Thank you and farewell (for now)

Dear Readers,

As the year comes to an end, so will the current iteration of the Disinfo Cloud platform and the Disinfo Cloud Digest. Disinfo Cloud will enter a new phase in 2022, independent of the Global Engagement Center (GEC). The GEC’s work to amplify technology solutions to the problems of disinformation will continue though, so stay tuned for information directly from them as to the next iteration of community building!

Since its inception in August 2019, Disinfo Cloud has helped users identify relevant tools and technologies that can assist in their mission to counter disinformation and propaganda. We’ve identified and assessed over 365 tools and technologies and, as part of the Testbed effort implemented in collaboration with the GEC’s Technology Engagement Team, we’ve helped run over 30 operational tests with 25 different offices to validate and see these tools in action.

In that time, our Disinfo Cloud community has grown to over 2000 users, representing government, private industry, academia, and civil society from across the globe.

We launched our weekly Disinfo Cloud Digest in December 2020 to keep this community informed of the latest news, events, funding opportunities, and other updates related to disinformation, including from the tech vendors featured on Disinfo Cloud. This year, we summarized close to 350 events (up from 150 last year!)—you can find key trends and insights from these events here.

We are grateful for the overwhelmingly positive responses to the survey about the Digest and will take your feedback into consideration as we continue to evolve and transition Disinfo Cloud into the next phase of operation.

Over the past two years, we also organized three international Tech Challenges (in Asia, Africa, and Europe), convening over 300 diverse stakeholders to raise awareness of and help advance innovative counter-disinformation tech solutions. Through the Tech Challenges, we identified over 110 tools and technologies, resulting in 8 awardees that used their funding to implement creative projects in support of the GEC and its partners.

We’re proud of the community we’ve built and all the work we’ve accomplished in this short space of time. We’re also appreciative of the support from and collaboration with the GEC’s Technology Engagement Team over the past three years. And, of course, we’re grateful to our tech vendor community—thank you for sharing your time, insights, and innovative tools to better prepare us to tackle the ever-evolving disinformation threat.

We send our best wishes for a safe and joyous holiday season and we look forward to staying in touch in the new year.

Warm regards,

Christina Nemr

Director

Park Advisors - Administrator of Disinfo Cloud

P.S. - Read on for a snapshot of some of the exciting accomplishments over the past three years and a list of other curated newsletters that provide disinformation-related news and updates to fill the Disinfo Cloud Digest void.

Promoting localized, digital engagement campaigns to counter mis/disinformation

The U.S.-Africa Tech Challenge resulted in a collaborative effort to address vaccine hesitancy and mis/disinformation in South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The awardees – AIfluence, Sea Monster, and Congo Check – implemented two messaging campaigns that increased positive sentiment surrounding COVID-19 vaccines and drove local conversations on vaccine safety, helping to educate audiences and combat mis/disinformation.

The South African campaign successfully utilized local influencers to reach over 5 million people, helping reduce negative vaccine sentiment from 12% to 9% among the audiences reached. See here for videos produced as part of the campaign.

The DRC campaign employed an SMS fact-checking system to counter mis/disinformation, sending out over 500,000 SMS messages and registering over 13,000 new uers to the SMS messaging system.

The project showed how complementary capabilities can be leveraged to drive localized, community-based, and strategic messaging campaigns to help counter mis/disinformation and fill information vacuums.

Raising awareness of foreign propaganda and disinformation

In March 2019, Park Advisors published Weapons of Mass Distraction: Foreign State Sponsored Disinformation in the Digital Age (WMD), an interdisciplinary review of the human and technological vulnerabilities to propaganda and disinformation as well as an overview of several countries notable for such operations, including Russia and China.

In May 2021, a follow-up report, Fanning the Flames: Foreign State-Sponsored Disinformation in the Time of COVID, examined how the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting infodemic was exploited by state actors and detailed the responses by governments, online platforms, and civil society. Combined, the reports have been downloaded over 3,500 times and the WMD report has been cited by a number of reputable organizations, including as a resource in the Homeland Security Digital Library.

Inoculating users against disinformation

Harmony Square is an online game that helps build resilience against disinformation and propaganda in electoral contexts. It was developed by the GEC, DHS-CISA, and Park Advisors, in collaboration with DROG and Cambridge University, and was modeled after DROG’s previously developed Bad News Game.

Following a randomized controlled trial, Cambridge confirmed the effectiveness of Harmony Square as a tool to teach manipulation techniques commonly used online. The game has been translated into multiple languages and has been played by over 105,000 people in 193 different countries.

Mourning the loss of the Digest? Fill the void with these resources

You can still keep up with disinformation-related news, events, and other updates by subscribing to these curated newsletters:

The Partnership on Countering Influence Operations (PCIO) sends a morning media brief from Monday-Thursday.

EU DisinfoLab provides weekly updates around political and legal developments, research, events, and more.

First Draft sends daily and weekly briefings on topics related to misinformation.

Kinzen offers a Weekly Wrap of disinformation-related news and updates.

The German Marshall Fund offers relevant newsletters, including weekly analysis by the ASD on authoritarian interference and disinformation efforts.

NED offers relevant newsletters, including Digital Directions, a biweekly update on digital technologies, information integrity, and democracy.

BBC’s Disinformation Watch offers bi-weekly coverage of the latest disinformation-related news, including case studies and research.

Rest of World’s newsletter provides weekly updates on digital news throughout the Global South, plus bi-weekly coverage specific to South Asia and Latin America.

The World Wide Web Foundation sends weekly briefings on topics related to digital technology, including misinformation.

You are receiving this newsletter because you signed up for it or you’ve previously signed up for Disinfo Cloud.

Disinformation undermines trust in the truth—and each other. How can we fight back?

Disinfo Cloud is an online hub connecting governments, private sector, media, academia, and civil society in the fight against foreign-sponsored disinformation.

Visit our Disinfo Cloud blog for these news updates and other relevant information regarding foreign-sponsored disinformation.

Thanks for reading!