Facebook And More! Inoculated #7 (23.09.2021)

Eva & Daiva @ The Inoculation

  1. Media Matters reports that a "Project Veritas video featuring a so-called “whistleblower” who makes false attacks on the safety and effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines has spread on multiple social media platforms, getting millions of views despite rules on these platforms against anti-vaccine misinformation".
  2. Snopes reports that in "March 2021, anti-mask and anti-vaccine sentiments emerged inside Let Them Breathe, a private Facebook group that describes itself as “pro-science.” An open forum for misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic now thrives among its members. "
  3. The Times of London reports "TikTok was used to serve up Covid-19 misinformation videos to children as young as nine, an investigation into the popular social media app found.
  4. The Markup has an interesting piece on how Germany’s far-right political party, the AfD, is dominating Facebook this election: Ahead of a national vote this month, Citizen Browser data shows that posts promoting the AfD party appeared more than three times as often as rivals' .

Profile of the week:

Unpaid Fact-Checkers Are Getting Burnout From Debunking So Many Nazis on TikTok
And they’re mad as hell.

Longform of the week:

[Report] Bad News, By Joseph Bernstein | Harper’s Magazine
Selling the story of disinformation

Artsy fartsy of the week:

The Book of Veles: How Jonas Bendiksen Hoodwinked the Photography Industry | Magnum Photos Magnum Photos
The photographer explains the many layers of intrigue that went into the creation of his book about misinformation in the contemporary media landscape

What's on our Spotify etc. playlist of the week:

Our podcast: How the BBC addresses the challenge of disinformation worldwide
In this episode of ‘Future of Journalism’, our Journalist Fellow Rebecca Skippage speaks about some of the dilemmas journalists face today.

Tweeties:

Resources:

Play the fake news game!

Can you beat my score? Play the fake news game!
Drop all pretense of ethics and choose the path that builds your persona as an unscrupulous media magnate. Your task is to get as many followers as you can while slowly building up fake credibility as a news site.

That's it for this week. Our next newsletter will hit your inbox next week. Our next podcast episode is out tomorrow. Is there a story we should add to next week's newsletter? Someone we should interview on our podcast? Ping us!

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