(THREAD) There’s been chatter about threat modeling based on a @jayrosen_nyu piece. Since Sept ‘19, we’ve run over 25 crisis simulations with more than 1k people working in the media, at platforms and organizations with great results. What we’ve learned pressthink.org/2020/09/the-na…
1. People don’t know what they don’t know and what they’re not ready for. 2. Putting people from different newsrooms and platforms together is necessary for us to understand the dynamics of the information environment in real time.
3. Finding different ways to engage people on these issues is critical. As a participant said, “This has all the fun of a breaking news event, with none of the responsibility.” Journos love the adrenaline rush of a real-time scenario, particularly those put off by “training.”
We don’t run tabletop events (usually facilitated discussions). We use interactive software to host participants in simulated spaces that look like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Slack, etc. This is an essential aspect of designing a real-world scenario and ramps up the pressure.
We put people in groups of imaginary organizations (either newsrooms, platforms or community) because collaboration and teamwork are key. While everyone starts the simulation sitting and smiling, this quickly escalates to standing and swearing as intensity and frustration build.
All scenarios are based on genuine examples we’ve seen over the years. Manufacturing believable misinformation is harder than it sounds, and we went to great lengths to ensure no screenshots or rumors could make it outside the simulated environment.
We designed over 200 accounts to pump out manipulated, coordinated and confusing content (within the closed platform) in real time. Participants quickly recognize the value of setting up systems for social monitoring and having digital verification experts on the team.
At our events, teams work together to make decisions about how to respond to what they are seeing online, and “publish” their agreed-upon output on a Newsfeed Wall. In almost every case, newsrooms want to see what others are publishing before they make tricky decisions.
Platforms are tasked with managing their own communications, while also making fictional take-down decisions. How and when to respond is the most important discussion, alongside the value of collaboration with rival organizations to help prevent misinformation scale and spread.
Wording headlines and social posts is given as much importance as an article or broadcast. The aim of these simulations is to test fast, effective, consistent messaging from multiple trusted information sources. This challenge is then reflected upon in the post-event debrief.
Our simulations aid threat modeling and preparedness, and though we have focused specifically on the election for the past 12 months, there’s now a need to design for other critical topics vulnerable to misinformation, such as health and climate.
We know how valuable these simulations are as skills and awareness training, so we will integrate ways to set objectives. Changes in culture and process require senior buy-in, and in our experience, there’s no better way to demonstrate the urgency of building internal resilience
Each of our five scenarios shows disinformation campaigns that could play out in the coming weeks. We’ve had to adapt in this age of Zoom, and we’ve been running some simpler slide-based versions, but these simulations are still working. We’re working on a “self-drive” version.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, but sessions raise more questions than answers. Ongoing support is essential to ensure new ideas and strategies are applied. Threat modeling is only the first step.
Thank you for reading. If you would like to talk to us about running a simulation with your newsrooms, there is still time before the US election! Get in touch at training@firstdraftnews.com.
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2/12 Our Australia team continues its work at @UTSEngage, monitoring social media and conducting research on how to counter online mis- and dis-information. They will be an official partner of the @IFL_Brown
3/12 First Draft began in 2015 as a small nonprofit coalition that sprung out of a need: to understand, verify, and provide guidance on the misinformation we all were seeing on the social web. Over the following six years, we built out teams in London, New York, and Sydney.
A large amount of mis- and disinformation has circulated on social media in multiple languages over the past few days regarding #Ukraine. Trustworthy information is as important as ever in times of crisis, so here are our top tips and tools 👇
First and foremost, be wary of the difference between MISinformation and DISinformation. While they can seem interchangeable, the difference lies in the intent. Precise language is important e.g. propaganda can fall under the umbrella of disinformation
Second, visual misinformation gains a lot of attention. We’ve seen time and time again old photos and videos recirculated during times of crisis, which can cause more chaos and confusion. Preventing this can be as easy as running a reverse image search
1/ First Draft’s latest piece looks at anti-Muslim content spread on YouTube and TV news in India
2/ First Draft examined 70 headlines from stories about the Tablighi Jamaat run by some of India’s most-watched news channels, as well as a number of news outlets over the past year
3/ Of those headlines, we found that 27 used anti-Muslim language, while four made misleading, false or out-of-context claims
1/ How are climate change conspiracy theories and misinformation spreading cross-platforms and escalating over-time?
2/ First Draft’s @carlottadotto analyzed climate change-related conversations over the past year on the fringe platforms 4chan and 8kun. YouTube was the most popular domain used to support climate change denialism, followed by Bitchute, web archive links, and Wikipedia.
3/ The rampant use of YouTube links on 4chan and 8kun emphasizes how misinformation on the platform is being pushed to networks in other online spaces.
In the wake of recent vaccine announcements, reporters and policymakers need to be tracking “data deficits” — situations where demand for information about a topic is high, but the supply of credible information is low. We outline two of them below. 🧵👇firstdraftnews.org/long-form-arti…
1. mRNA technology, DNA alteration and foreign propaganda narratives. mRNA vaccines’ novelty and technical complexity complicates efforts to provide accessible and compelling information on this technology, while the incentive for bad actors to exploit this gap is high.
2. Measures of vaccine “effectiveness,” trial stages’ “interim” results and other limitations of the vaccine announcements. Information detailing these limitations are often missing from reporting, which could erode public confidence in Covid-19 vaccines.
Today the UK became the first Western country to approve a Covid-19 vaccine. Following this and other recent vaccine trial and approval announcements, here are five misinformation narratives reporters should be aware of when covering these stories. 🧵👇 firstdraftnews.org/latest/vaccine…
1. A Covid-19 vaccine is unnecessary; the immune system is superior. This narrative is now comparing Covid-19 survival rates to the efficacy rates of the current vaccines to suggest that our immune systems are more capable than vaccines in protecting us from Covid-19.
The narrative that hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness eliminates the need for a Covid-19 vaccine, highly popular among many Francophone communities in Europe and Africa, has been applied to recent vaccine trial announcements.