The Inoculation -- Vaccine Misinformation and Society

As Pandemic Emergency Is Lifted, Have Disinformation Spreaders Moved On?

Sat, 20 May 2023 08:19:28 +0200

The WHO has declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a public health emergency of international concern. But does it mean that spreaders of pandemic disinformation have dispersed and gone dormant?

We discuss the persistence of pandemic disinformation with Tommaso Canetta, who works at Pagella Politica/Facta in Italy. He also edits regular fact-checking briefs for the European Digital Media Observatory: https://edmo.eu/fact-checking-briefs/ These briefs compare how much disinformation on the pandemic, climate, and other topics is tackled by fact-checkers in Europe.

You can find all our past episodes with transcripts here: https://www.theinoculation.com/episodes/ . Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

ChatGPT -- What Is It and Should we Be Worried about Generative AI?

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 16:12:46 +0200

ChatGPT, a user-friendly AI tool that generates text in response to keywords, is expected to cause major disruptions in the media, education, and various creative jobs. In late March, the Italian privacy regulator effectively banned it.

As societies grapple with the tool’s impact and controversies, we are looking back at our interview with AI researcher Micah Musser, who works at the Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology, and reconsidering his team’s findings regarding AI’s potential to turbocharge disinformation.

Where is Russian Disinformation Headed?

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:57:15 +0100

In this episode, we talked to Christiern Santos Rasmussen about the possible future of Russian disinformation tactics. Together with his team he researched how disinformation actors tweak their message for the countries they operate in. For example, in Poland, claiming that Russia only wants peace would be a hard sell, so these actors double down on anti-EU propaganda.

You can read more about Seymour Hersh’s allegations on the Nordstream sabotage, mentioned in the episode, in Coda Story’s article: https://www.codastory.com/newsletters/seymour-hersh-nord-stream/

Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

Why Did a Vision for a Modern City Turn into a Conspiracy Theory?

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 11:16:13 +0100

Being able to reach key facilities, like schools and shops, within 15 minutes, would make city life really comfortable, right? Not if you ask conspiracy theories, mobilizing around the world to blend opposition to the idea of 15-minute cities with anti-vaccination and far-right sentiment. They think that 15-minute cities are all about population control.

In this episode we explore how the protests, online abuse against proponents of the 15-minute city idea, and an explosion of climate deniers’ hashtags illustrate how conspiracies keep reincarnating.

Older episode with Eszter Szenes: https://www.theinoculation.com/are-antivaxxers-more-likely-to-be-pro-putin/

The Great Reset conspiracy: https://www.isdglobal.org/digital_dispatches/the-great-reset-conspiracy-in-australia/

Take-up of the 15 minute city conspiracy in the UK: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/02/26/world/15-minute-cities-conspiracy-theory-climate-intl/index.html

Far-right presence: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/24/far-right-trying-to-infiltrate-low-traffic-protests-campaigners-warn

Why Do Far-Right and Far-Left Parties Benefit from Social Media Algorithms?

Fri, 17 Feb 2023 11:54:00 +0100

How do algorithms facilitate the rise of political fringes in Europe? And what makes it worthy for political opportunists to be radical? We invited Prof. Miguel Poiares Maduro, who has an academic background in law, governance and politics, to reflect on the various threats to democracy from social media, and to zoom in on his home country, Portugal.

Prof. Poiares Maduro also chairs the executive board of the European Digital Media Observatory, so we asked him about responses to anti-Ukrainian disinformation across the political spectrum. Here are the links to the past episodes mentioned:

Antivaxxers and pro-Kremlin ideas: https://www.theinoculation.com/are-antivaxxers-more-likely-to-be-pro-putin/

How the Portuguese far right opposed vaccine mandates and got an electoral boost: https://www.theinoculation.com/portugal-is-europes-vaccine-hero-losing-its-special-balance-allowing-right-wing-parties-to-flourish/

Ales Herasimenko predicts that antivaxx movements will overflow into political ruptures: https://www.theinoculation.com/the-inoculation-episode-4/

The Inoculation’s (AI-Assisted) News Roundup: ChatGPT, Finland and Twitter

Fri, 03 Feb 2023 17:29:58 +0100

What are the latest news on disinformation and vaccine hesitancy? We discuss our top picks — and discuss the pros and cons of AI-assisted news review. Here's a link to our earlier episode on ChatGPT:

Links to the news discussed:

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/twitter-sudden-death-vaccine-conspiracies

https://edmo.eu/2022/12/06/died-suddenly-yet-another-conspiracy-video-about-covid-19-vaccines-reigniting-disinformation-with-the-same-old-hoaxes/

https://medium.com/dfrlab/how-china-funds-foreign-influence-campaigns-72d547ad0771

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/world/europe/finland-misinformation-classes.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02185-4

https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/1878060/insects-in-food-give-rise-to-lithuania-s-latest-wave-of-conspiracy-theories

Introducing Season 5: How Anti-Vaccine Views Reshaped Our Politics

Fri, 20 Jan 2023 11:55:00 +0100

This season The Inoculation is focusing on politics and activism. We will explore how anti-vaccine views have left a mark on different political and activist movements in Europe and beyond. Daiva will be focusing on these issues as a Policy Leader fellow at the European University Institute in Florence.

Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts,Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

Does Elon Musk’s Ownership of Twitter Undermine Its Role as a Public Space?

Fri, 16 Dec 2022 11:58:00 +0100

Elon Musk is making sweeping changes at Twitter. Does it mean that anti-vaccine disinformation and violent extremism will flourish?

This is our last episode this year. Tune in when we’re back in January!

Sources:

@ElonJet: https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/14/elon-jet-the-twitter-account-tracking-elon-musks-flights-was-permanently-suspended/
Musk and Qanon: https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3pjkw/elon-musk-is-now-promoting-qanon
End of COVID misinformation policy: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-63796832
Anti-vax propaganda and hate speech on the rise: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2022-12-08/covid-misinformation-spiking-on-twitter-elon-musk/101742276
Climate denialism on the rise: https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/11/17/how-climate-disinformation-is-spreading-after-elon-musks-twitter-takeover & https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/dec/02/climate-change-denialism-flooding-twitter-scientists
ISIS is back: https://gnet-research.org/2022/11/18/islamic-state-supporters-on-twitter-how-is-new-twitter-handling-an-old-problem/
It’s worse outside the Anglophone sphere: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-03552-4.pdf
Prominent Ukrainians subject to ghost ban? https://twitter.com/maksymeristavi/status/1602793279015337988?t=RKEQB2Jxj4FY2YnE6lL-sA&s=19
EU plans to regulate Twitter: https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-social-media-misinformation-fd4227b138878a5b0e5129a4bdd5bac0

Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts,Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation.

Individually, we are on Mastodon too: Daiva at @daivarep@dju.social and Eva at @evavonschaper@mastodon.social

Twitter’s Turmoil Was Predicted By Disinformation Researchers

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 14:38:57 +0100

With Twitter in turmoil, we are inviting you to revisit our conversation with W F Thomas, a disinformation researcher. Eva talked to him while working on a story on audio disinformation, which was part of her Transatlantic Media Fellowship by the Heinrich Boell Foundation Washington, DC. You can read the BBC reporting on Russia’s Twitter network here and the New Yorker’s article on regulation here.

Individually, we are on Mastodon too: Daiva at @daivarep@dju.social and Eva at @evavonschaper@mastodon.social

Who are the Doctors Who Spread Disinformation and Why Do They Do It?

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 13:17:38 +0100

As Dr. Oz loses his bid for a seat in the US Senate and the American Board of Internal Medicine moves to strip a falsehood-spreading doctor’s qualifications, we look at the phenomenon of medical doctors spreading COVID-19 disinformation on both sides of the Atlantic.

In this episode, we reference our earlier work:

- On homeopathy: https://www.theinoculation.com/homeopathy-a-pseudoscientific-gateway-to-anti-vaccine-views-and-covid-19-denialism/

- On a Swedish team that got an interview with Andrew Wakefield: https://www.theinoculation.com/how-anti-vaccination-movements-pull-parents-in/

Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation. Individually, we are on Mastodon too: Daiva at @daivarep@dju.social and Eva at @evavonschaper@mastodon.social

Links:

https://counterhate.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/210324-The-Disinformation-Dozen.pdf

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0256-5

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/dr-oz-shouldnt-be-a-senator-or-a-doctor/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/jan/27/anti-vaxxers-making-at-least-25m-a-year-from-publishing-on-substack

Conspiracy 🤝 Spirituality = Conspirituality

Fri, 04 Nov 2022 10:55:00 +0100

According to Pew Research, six-in-ten American adults accept at least one of New Age beliefs: psychics, spiritual energy, reincarmation and/or astrology. And overall, seven-in-ten women hold at least one New Age belief, compared to just over half of men. Research also shows that spiritual people are more likely to believe in COVID-19 conspiracies. That’s why in this episode we are looking at conspirituality — the merger of conspiracy theories and spiritual beliefs. We discuss the origins of the term, the different generations of conspirituality, and their influence today. We also talk to Dr. Eszter Szenes about the transatlantic links among conspiritual movements.

To make sure you never miss our stories, please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts,Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

Sources:

https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/granola-and-guns-rise-conspirituality

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/17/eva-wiseman-conspirituality-the-dark-side-of-wellness-how-it-all-got-so-toxic

https://spir.aoir.org/ojs/index.php/spir/article/view/12093/10485

Homeopathy – a Pseudoscientific Gateway to Anti-Vaccine Views and COVID-19 Denialism?

Fri, 21 Oct 2022 11:55:00 +0200

Homeopathy, the principle that ‘like cures like’ even in trace amounts, came to be at a time when opium, blood-letting and alcohol were all common treatments for illnesses. Study after study, it has been proven not to work, and testing of homeopathic products appears to often fail to follow established ethics. But many European countries allow selling sugar pills with ‘memory’ water alongside clinically tested drugs.

The idea of memory water also appeals to anti-vaccine entrepreneurs. And, as we discuss in this episode, homeopathic and anti-vaccine communities significantly overlap.

