehiculate a violent, barbaric, and primitive picture of the Muslim world, as well as the fake news about the fact that Muslims were obliging Hindu girls to marry them. Moreover, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, signed the Citizenship Amendment Act. It allows Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Jain and Christian migrants from other country to have faster the citizenship, although it remains unaltered for Muslims. 

 

Action: In order to avoid this discrimination against Muslim, we could follow some steps, undertaken by ODHR (Office of Diversity and Human Rights), including:
1) develop educational policies and programs that help to fight hostility, and prejudice.

2) to collect data about the hate-motivated crimes

3) to provide training on hate crimes for non-government organization

4) to create international forums in which are underlined the ways to identify and avoid this kind of crimes. 

 

Moreover, we should not fight hatred with violence and fight united against every kind of discrimination, trying to explain to people our position, as most of the times the person you stand in front of is only someone who fell in the trap of fake news and misinformation. If anyone sees some discriminatory post, it should immediately report it. We need to support people living in this context of hatred and violence in all the ways possible, either financial or psychological. Social media should control more carefully the content spreading on their platforms, as well as check every kind of misspelled words in order to avoid restrictions.

^{Zaira Lombardo, Camilla Bersini, Paolo Piccio, Andy Misiuro}

 

Hong Kong unlike the rest of mainland China its officially considered as a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. Due to its recent handover (1997) from Britain the overall agreement between the two sides was that the PRC would not change the overall autonomy of Hong Kong. 

 

Many of the Hong Kongers still hold a western mind set due to their past. In recent events locals felt threatened by Beijing's oppressive approach (national security act enacted in 2019), thus resulting in a decline of trust in the Chinese government. 

 

Following Covid-19 events many in Hong Kong feel that the Chinese authorities impose their force in order to tackle the pandemic situation by encouraging the use of Chinese made vaccines. Because of the autonomy of Hong Kong, locals are free to choose vaccines made in the west such Pfizer, Moderna, Astrazeneca etc. 

 

Due to what we just described, the vaccination issue became a political matter. Just like any matter that is politicized, people supporting both sides started spreading mis-information to promote their agenda by using social media platforms such Facebook, Twitter, Tik-Tok and what not. 

Evidence: 

 

Actions: In order to propose possible solutions we should first of all: create a consciousness among the people of Hong Kong to separate their political beliefs from their medical choices. 

On top of that, we also believe that some algorithms that make this separation automatically and warn the audience about possible misleading information may be put in place.

Marco De Martini, Utku Ozan Ersoy & Franco Ramírez

In 2020, Rose crowdfunded nearly £1 million for a "Digital Freedom Platform" a video-hosting space exclusively for conspiracy theory videos, such as the viral “Plandemic” film, which was banned by Facebook and YouTube. One of the top most interacted-with Facebook posts containing a link to the “Digital Freedom Platform” promoted “Plandemic,” attracting more than 2,400 shares. Facebook has labeled the post as “partly false information.”

Moreover, lesser-known fringe candidates are also benefiting from amplification while promoting misleading pandemic content. David Kurten, a London Assembly member running as the Heritage Party candidate, saw his Twitter follower count rise from 27,700 to 68,900 over the last year, as he consistently promoted conspiracy theories that mRNA vaccines are “rushed,”  “experimental” and made from aborted fetuses. As part of his mayoral campaign, he was a vocal critic of so-called “vaccine passports” and frequently voiced his opposition to Covid-19 testing, masks and vaccines in Twitter posts with thousands of likes and retweets.

Actions:
1) Careful reporting about those candidates who spread the misinformation.
Social media should notify their audience about unreliable candidates which use fakes to gain political profits and provide them with educational podcasts.
2) Reporting responsibility and obligation to verification.
There should be legal punishment (for instance, fines) for those who intentionally distribute misinformation.

3) Simplify an opportunity for users to complain about fake news in social networks.
Security staff of social networks should check suspicious accounts or channels which have a significant number of reports  from users (special option "Fake News" should be introduced for such cases)

4) Mandatory disclaimer on the account in social networks of a person who regularly distributes fakes
After three posts which were proved to be fakes, there should be a special mark that this account provide followers with disinformation.

