At the NGIForum 2018, Prof. Jamal Shahin (VUB and GIPO) led this discussion on tackling online disinformation.
Prof. Shahin represented the weight of the disinformation crisis by citing an example of how some kids believed that Titanic was burnt upon watching an Youtube video. In the wake of this, Prof. Shahin presented some illuminating statistics, only 2% of children have the critical literacy skills they need to tell if a news story is real or fake, half of teachers (53.5%) believe that the national curriculum does not equip children with the literacy skills they need to identify fake news. Two broad questions to handle this issue were raised - What critical skills do we need to have to overcome disinformation? and what tools do we need to overcome disinformation in the NGI?.
A number of challenges related to tackling online disinformation were presented - Skills (digital literacy); how to reach out into the Public sphere and the news media ecosystem; tools, techniques and algorithms required for overcoming disinformation; and where does the liability or responsibilty lies.
Prof. Shahin also involved the audience of NGIForum in an interesting poll about how to face online disinformation. A number of answers were recorded from the participants on the following possible solutions:
• Through self-regulation (5.2 /10);
• Through support to quality journalism (7.7 /10);
• Through regulation (5.0 /10);
• Through education (8.7 /10);
• Non-intervention – the marketplace of ideas will deal with it (2.8 /10).
Human Values, Challenges, Solutions, Initiatives, Gaps and R&I needs related to Tackling online disinformation are listed below.
| The following Human Values were identified in relation to this topic |
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| The following Challenges were identified in relation to these Human values |
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| The participants identified a number of Potential Solutions to address the challenges |
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| A number of known initiatives / projects were identified addressing the solutions |
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| Identified Gaps |
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| R&I Needs to fill the gaps |
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2 comments on "Tackling Online Disinformation: A European Approach"
Tackling fake news and online disinformation
Ahead of the European elections coming up in May, the European Commission is asking Facebook, Google and Twitter to do more across all EU countries to help protect the integrity of the elections.
The EU wants more fact-checkers and academic researchers to detect disinformation campaigns and to make fact-checked content more visible and widespread on these platforms. Find out more here: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_STATEMENT-19-1379_en.htm?utm_campai...
It is very important to ask the tech titans to do more...
It is very important to ask the tech titans to do more... and I don't think they are going to be vert effective at dealing with the problem. One of their big problems is they make it very easy for people to create bogus accounts so they can be flooded by disinformation from virtually anonymous sources. At the moment, they are overwhelmed but the volume of inappropriate content posted to their services and inadequately equipped to discern disinformation, which is much more challenging to deal with than simply inappropriate content. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8514697/facebook-moderators-drugs-sex-ptsd... A completely different approach is needed. Let's see if they are up to it.