Sources:

https://en.rebaltica.lv/2021/02/who-spreads-the-vaccine-lies-in-the-baltics/

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/10/ginger-root-and-meteorite-dust-the-steiner-covid-cures-offered-in-germany

https://www.br.de/nachrichten/kultur/was-esoterik-mit-impfgegnern-zu-tun-hat,Sq9wIpr

https://www.medmedia.at/relatus-med/homoeopathen-rufen-zu-corona-impfung-auf/

https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/resources/homeopathy

How Russia Exploits Antivaxx Sentiment to Spread Energy Disinformation

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 11:55:00 +0200

The prospect of a cold winter makes energy a hot topic in Europe. Russia, aiming to chip away at Western support for Ukraine, has an interest in stoking people’s fears. And where does Russia find enthusiastic supporters? You guessed it — among public health skeptics.

This is the first episode of our 4th season, in which we will focus on Germany and the ways various health, energy and climate conspiracies link up there. For this episode we talked to GMFUS’s Bret Schafer and Kristine Berzina to learn about how Russia goes about shaping public opinion abroad.

Here are some of the information sources used for this episode:

Polling Nordstream 2: https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/1282647/umfrage/festhalten-am-projekt-nord-stream2/

Germans’ opinion now: https://www.n-tv.de/politik/Mehrheit-ist-gegen-Offnung-von-Nord-Stream-2-article23536541.html

Share of Russian gas in Europe: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1201743/russian-gas-dependence-in-europe-by-country/

Dependency on Russia:
https://www.statista.com/chart/26768/dependence-on-russian-gas-by-european-country/

Russian gas reserves: https://www.statista.com/topics/6207/russian-natural-gas-industry/#dossierKeyfigures

Imports: https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/russian-gas-imports-in-the-eu-threat-or-a-chance.html

and: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/business/russia-gas-europe.html

How Russia cut gas supplies: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60131520

Our earlier episodes:

Episode 25 - Are Antivaxxers More Likely to be Pro-Putin?

Episode 21 - The Falsehood Firehose: How Russian Disinformation Actors Spread Propaganda

Episode 18 - How Anti-Vaccination Movements Pull Parents In

Episode 17 - Fight Against Vaccine, Climate Disinformation Linked: Expert

Episode 11 - Social Media, Russia, Disinformation -- GMFUS' Bret Shafer

Episode 10 - 'Superspreaders of Malign' -- Disinformation Expert Miriam Matthews Talks About Russian Information Manipulation

Can Robots Detect Disinformation?

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 11:58:00 +0200

We previously reported that robots can spew out new kinds of disinformation. But can they also help detect and flag it? To find out, Eva talked to researcher Giovanni Da San Martino, who is researching natural language processing at the University of Padova.

Here are some links to relevant studies: https://aclanthology.org/2020.emnlp-tutorials.2.pdf

https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1783004

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2104235118

https://spj.sciencemag.org/journals/hds/2022/9858292/

And we invite you to listen to our story on a Spanish-language news service that targets misinformation.

This is the last episode of this season. We’ll be back in September. To make sure you never miss our stories, please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts,Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

As Tourism Returns, These Southern European Countries Are Still Vaccine Champions

Fri, 17 Jun 2022 11:58:00 +0200

Our story from Malta has made it to the Solutions Story Tracker — a rigorously curated database run by the Solutions Journalism Network. So today we invite you to revisit this story and hear an update on what the Mediterranean island country did to vaccinate its population against COVID-19. If you’re interested in vaccine mandates, you will probably enjoy our earlier episode on the topic.

Political Biases: What Role Do They Play in Disinformation?

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 12:11:02 +0200

Researching the benefits of situations where people come together to solve puzzles or make decisions, Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg realised that there is a dark side of collective intelligence. This led her to research fake news. When her team showed simulated social media posts, accurate or not, to a sample of Americans, it emerged that liberals more than conservatives judge information as reliable, even when it isn’t, when it comes from a source they trust. So The Inoculation team contacted Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg to find out more. You can read her and Sander van der Linden’s paper here. The tweet mentioned by Eva is here.

We Fact-checked VAIDS, a New Antivax New Conspiracy (Hint: It Doesn’t Exist)

Fri, 20 May 2022 11:54:44 +0200

In this episode, we fact-check VAIDS, a made-up syndrome anti-vaxxers are using to scare people away from getting vaccinated.

Here is some background info: https://health-desk.org/articles/is-there-any-evidence-of-vaccine-acquired-immunodeficiency-in-relation-to-covid-19-vaccines-and-booster-shots

Here's the list of the "Disinfo Dozen": https://counterhate.com/research/the-disinformation-dozen/

Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show onApple Podcasts, Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

Elon Musk and Twitter - A Disinformation Nightmare?

Fri, 06 May 2022 11:58:00 +0200

Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter has prompted the WHO to make a statement on misinformation. Misinformation costs lives, Mike Ryan, executive director of the health emergencies program at the WHO, said about the offer from Musk, a self-described free-speech absolutist. The Recode podcast has pointed out that in the past Musk was known for his trolling behavior.

Twitter has certain festures that make spreading disinformation easy. So this week The Inoculation explore the implications of the bid for the disinformation scene with the help of W F Thomas, a disinformation researcher. Eva talked to him while working on a story on audio disinformation, which was part of her Transatlantic Media Fellowship by the Heinrich Boell Foundation Washington, DC. You can read the BBC reporting on Russia’s Twitter network here and the New Yorker’s article on regulation here.

Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible,Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

Wary of Russian Aggression, the Baltics Contain Political Falsehoods but Struggle with COVID Disinfo

Fri, 22 Apr 2022 12:00:00 +0200

Disinformation warfare is not new to the Baltic States - and they have been boosting their preparedness since 2014 and were lauded as successful. Then why did countering COVID-19 disinformation prove challenging?

In December, Daiva and Eva spoke to Nika Aleksejeva, who is a data journalism trainer and lead researcher for the Baltics at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab. “COVID-19 disinformation is a very good lesson for us to be less naive about our capabilities,” she says.

You can read more about Latvia's disinformation actors here. You can also read our Re:Baltica article about the superspreaders of vaccine disinformation in the Baltics here. Daiva recently wrote a story about how the war in Ukraine effects people in Lithuania - you can read it here.

Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Transcripts are at www.theinoculation.com

After the investigation is complete, you will be able to find the code we used for the analysis of the European Parliament's data on our GitHub repository. The production of this investigation is supported by a grant from the IJ4EU fund. The International Press Institute (IPI), the European Journalism Centre (EJC) and any other partners in the IJ4EU fund are not responsible for the content published and any use made out of it.

Are Antivaxxers More Likely to be Pro-Putin?

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 11:09:00 +0200

As part of our data investigation, we took a look at politicians' tweets in the Netherlands. We found that far-right politicians are more likely to tweet about anti-vaccine topics, but we also saw that tweeters with antivaxx stances were more supportive of Vladimir Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

We talked to Erin Jenne, an expert on topics of nationalism, populism, and foreign policy analysis at Central European University, as well as Eszter Szenes, an expert on extremism.

After the investigation is complete, you will be able to find the code we used for the analysis of the Portuguese data on our GitHub repository. Transcripts are at www.theinoculation.com. The production of this investigation is supported by a grant from the IJ4EU fund. The International Press Institute (IPI), the European Journalism Centre (EJC) and any other partners in the IJ4EU fund are not responsible for the content published and any use made out of it.

Links: https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2022/03/rotterdam-philharmonic-cuts-ties-with-russian-conductor-valeri-gergiev/

https://theconversation.com/dutch-elections-mark-rutte-wins-another-term-but-fragmented-results-mask-continuing-popularity-of-the-far-right-156993

Portugal: Is Europe’s Vaccine Hero Losing Its “Special Balance”, Allowing Right-Wing Parties to Flourish?

Fri, 25 Mar 2022 11:00:00 +0100

After elections in January, Portuguese Socialists have secured an absolute majority, promising political continuity in the country that enjoys Europe's highest rate of vaccination against COVID-19. But the side story of the election was that Portugal's previous immunity to far-right representation in parliament has waned: the Chega party increased its presence from just one to 12 seats.

Chega's main pitch was opposition to the so-called elite, known as "the big center" in Portugal. And, as our analysis shows, this extends to opposing vaccine mandates and restrictions. To find out more, Daiva talked to Portuguese researchers Silvia Roque and Daniel Garcia.

You can find a Nature article about Portugal’s “special balance” here. Daniel Garcia’s thesis (in English) is available here. And this is a video of the prime minister being confronted by anti-vaccination protesters. And this is the link to the State of Hate 2021 report. Transcripts are at www.theinoculation.com

After the investigation is complete, you will be able to find the code we used for the analysis of the Portuguese data on our GitHub repository. The production of this investigation is supported by a grant from the IJ4EU fund. The International Press Institute (IPI), the European Journalism Centre (EJC) and any other partners in the IJ4EU fund are not responsible for the content published and any use made out of it.

The French Elections are Coming up. Right-Wing Politicians Are Dominating the Vaccine Debate on Twitter.

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 11:54:36 +0100

We used a custom Twitter scraper to collect and analyse the tweets of 12 candidate's slated to run in the first round of the French presidential election on April 10. We discuss our findings and talk to Estelle Brun, an associate research fellow at IRIS - Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques in Paris.

This is a summary of what candidates think about vaccination. You can read specifically about vaccine passports here and about racism and exclusion in electoral debates here. You can also listen to our episode where we discuss how vaccine mandates may backfire - featuring former European Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis.

After the investigation is complete, you will be able to find the code we used for the analysis of the French data on our GitHub repository. The Twitter list of French presidential candidates can be found here. The production of this investigation is supported by a grant from the IJ4EU fund. The International Press Institute (IPI), the European Journalism Centre (EJC) and any other partners in the IJ4EU fund are not responsible for the content published and any use made out of it.

The Falsehood Firehose: How Russian Disinformation Actors Spread Propaganda

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 12:11:53 +0100

As Russia invades Ukraine, we revisited our conversation with Miriam Matthews, author of a report published last April called Superspreaders of Malign and Subversive Information. It describes how Russia actors use malign and subversive information efforts to target U.S. audiences from January 2020 to July 2020. While we couldn't foresee current developments, the interview is still a valuable look at how Russia spreads disinformation.

Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

Will Super-Powerful Artificial Intelligence Turbocharge Disinformation? Episode 22

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 10:54:34 +0100

Georgetown University researchers programmed a text generator to come up with disinformation on climate change and politics. Once tweeted, the computer-generated disinformation persuaded test subjects, and could even nudge the readers to change their minds on important subjects such as climate change and politics.

This episode explores the power and the limits of AI-generated disinformation. We talk to Micah Musser, an analyst at Georgetown's Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

This episode was produced with the support of the Transatlantic Media Fellowship by the Heinrich Boell Foundation Washington, DC. Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

Spotify, Disinformation and Joe Rogan – Disinformation on Social Audio, Podcasts

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 11:35:08 +0100

After Spotify chose to remove Neil Young's music rather than challenge its relationship with podcaster Joe Rogan (you can read more about the controversy here), the problem of disinformation in audio is rearing its head? Eva talked to W F Thomas, a disinformation researcher, and Valerie Wirtschafter, senior data analyst in the Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Brookings Institution, to find out.

This episode was produced with support of the Transatlantic Media Fellowship by the Heinrich Boell Foundation Washington, DC. Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

How Anti-Vaccination Movements Pull Parents In

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 12:00:00 +0100

When Daiva and Eva were starting their investigation into activism against measles vaccination, another team of journalists also set off to explore this movement in other parts of Europe. Anna Nordbeck and Malin Olofsson started investigating the Scandinavian anti-vaccination movement in 2019, and this led the team all the way to the US, where influential leaders of the movement create movies, tour the country, and teach similar movements abroad about pulling parents in and drawing them into the world of conspiracies. The Inoculation’s team called Malin Olofsson to hear more about the Swedish team’s findings.

The Vaccinkrigarna documentary is available from SVT in Swedish.

Our reporting is supported by IJ4EU. Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

Happy holidays – new season – coming up in January: how people get pulled into anti-vaccination movements

Fri, 31 Dec 2021 12:00:00 +0100

As the year comes to an end, we look back at our reporting in 2021 and talk about the next season, which will begin in January.

Romania‘s Covid Jab Lag: a Country Trapped in Mistrust, Faulty Infrastructure and Trauma (Episode 19)

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 15:17:47 +0100

As omicron cases surge, the majority of Romanians are still not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Romania has the 2nd lowest vaccination rate in the EU. It is also the country where residents are the most likely in the EU to learn about science and technology from television as opposed to other sources. Together with Italians, they are the most likely in the EU to believe that early humans roamed the Earth along with dinosaurs. Where does this pervasive distrust in the scientific consensus come from? Does television have a polarizing effect – and how can it play a more positive role? To understand the situation better, Daiva and Eva talk to Crina Boros, a Romanian journalist, who interviewed two prominent experts – Mircea Toma and Barbu Mateescu.

You can find Romania’s COVID-19 statistics here.

Fight Against Vaccine, Climate Disinformation Linked: Expert

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 13:31:41 +0100

Opportunistic politicians and businesspeople latched onto the pandemic in their quest for fame. In Latvia, where COVID-19 death counts went through the roof in October, this had dire consequences. In this episode, Daiva and Eva speak to Nika Aleksejeva, who is a data journalism trainer and lead researcher for the Baltics at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab. She says, “COVID-19 disinformation is a very good lesson for us to be less naive about our capabilities.”

You can read more about Latvia’s emergency situation here, and about the disinformation dozen here. This is the story of Latvian lab disinformation. You can also read our Re:Baltica article about the superspreaders of vaccine disinformation in the Baltics here. You can read about the Baltic elves here, here, and here.

How A WhatsApp-based Immigrant News Service Tackles Spanish-language Misinformation in Peru

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 11:12:57 +0100

Misinformation in languages other than English that span the globe is less policed, compared to English. Research shows that misinformation and disinformation in large languages like French and Spanish can harm people’s trust in vaccines around the world. That is especially true for communities that distrust mainstream media and are alienated from public services. To find out what can be done, Eva talked to Héctor Villa León, who offers a social-media-based news service for Venezuelan migrants in Peru - and beyond. In this episode, Daiva and Eva discuss what they learned from this.

You can read more about the Venezuelan community in Peru here and here, about the disinformation threat to diaspora communities here, about misinformation specifically in Spanish here, about the important role WhatsApp plays here and what WhatsApp is doing here.

Our reporting is supported by IJ4EU and Alfred Toepfer Stiftung. Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

How Malta Beat Vaccine Disinformation and Hesitancy to Become a COVID-19 Overachiever

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 10:44:49 +0100

The tiny island of Malta is an overachiever in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Politico. Before the end of August, the Maltese government announced that 90% of the population over 12 years of age is fully vaccinated. This meant that the first phase of the vaccination programme was largely complete before rolling out boosters to vulnerable populations from mid-September.

But it’s not enough to say that vaccinating the population was easy because Malta is so small. Data from Eurobarometer surveys and the WHO show that vaccine hesitancy was not that uncommon before the pandemic. In the Eurobarometer survey, over a third said they believed in the conspiracy that viruses were produced in government labs in order to control the population - that’s above the EU average. So how did Malta manage such a successful vaccination campaign?

To find out, Daiva talked to public health and infodemic expert Prof. Neville Calleja and the vaccination programme’s coordinator Steve Agius. In this episode, Eva and Daiva discuss what they learned.