Semichev Dmitrii, Sovchik Eugene

Evidence : Two mainstream Indian news channels with many subscribers spread misleading and inflammatory claims about Tablighi Jamaat and Covid-19. The two news channels are ABC News and Zee News. Zee News made news regarding the speculation of Tablighi Jamaat's 'betrayal' to the country. Then ABC News also reported that Muslims in India were the cause of the coronavirus. The news was so viral, at least five news stories from 52 recommended videos of the news segment used language or spread information that demonized Muslims. The news greatly led to public opinion so that many comments insulted Muslims.

Action : Youtube is working with Google to tackle content that spreads misleading information and hate by improving several policies to reduce the content. Moreover, the Trust and Safety teams have been expanded to 20,000 to enforce policies and moderate content in multiple languages. Since India is the largest contributor to videos on Youtube, moderation of Indian language videos is the first priority. Youtube and Google have invested in automated systems and machine learning capabilities.

by Chintya Dasbhara

Evidence: Studies show that misinformation affects our thinking faster and more, and disproof of this information work worse because misinformation is hard to get out of our heads. That's why prevention, not cure, is better. For example, five minutes of playing the game "Go Viral!" can reduce susceptibility to misinformation for up to three months.

Action: All in all, we must deal with misinformation. As prevention is better than cure then we should know how to prebunk misleading knowledge. There are some recommendations to follow. To start with, one needs to know what is to be prebunked. Secondly, one needs to prepare truthful information that should be presented in an understandable and available way. Finally, one should realize and know how and where to share his prebunkment. Such small and simple tips can be very useful for anyone who wants to combat misinformation.

Made by: Temnova Aleksandra, Ivanova Xenia, Andrey Maikov

evidence: «Mis- and disinformation about Covid-19 vaccines based on the VAERS database has traveled internationally. First Draft researchers have recorded false narratives citing VAERS reports on just about every platform, including mainstream social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, fringe messaging apps such as Telegram and video platforms including YouTube and BitChute. Problematic claims about Covid-19 vaccines leaning on VAERS’ credibility have also been published in online articles and broadcast on television. Broadly, VAERS reports and data are often used in mis- and disinformation narratives to falsely assert or suggest that deaths, injuries or illnesses were caused by Covid-19 vaccines. However, as explained by the CDC and FDA, reports of adverse events following immunization with US-licensed vaccines can be made by anyone and may include incomplete, inaccurate, unverified or coincidental information. The highlighting of VAERS reports that could evoke strong emotional responses is a common tactic to stoke fears around vaccines, particularly with reports that detail a person’s injury or death and those that relate to children»

actions:

· Political - legislative control over spread of misinformation

· Civic - self-checking of sources that publish data - self-education about COVID-19 situation

· Technological

- increasing the security level of the VAERS resource

- control over the quantity and quality of VAERS data distribution

- specifying links to the source

Evidence: to prove the issue of islamophobia, we can recall these year events, then amid the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the group of pro-Hindu nationalists started a campaign in social media to spread anti-muslim messages using #UnitedAgainstJehad hashtag. Messages were accompanied by picture with instructions, for example to tweet at least 40 times. By May 13 there were over 11,000 post with hashtag, and by May 17 about 40,000 tweets posted by almost 6000 accounts. In their posts, they used alternative spellings and some kind of “aesopian language” in order to avoid moderation 

The idea of these people was to push anti-muslim messages in India and world, as they think that Islam threats to their culture, way of life and national security. Data analysis shows that 20% of accounts spreading such messages, were created between march and may, so they likely were created in coordination, specially for spreading such messages. 

Also, many of these tweets has references to “love jihad”, an islamophobic conspiracy theory created by Hindu nationalists which states that muslims target Indian women to convert them into islam, so to demographically replace Hindu people. These conspiracy exist for more than 10 years and highly influence public life in India, for example it contributed to success in elections of BJP, a right-wing nationalist party of India. 

so, how to combat the Islamophobia?

Glazkova Yana, Lemeshko Valentina, Shityakova Victoria, Mamporia Danil 

Evidence: In the spring of 2020, many publics on the Russian social network spread false statistics of the disease in order to gain popularity. According to official data, about 800,000 fake news was deleted by the VK administration irrevocably.

Action: VK created a special section with information about the current state of the epidemic, the number of cases infected in Russia. All information from this service provided by verified sources (WHO, the Russian Ministry of Health and other agencies)

VK also do the following : 

by Anna Ivanova, Xenia Ivanova, Alina Minzhulina, Ksenia Grishkova, Zlata Nikiforova.

