FactSpace West Africa’s Post

Here's how platforms can protect the polls: There are very practical steps that can make a real difference. But what's less clear is: will social media come to the party and mitigate predictable online harms during South Africa's elections? In this piece, I highlight the value of the shadow platform human rights impact assessment for the polls, adopted by the SA National Editors Forum recently.

New Post: Edo, Ondo polls: Experts task journalists on conflict-sensitive reporting - https://lnkd.in/dPdumZkT from the media and civil society have tasked journalists to be careful in their coverage of the forthcoming elections in Edo and Ondo states to prevent tensions and conflicts. The experts gave the advice on Wednesday, at a Webinar titled: Conflict Sensitive Reporting and Election: Best Practices and Ethical Considerations in Edo State organised […]Experts from the media and civil society have tasked journalists to be careful in their coverage of the forthcoming elections in Edo and Ondo states to prevent tensions and conflicts. The experts gave the advice on Wednesday, at a Webinar titled: Conflict Sensitive Reporting and Election: Best Practices and Ethical Considerations in Edo State organised Read More Experts from the media and civil society have tasked journalists to be careful in their coverage of the forthcoming elections in Edo and Ondo states to prevent tensions and conflicts. The experts gave the advice on Wednesday, at a Webinar titled: Conflict Sensitive Reporting and Election: Best Practices and Ethical Considerations in Edo State organised Read More Oracle

Tunisian Presidential Candidates Complain of Restrictions and Intimidation Tunisian opposition parties, presidential candidates, and human rights groups have raised serious allegations against the current administration, accusing it of employing arbitrary restrictions and intimidation tactics to secure the re-election… #Election #HumanRights #PresidentialCandidate #Tunisia >>> Read more

New Post: Edo, Ondo polls: Experts task journalists on conflict-sensitive reporting - https://lnkd.in/dPdumZkT from the media and civil society have tasked journalists to be careful in their coverage of the forthcoming elections in Edo and Ondo states to prevent tensions and conflicts. The experts gave the advice on Wednesday, at a Webinar titled: Conflict Sensitive Reporting and Election: Best Practices and Ethical Considerations in Edo State organised […]Experts from the media and civil society have tasked journalists to be careful in their coverage of the forthcoming elections in Edo and Ondo states to prevent tensions and conflicts. The experts gave the advice on Wednesday, at a Webinar titled: Conflict Sensitive Reporting and Election: Best Practices and Ethical Considerations in Edo State organised Read More Experts from the media and civil society have tasked journalists to be careful in their coverage of the forthcoming elections in Edo and Ondo states to prevent tensions and conflicts. The experts gave the advice on Wednesday, at a Webinar titled: Conflict Sensitive Reporting and Election: Best Practices and Ethical Considerations in Edo State organised Read More Oracle

❗ Election disinfo news❗ Last week, France found an enormous Russian disinformation network of 193 websites poised to disseminate falsehoods in upcoming European elections. But our monitoring suggests the network is far larger than the current French estimate. The French authorities said the websites targeted France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Spain as well as the UK and the US, and were being used as information sources for content that is then spread via social media. However, we’ve also found websites with the same markers in eastern Europe. We spotted that the content from each pro-Russian website was then funneled to another level of up to 40 websites that were less obviously pro-Russian with a higher degree of “localisation”, making it seem more organic to communities within the country. When the stories were shared on social media, we also found evidence of coordinated inauthentic behaviour to try and game platform algorithms, and promote them to wider audiences. This suggests the digital infrastructure Russia is preparing to disseminate disinformation is far more extensive than currently understood. In the run up to elections, state-level authorities need to up their efforts to detect such activities and track their impact on target audiences.

South Africa moves to counter digital disinformation in African elections In a world that is deeply embedded in socio-technological platforms, African governments cannot work in isolation to counter disinformation. They need to involve tech companies in content regulation. They also need to improve their partnership with civil society to bolster digital literacy.   https://lnkd.in/d9x8q95V

2024 is considered as a "Super-Election" Year with major polls set in Africa, US, and European Union. Electoral experts and analysts anticipate that artificial intelligence will play a big role in the electoral cycle, particularly in hate speech propaganda and disinformation. Some also predict that Al would completely takeover human skills by 2026! Which is a huge threat for us journalists and various industries. Here in the Philippines, all eyes are also looking forward to the midterm polls next year. Stakeholders, including the government and media must be really keen and proactive in preventing these negative Al-powered efforts to protect the voters and election system from irresponsible use of Al and disinformation. Huge thanks to Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas of the University of Texas in Austin for this very timely and insightful massive open online course on freedom of expression, Al, and elections. It served as a great deal in preparation for the upcoming election coverage. #FreedomOfExpression #Al #Election

Sam Cooper has once again highlighted a path forward for us, showcasing a transparent and actionable strategy to address a pressing issue within Canada. For those who monitored Taiwan’s elections this year, they have deployed a sophisticated and effective method to combat #cognitivewarfare. Given that we face a similar adversary, there’s no need to wait for a costly inquiry to: 𝗔𝗰𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗹𝗲𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 With the 2025 federal elections on the horizon, proactive measures taken now can safeguard our democratic electoral process. Delaying action until the conclusion of the #foreignInterference inquiry will not enhance our solutions or expedite their implementation. #HybridWarfare https://lnkd.in/dRhGS-e2

Useful highlights to navigate the disinformation order for the incoming EU elections: especially point 5 (Politics based on identity) and 6 (The importance of Community) seem to me strategic in the long run #disinformation #euelection

Russia is ramping up espionage, disinformation, and influence operations to weaken the EU ahead of the European Parliament elections. Investigators are probing a network that allegedly paid far-right MEPs to spread Russian propaganda, with MEPs from several EU countries suspected to be involved. That is, in addition to continuing to weaponize social media and fake news sites to sow discord. #EUelections #Russia #disinformation #misinformation #cognitivesecurity #informationintegrity https://lnkd.in/g6CZ-B_A