Who Believes Misinformation? Are Liberals More Susceptible?

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 08:24:15 +0200

How Anti-Vaccination Movements Make Money and Serve Hostile Actors

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 16:19:49 +0200

After a wave of protests against vaccines and vaccine mandates in Europe, it is clear that despite very different policies across Europe, anti-vaccination movements that oppose them are remarkably alike. These movements are tightly linked, even though some of their connections are hidden. They amplify one another, and they have elaborate ways to support their activities financially - from selling books on Amazon to offering legal services to anyone who feels they have been harmed by vaccination.

We had discussed this with disinformation researcher Dr Aliaksandr Herasimenka, so we thought we will come back to this interview and highlight his insights that explain the mobilisation around vaccines these days. A researcher at the Computational Propaganda Project of the Oxford Internet Institute, Herasimenka is a co-author of a paper on misinformation distribution on Telegram.

The interview was edited for brevity and clarity. You can read the Alliance for Securing Democracy's research on China's propaganda and search engines here. We ran such a search ourselves, and the clips in the beginning of the episode are from the results we got.

Our reporting is supported by Journalismfund.eu, Media Lab Bayern and Alfred Toepfer Stiftung. Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

The Inoculation’s September Round-Up:Vaccine Mandates, Idar Oberstein Mask-Murder And More

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 14:28:57 +0200

A number of relevant articles, studies and data has recently come out, so Eva and Daiva review suggested readings for The Inoculation’s September round-up.

You can read these sources here:

“Vaccine Passports” May Backfire: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Study in the UK and Israel on Willingness to Get Vaccinated against COVID-19;
The story of the German gas station shooting: Der Tagesspiegel, Der Spiegel;
Covid denialists and far-right movements;
AfD, German elections and Facebook;
Facebook’s international impact, and more;
NDI’s playbook: Combating Information Manipulation;
The Johns Hopkins Center’s survey dashboard;
Article by Tech Policy Press;
The Economist’s op-ed on freedom and vaccine mandates
WSJ podcasts about Facebook

And check out our episodes on vaccine mandates and disinformation in Slovakia.

Our reporting is supported by Journalismfund.eu, Media Lab Bayern and Alfred Toepfer Stiftung. Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

Mandatory vaccination: Can it backfire?

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 16:44:01 +0200

In our first episode after the summer break we discuss mandatory vaccination mandates - something we have been researching before the COVID-19 pandemic began. In late 2020, we talked to former European Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, who has a lot of experience with vaccine mandates.

As a commissioner, Andriukaitis campaigned for vaccination measures around Europe. But before that, as Lithuania’s minister of health, he introduced vaccine requirements for children, following a measles outbreak in 2013. But when he left for the Commission, without strong backing from the top, the legislation became stuck in parliament and was eventually repealed. Another measles outbreak followed in 2019, and vaccination became an electoral issue in Lithuania. You can read more about Lithuania’s struggle with vaccine hesitancy in our article.

We also talk to Oxford Vaccine Group researcher Samantha Vanderslott, University of Exeter Professor Jason Reifler, and Italian pediatrician Lorenza Romani.

Social Media, Russia, Disinformation -- GMFUS' Bret Shafer talks to The Inoculation

Fri, 23 Jul 2021 12:01:00 +0200

Summer special:

Hi listeners. before we leave for our summer breaks, we are taking a look back at some of our most insightful conversations about disinformation and misinformation. This week’s conversation is with Bret Shafer, the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s media and digital disinformation fellow

Parts of the interview appeared in Episode 7. In this episode, Bret Shafer mentions misinformation, disinformation and propaganda. You can hear an explainer of the differences among them here.

‘Superspreaders of Malign‘ -- Disinformation Expert Miriam Matthews Talks About Russian Information Manipulation

Fri, 09 Jul 2021 12:00:00 +0200

In this episode, we talked to Miriam Matthews author of a report published in April called Superspreaders of Malign and Subversive Information. It describes the types of COVID-19-related malign and subversive information efforts with which Russia- and China-associated outlets appear to have targeted U.S. audiences from January 2020 to July 2020.

Our reporting is supported by Journalismfund.eu, Media Lab Bayern and Alfred Toepfer Stiftung. Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

Disinformation in Spain, Heidi Larson, Social Media and EU Vaccine Hesitancy: The Inoculation’s Press Review

Fri, 25 Jun 2021 12:00:00 +0200

After listening to podcasts and reading numerous articles and reports on vaccine disinformation, Eva and Daiva have decided to share some of them. This is the first episode of The Inoculation's quarterly press roundup.

You can find episode 6 on Sputnik V here and episode 8 on vaccine geopolitics here. The story on vaccine mandates in Russia is here. In this episode, we refer to Heidi Larson's book and a profile on her, Coda Story's article on disinformation in Spain, First Draft's article on disinformation in West Africa, a Eurofound survey, and we listen to a new podcast.

Russian Vaccine Disinformation and the Collapse of Slovakia's Government

Fri, 11 Jun 2021 19:07:08 +0200

An elaborate media network promotes Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine by undermining the others, currently approved by the European Union. But what happens when an EU country decides to buy the Sputnik vaccine? Does vaccine disinformation adapt? Slovakia has recently started injecting the Sputnik doses it bought in winter. Daiva and Eva try to figure out what happened with help from Slovak journalist Lukáš Onderčanin.