In the past year, much of the disinformation seen in online Russian-language spaces directly or indirectly targeted the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) and its founder, Alexei Navalny.  And a new wave of suspicious online activity has emerged alongside the protest campaign kicked off by Navalny’s return and subsequent arrest. 

Young influencers asked to advance anti-opposition talking points on social media

Over the past decade, figures in or affiliated with the Russian government have been known to buy popular Telegram channels, allowing them to target the channel’s followers with  false claims about the opposition. 

Also, similar cases emerged on Instagram and TikTok — a platform virtually unknown to most Russian social media users just two years ago that in 2020 became one of the most-downloaded apps in the country. Amid the January protests, Russian TikTokers such as Boris Kantorovich reported being approached with requests to promote negative messages about Navalny and FBK in exchange for payment starting at 1,000 rubles, with higher payments for those with more followers.

On January 17, the day of Navalny’s return from Germany, Instagram users in Russia began seeing certain hashtags and locations flooded with dozens of photos of “human” faces. The faces bore the hallmarks of an artificial intelligence method called a generative adversarial network (GAN), which can create fake faces to substitute for easily traced photos of real people. The accounts with GAN-generated faces crowded out the authentic posts from the Red Square location on Instagram. 

Evidence: 

Some accounts that appear sympathetic to the protesters are being used in ways that could disrupt them. In one example, Twitter and Instagram accounts posing as Navalny’s mother, Lyudmila Navalnaya, emerged. The Twitter account quickly drew nearly 2,000 followers. But after activists reached out to her son, Oleg Navalny, and confirmed that those accounts did not belong to her, the Twitter page was rebranded as a generic pro-protest account. It was subsequently used to share broad messages of support for the protesters, but also misinformation, namely a tweet claiming a protest was scheduled for January 30. The real protest was the day after.

In a similar case, an account posing as legendary Russian actress Liya Akhedzhakova — known for her sympathy to Russia’s opposition — was also determined to be fake and deleted days after its creation, but not before gathering more than 30,000 followers.

It’s unclear who is behind the imposter accounts. But similar tactics have been employed by Russian and other state-affiliated actors to foment division in US and European politics, in some cases by mixing facts and fabrications.

Action 

As for the technological actions:

To prevent the misinformation and disorganization which are provided by fake accounts in social media it is needful to block such accounts as soon as possible - this decision should be based on the technical algorithms. Also if such content is provided by real people (paid bloggers) it is needful to mark such information as unreliable and unproved providing links to the sources where information can be verified and hiding unproved information from readers and watchers. 

As for civic actions:

We should enlighten other people how to verify information and provide them with knowledge which information is true and how to prove it.

As for political action:

Prominent politicians and public figures should inform society about fakes and such methods of creation misinformation

By Polina Khristyuk, Polina Ivanova, Kate Pankova and Anastasia Ershova

Evidence:  Despite the importance of HIV, there is no adequate coverage of the issue, the media and officials try to avoid the topic, very rarely mention statistics, and spread misinformation, which leads to social stigma and misunderstanding of the population.

Actions: 

1)     Political: 

a)     Encourage state-level financial support for organizations combating the spread of HIV. 

b)     finance organizations involved in HIV prevention.

2)     Law: Encourage in law (e.g., through tax incentives or material and media assistance) the activities of organizations and people involved in combating and preventing the spread of HIV.

3)     Civic: 

a)     Encourage (including in the media) charitable activities in this area.

b)     Promote the expansion of volunteer programs to combat and prevent HIV.

c)     Involve volunteers.

4)     Technological: Sponsor the development and distribution of HIV remedies and prevention tools to the world's most underdeveloped and vulnerable countries, as well as to developing countries

Evidence: Firstly, the misinformation you are talking about can reproduce its messages and emotions for your readers, possibly delivering it to more people than the original post. Secondly, visual effects, for example, the image that you are using, can be copied or taken a screenshot and used for malicious purposes by redistributing it.

Actions: Use new tools to move visual media in a safe way.  Overlays are among these tools.  Overlays is a visual filter placed over an image containing misinformation.

