Disinfo dispatch No.54

Russia targets Ukrainian videogame Stalker 2, Meta says it's mistakenly moderating too much, & a new study says our outrage over social media posts helps misinfo spread + 17 more headlines!

Hey, I’m Alan, & welcome to Geoshawk. Geoshawk curates news & research on digital influence, with sections on tech company’ news, election integrity, research/studies, & regional focuses on the USA, MENA, Russia, the Caucasus, & Central Asia. Other regions are also featured though! If you’re a news junkie obsessed w/ politics, tech, & the world, you’re in the right place.

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Tech Watch:

• Meta: AI Made Less Than 1% of Election Misinformation on Our Apps (PCMag, 4 December)

  • Elections dodge deepfake threat (Axios, 3 December)

  • What We Saw on Our Platforms During 2024’s Global Elections (Meta, 3 December)

• What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor (Techcrunch, 3 December)

• These reporters wrote a book on Musk’s Twitter takeover. Here’s what they think is next for journalism and X (Reuters Institute, 3 December)

• Meta says it’s mistakenly moderating too much (The Verge, 3 December)

• What YouTube Health is doing to combat misinformation and promote evidence-based content (Stat News, 29 November)

• X could introduce labels for parody accounts, but enforcement might be tricky (Tech Crunch, 29 November)

Global Miscellaneous News & Research:

• Miscellaneous News & Research:

  • The next chapter for fact-checking: information integrity (Poynter, 5 December)

  • Is ‘bypassing’ a better way to battle misinformation? (Penn Today, 3 December)

  • Our outrage over social media posts helps misinformation spread, study shows (Phys, 29 November)

• Other regions:

  • Indian Media’s Misinformation Campaign on Bangladesh (The Diplomat, 5 December)

  • The Role of Misinformation on Cash and Voucher Assistance for Social Cohesion in Lebanon (Relief Web, 29 November)

  • TikTok accused of failing to tackle election disinformation in Ireland (Euronews, 29 November)

Regions:

• USA

  • Democrats Face an Existential Crisis on X (Politico, 30 November)

• Middle East

  • Court rules to release famous mountaineer arrested for spreading ‘disinformation’ (Turkish Minute, 5 December)

  • Iraq PM Denies Wiretapping Allegations As 'Lie Of The Century' (Barrons, 5 December)

• Russia

  • Russia Launches 30K Cases Over Social Media Use Since 2010 – Novaya Gazeta Europe (Moscow Times, 2 December)

  • Alexey Gorinov, the first person jailed in Russia for ‘disinformation,’ gets new three-year-sentence for ‘justifying terrorism (Meduza, 29 November)

  • Russian lawyer handed 7-year prison term for speaking out against the Ukraine war on social media (Washington Post, 28 November)

  • A Ukrainian video game set in Chernobyl is the target of a Russian misinformation operation (The Independent, 27 November)

• Caucasus

  • Georgia's Interior Ministry rejects “misinformation” its employees leaving body amid public protests (Agenda, 5 December)

• Central Asia