To learn more about disinformation, you can read the EUvsDisinfo’s report. To learn how Slovakia succeeded in containing the first wave but then infections went out of control in autumn, you can read articles on Foreign Policy and The Atlantic and listen to our earlier episode on how the health ministry was combating misinformation on social media. You can read more about Slovakia’s Sputnik V purchase here and about the domino effect in the region here.

On the Fence -- We talk to parents who are mulling vaccination

Fri, 28 May 2021 12:00:00 +0200

Across Europe, some countries are about to finish vaccinating the most vulnerable residents against COVID-19. It’s time to offer the jab to the general population -- and some are not only refusing vaccines, but also calling on others to shun them. Research shows that neither more fact-checks nor more experts will tilt the population’s attitudes towards vaccines.

In this collaborative episode between Are We Europe and The Inoculation, we look into how parents find their way with so much confusing information online, and what approach to vaccine hesitancy works.

You can read more about the politics of vaccination in Italy in Time magazine, Newsweek and Nature. You can find the study mentioned in the podcast here.

Our interpreter in this episode was Romina Spina. Our assistant producers were Andrei Popoviciu and Priyanka Shankar.

Sputnik vs. the West: How the Russian government is discrediting Western vaccines

Fri, 14 May 2021 18:22:36 +0200

In this episode, we took a look at how the Russian government and its media networks used their power and reach to discredit Covid vaccines made by Western companies and how it boosted its own Sputnik V Covid jab -- and how this might backfire. Experts say that attributing anonymous or obfuscated social media profiles is tricky, but they tend to be remarkably consistent and align with the goal of promoting Sputnik V at the expense of Western, but not Chinese vaccines.

We talked to Seb Cubbon, a research analyst at First Draft (one of their reports here), Miriam Matthews, senior behavioral and social scientist at RAND, Olga Dobrovidova, a Russian science journalist, Bret Schafer from the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF), Peter Stano, lead spokesperson at the European External Action Service, which is the EU’s diplomatic service, and Peter Balasz, a former diplomat and professor emeritus, Central European University.

You can read more about vaccine disinformation in the New York Times, CNN and other sources. A link to the transcript is here.

Disinformation, Misinformation, Propaganda: What’s the Difference?

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 12:15:41 +0200

Disinformation, misinformation, propaganda: While reading the transcript of a an interview with a disinformation researcher, Eva and Daiva noticed that the distinction between misinformation and disinformation was often unclear to them. So in this episode of The Inoculation they look for clear definitions and helpful examples of disinformation, misinformation and propaganda.

Try your hand at EU vs Disinfo's quiz and see if you can distinguish them. You can find a helpful academic guide on these issues here. A summary of First Draft's research, mentioned in the episode, is available here.

Who is spreading vaccination misinformation and why?

Fri, 02 Apr 2021 12:00:00 +0200

Aggressive political networks, associations of concerned parents and even state-affiliated media - many actors have been found to share misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines currently used in the EU. "Oxford seems to have created a vaccine for monkeys," a host on Rossiya 1 channel said in September. Why are they doing this? And how can we measure the influence these messages have on internet users?

To find out, Daiva and Eva talk to Dr Aliaksandr Herasimenka, a postdoctoral researcher at the Computational Propaganda Project at the Oxford Internet Institute. "The COVID-19 pandemic has already caused a huge political and social disruption across the world. We will see emergence of new types of political groups, political organisations that will be more disruptive than what we previously called populists. They will be potentially more damaging to democracy," he says.

Herasimenka is a co-author of a paper on misinformation distribution on Telegram. You can read all his papers here. In this episode Eva mentions comparisons of pandemic-related restrictions to the Holocaust - you can read more about the phenomenon here, here and here.

Our research is supported by Journalismfund.eu. Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

Vaccine communication -- how to avoid common mistakes

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 11:00:00 +0100

After a series of delivery hiccups and reports of some frontliners not showing up for their jabs, Europe - and other regions - tensely awaited the European Medicines Agency's assessment on the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Its rollout was shrouded in rumours from the start. How can journalists navigate the landscape of statistics and personal testimonies? How can we best answer readers' questions? And how can everyone be better prepared for conversations about vaccines in their community?

To find out The Inoculation talked to freelance journalist Laura Oliver. Laura is the author of A Freelancer's Guide for Reporting on Vaccines, published by the European Journalism Centre. She previously worked as a community coordinator at The Guardian, where one of her duties was sourcing eyewitness accounts from the ‘Arab Spring’. Later she worked on the GuardianWitness platform, before starting off as a freelancer and co-founding the Society of Freelance Journalists. You can read more about the reporting guide here and more about Laura here.

Misinformation in Slovakia

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 12:00:00 +0100

The Inoculation's team has lately been looking into misinformation. Together with colleagues in Latvia and Estonia, we investigated misinformation in the Baltic States for a story published in Re:Baltica. In this episode of our podcast, we look at how authorities are combating health-related misinformation in Slovakia.