Seven principles of creating Overlays:

 1. watermark so the warning travels with the image 

 2. Protect against forgery (for example, finding ways to add bespoke illustrations and marks that are not acceptable to would-be forgers)

 3. Make sure the warning is noticeable 

 4. Avoid judgmental tone

 5. Provide context - about the misinformation and the overlay 

 6. Make sure it meets accessibility standards 

 7. Provide a way for people to verify the overlay

by Suslova Ekaterina

A First Draft review of coverage of vaccines on the sites found a number of questionable narratives about China’s vaccines — particularly the Sinopharm shot as well as Sinovac (also known as Coronavac).

In one example, a November 10 article on RFA’s Cantonese website, headlined “Clinical trial of Chinese vaccine halted in Brazil after causing serious incident,” lacked important context from local authorities. A serious incident had indeed occurred: the death of a participant in a local trial of the Sinovac vaccine. But Reuters reported November 9 that the death had been deemed a suicide and that an official had denied any link to the vaccine, a detail not noted in RFA’s article.

In their overall coverage of vaccines, the two RFA Chinese sites have in recent months rarely reported on the suspected adverse events linked to the main Western-manufactured Covid-19 vaccines. The sites did not cover the temporary suspension of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the US and Europe because of a rare type of blood-clotting disorder in a small number of recipients.

On top of several articles that lacked context and were potentially misleading, most of the sites’ recent vaccines coverage overall focuses on the Chinese-made vaccines, and was predominantly negative.

Launched in 1996, RFA publishes in English and nine other languages spoken in Asia. Its reporting on human rights violations in Myanmar, China’s Xinjiang region and elsewhere has received praise and awards. Some of its journalists face harassment, assault and even imprisonment in the countries where they work.

Actions: Misleading narratives about Chinese vaccines are spread mostly by Radio Free Asia (RFA), a news outlet funded by US government. Therefore, in order to stop spreading disinformation, we should influence US agenda about this issue.

We should raise awareness about the problem to fight against false information about the effectiveness of the vaccines. Discussion of this issue in independent media from different countries can draw public attention to the problem and It can influence agenda of the news outlets such as RFA.

RFA’s two Chinese sites have a combined following of over 1.4 million on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Many social media and websites have a special system of searching information about COVID-19, which helps them to provide users with authoritative results from health organizations.

by Ekaterina Churkina and Daria Boldanova

 Issue:

 

There are more and more claims about the dangers of the Chinese vaccine in the information space . The result of this phenomenon is hesitancy regarding the use of the Sinovac and the spread of misinformation about the remedy against  coronavirus.

 

 Evidence:

 

Originally, misleading narratives about Chinese vaccine apperad in the RFA websites (Radio Free Asia) , and then fake news about the consequences of the vaccine   became common .  However , The Hong Kong administration expressed dissatisfaction with the spread of criticism and fakes regarding the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. According to officials, attempts at sabotage are only worthy of condemnation. Earlier, the media began to receive information that a 63-year-old resident of Hong Kong died after vaccination. Further, the "chain of deaths from the vaccine" continued, and six more people became "victims of the vaccine". All cases were actively discussed in the media, in particular, there were suggestions that Sinovac causes some dangerous side effects, since all the victims received this particular vaccine. 

 

"I would like to condemn the small number of people who are trying to sabotage our efforts [on vaccination]. They spread fake news, misinformation, rumors through social networks, the media, in other ways," 

 

said Carrie Lam, the head of the Hong Kong administration. Government experts have previously clarified that there is no link between deaths and vaccines.

 

 

Actions :

 

It is necessary to fight against the false facts about Sinovac vaccine. Most of the deception derives from the RFA websites , that is why it will be effectively to make citizens from different states pay attention to reliable sources and truthful sites  to avoid misinformation. Additionally, people should be provided with scientific facts about chinese vaccine .  Indeed, Indonesian state-owned pharmaceutical company Bio Farma reported that interim data on trials of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine demonstrated its effectiveness at up to 97%. Another point is dissemination of information about the presence of a false source . This action will help to influence on Radio Free Asia and prevent further misinformation.

Participants: Nastya Korotunenko, Polina Lukina

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evidence: Journalists are typically on the frontline when crises hit, bearing witness to historical events, be it the collapse of a regime or the unfolding of a once-a-century pandemic. And some events have taught us that journalists who cover online misinformation can be exposed to real-life security risks. According to The Guardian, 42 journalists and media workers have been killed while doing their jobs in 2020, according to the International Federation of Journalists’ annual tally. A further 235 are in prison in cases related to their work, the report showed.

