Oct 23, 2021

Recent Misinformation Researches

Mehmet Safak Sari

In recent years, I have been working on fact-checking and misinformation. I hope that I will also be in academic work in the future. So I’ve been collecting and reading articles.

Shorenstein Center‘s Misinformation Review is a great resource where studies on the field are published actively and up to date. Below are the articles which I want to share with you that caught my attention recently.

The authors of this essay demonstrate how, in an effort to protect the privacy of their users, alterations made by companies like Facebook to large-scale datasets can substantially affect conclusions drawn from that data by academic researchers and data journalists.

Research note: Examining potential bias in large-scale censored data | HKS Misinformation Review

We examine potential bias in Facebook’s 10-trillion cell URLs dataset, consisting of URLs shared on its platform and their engagement metrics.

misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu

In this review of the European Democracy Action Plan (EDAP) introduced in 2020, the author of this essay argues that measures to combat disinformation within EDAP fall short and fail to address critical issues such as the regulation of harmful but lawful content.

Self-regulation 2:0? A critical reflection of the European fight against disinformation | HKS Misinformation Review

In presenting the European Democracy Action Plan (EDAP) in 2020, the European Commission pledged to build more resilient democracies across the EU. […]

misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu

In order to explore how ordinary users evaluate fake or manipulated images (and the most effective ways to label and correct such falsities), the authors of this study designed a visual forensic label of image authenticity and tested the label’s efficacy in an experiment with 2440 participants.

Research note: This photograph has been altered: Testing the effectiveness of image forensic labeling on news image credibility | HKS Misinformation Review

Despite the ubiquity of images and videos in online news environments, much of the existing research on misinformation and its correction is solely focused on textual misinformation, and little is known about how ordinary users evaluate fake or manipulated images and the most effective ways to label and correct such falsities.

misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu

The authors of this paper demonstrate how source alerts, including fact-check corrections and warnings of possible falsity, attached to pseudonymous posts on social media can reduce the likelihood that users will believe and share disinformation produced by foreign governments.

Source alerts can reduce the harms of foreign disinformation | HKS Misinformation Review

Social media companies have begun to use content-based alerts in their efforts to combat mis- and disinformation, including fact-check corrections and warnings of possible falsity, such as “This claim about election fraud is disputed.”

misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu

With the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic came a flood of novel misinformation. The authors of this essay examine how the world’s fact-checking organizations met the moment by scaling up their capacity to combat coronavirus-related misinformation, and explore the effect this activity has on user engagement with fact-checking content.

How COVID drove the evolution of fact-checking | HKS Misinformation Review

With the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic came a flood of novel misinformation. Ranging from harmless false cures to dangerous rhetoric targeting minorities, coronavirus-related misinformation spread quickly wherever the virus itself did.

misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu

If you want to contact me, my Twitter address. All my other contact information is in the profile of the newsletter. Click here to see old bulletins.

See you around then 🤟

Safak.

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Mehmet Safak Sari @msafaksari

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