Action: Article provides 10 useful tips for professional journalists to protect themselves in critical situations:

1) Assess personal safety: keep your eye on surroundings and people around, check whether they are suspiciously interested in your work. Cover your webcam and microphone and if available, apply a privacy screen protector. Keep your organization updated with your whereabouts and contact methods.

2) Stay connected with external contacts: contact your families, friends and colleagues outside the country, keep them updated about your situation and provide them with your online and offline contact methods.

3) Cover your digital tracks
Download browser extensions such as "HTTPS Everywhere" that automatically switch websites from insecure “HTTP” to secure “HTTPS” and protect against account hijacking and surveillance.

4) Secure email provider: anyone can see what’s on your screen with relative ease if you use a free wireless network and an unsecured email provider. 

5) Self-destructing messaging app with end-to-end encryption choose a messaging app with end-to-end encryption for your text messages, group chats, data transfers and voice calls, and ideally one that allows you to automatically erase, or “self-destruct” your messages, such as Signal.

6) Lock social media accounts: in a crisis, you would better deactivate all your social media accounts and memorize your passwords; delete the accounts if necessary.

7) Passwords, two-factor authentication: generate complex passwords using password managers like LastPass and Dashlane, and store them in their encrypted database.

8) Separate browsers and social accounts for work and personal use
Use unrelated, complex passwords on both browsers, and keep your work accounts strictly professional to protect your privacy.

9) Social media scrubbing: scrub your social media accounts with apps like Jumble and Scrubber that can detect and delete old posts based on various filters (e.g. religious and political content)

10) Editorial policy: work with your organization to outline the physical and digital security protocols for your team. Always blur the name, user ID and profile photo of a social media user before publishing screenshots of social posts.

Evidences:

Actions:

There is clearly a tendency among imageboard (4chan, 8kun) users not to trust official statistics and reports, refer to unverified sources and spread conspiracy theories mostly by sharing YouTube and BitChute video links.

Evidence:
Carlotta Dotto's investigation, using URL analysis, showed more than 2,000 posts united by the theme of distrust about the existence of global warming or the influence of people on the climate

Action:
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said that 2021 will be a “crucial year for action on climate change.”

A separate UN survey showed broad global support for more action being taken to address this “global emergency.”

Unreliable content is marked with the appropriate identification mark on many platforms (for example Twitter)

Kostylev Maximilian

p.s. well, the original document looks a little prettier i swear. i suppose the site dithers images for servers storage economy

Evidence: according to the article, it was found that there were at least 3,200 posts, attracting 142,049 likes, shares and comments, that had been posted on the platform after the ban. 

Actions: 

Facebook and What’s App cooperate with WHO and distribute verified information about  vaccine in different languages. Therefore millions of people receive trustworthy data about coronavirus.

A special ChatBot was created within social networks that supply people with all essential and verified information.

In certain countries it has been made illegal to post misinformation about coronavirus on social networks, otherwise a person will receive a fine or will be banned. The rules are getting more and strict. 

Evidences:

Actions:

The work was done by Amina Akhmineeva, Margarita Kolpakova, Elizaveta Testova

The unproven lab-leak theory that the SARS-CoV-2 virus might have originated from a Wuhan lab (China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology) have crept back into the headlines.

Evidence: 

Action:

In 2020, when people were the most worried about Covid-19 and therefore willing to trust unreliable sourses, Facebook and other social media platforms removed any assertion that Covid was man-made.

Made by Kseniya Khlopkova.

Governments of many countries give benefits for vaccinated people and restrict antivaxxers. This looks suspicious for adepts of conspiracy theories. They have a point that this is attack on freedom. Another problem is that misinformation creators start use medical report in hyperbolized manner. They exaggerate some problems and bring coincidences like patterns

In Britain, after developing of variant Delta, some vaccinated people died. Enemies of vaccine started to point on that this problem started after vaccine. Another evidence is story with Pfizer and myocarditis. Medical reports say that Pfizer and Moderna have a little bit more occasions of myocarditis than it was thinking. This news was started using by antivaxxers like a proof of inefficiency of these vaccines. Moreover, misinformation harmed women too. The news about that 4000 women had problems with menstruation, but this was drop out from the context.

4.    Use English for the researches as many articles and information are in this language. 

by Egor Kuzovchikov, Anastasia Goryacheva, Anna Michaylova, Alexander Svyatrin