Jakub Goda, an experienced social media professional, joined his country's public sector to identify and counter health-related misinformation. "Governments and government institutions should use creative, digitally skilled people to communicate in the social media environment, and digital environment in general, and not to rely on old-school bureaucratic way of responding to journalists' questions," he says. "It's a kind of deeper mental transformation that needs to happen."

You can read how he infiltrated a misinformation-spreading website here. You can also read about the People's Party - Our Slovakia, mentioned in this episode, on Deutsche Welle. More information on the party's links to health misinformation is available on The Slovak Spectator.

Our research is supported by Journalismfund.eu. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on Twitter as @TInoculation, and on Instagram as @the_inoculation

Estimating the size of anti-vaccination movements

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 12:00:00 +0100

Are 'vaccine hesitancy', 'vaccine skepticism' and 'anti-vaccination sentiment' synonyms? Do people who say they doubt vaccine safety always refuse vaccines? In this episode Eva and Daiva discuss the challenges researchers face when trying to estimate the size of the anti-vaccination movement and the number of its sympathizers.

Our interviewees are: Prof. Maya Goldenberg, Dr Jonathan Kennedy, Prof. Jason Reifler, Dr Samantha Vanderslott. We also thank Col. Gintaras Koryzna for providing valuable data. You can read the Slate article we reference here. In addition, we refer to the Wellcome Global Monitor 2018.

Do read our story in Nara: https://bit.ly/3auBWke. Lithuanian readers can find our story on vaccination in electoral debates in the February issue of the IQ magazine. Our research is supported by Journalismfund.eu

Welcome to The Inoculation

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 10:54:04 +0100

Hello and welcome to The Inoculation, a podcast where we tell international stories on health, misinformation, vaccines, COVID-19, public policies, and more. We, Daiva Repečkaitė and Eva von Schaper, are two journalists looking into the politics and values surrounding public health, starting from vaccination.

We also publish our stories in news outlets in multiple languages, which you can see here. Our research on vaccine skepticism is supported by Journalismfund.eu

Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you like to listen. You can follow The Inoculation on Twitter at @TInoculation. You can also follow us individually: Eva at @EvavonSchaper and Daiva at @daiva_hadiva

The Inoculation -- Vaccine Misinformation and Society

As Pandemic Emergency Is Lifted, Have Disinformation Spreaders Moved On?

ChatGPT -- What Is It and Should we Be Worried about Generative AI?

Where is Russian Disinformation Headed?

Why Did a Vision for a Modern City Turn into a Conspiracy Theory?

Why Do Far-Right and Far-Left Parties Benefit from Social Media Algorithms?

The Inoculation’s (AI-Assisted) News Roundup: ChatGPT, Finland and Twitter

Introducing Season 5: How Anti-Vaccine Views Reshaped Our Politics

Does Elon Musk’s Ownership of Twitter Undermine Its Role as a Public Space?

Twitter’s Turmoil Was Predicted By Disinformation Researchers

Who are the Doctors Who Spread Disinformation and Why Do They Do It?

Conspiracy ​🤝 Spirituality = Conspirituality

Homeopathy – a Pseudoscientific Gateway to Anti-Vaccine Views and COVID-19 Denialism?

How Russia Exploits Antivaxx Sentiment to Spread Energy Disinformation

Can Robots Detect Disinformation?

As Tourism Returns, These Southern European Countries Are Still Vaccine Champions

Political Biases: What Role Do They Play in Disinformation?

We Fact-checked VAIDS, a New Antivax New Conspiracy (Hint: It Doesn’t Exist)

Elon Musk and Twitter - A Disinformation Nightmare?

Wary of Russian Aggression, the Baltics Contain Political Falsehoods but Struggle with COVID Disinfo

Are Antivaxxers More Likely to be Pro-Putin?

Portugal: Is Europe’s Vaccine Hero Losing Its “Special Balance”, Allowing Right-Wing Parties to Flourish?

The French Elections are Coming up. Right-Wing Politicians Are Dominating the Vaccine Debate on Twitter.

The Falsehood Firehose: How Russian Disinformation Actors Spread Propaganda

Will Super-Powerful Artificial Intelligence Turbocharge Disinformation? Episode 22

Spotify, Disinformation and Joe Rogan – Disinformation on Social Audio, Podcasts

How Anti-Vaccination Movements Pull Parents In

Happy holidays – new season – coming up in January: how people get pulled into anti-vaccination movements

Romania‘s Covid Jab Lag: a Country Trapped in Mistrust, Faulty Infrastructure and Trauma (Episode 19)

Fight Against Vaccine, Climate Disinformation Linked: Expert

How A WhatsApp-based Immigrant News Service Tackles Spanish-language Misinformation in Peru

How Malta Beat Vaccine Disinformation and Hesitancy to Become a COVID-19 Overachiever

Who Believes Misinformation? Are Liberals More Susceptible?

How Anti-Vaccination Movements Make Money and Serve Hostile Actors

The Inoculation’s September Round-Up:Vaccine Mandates, Idar Oberstein Mask-Murder And More

Mandatory vaccination: Can it backfire?

Social Media, Russia, Disinformation -- GMFUS' Bret Shafer talks to The Inoculation

‘Superspreaders of Malign‘ -- Disinformation Expert Miriam Matthews Talks About Russian Information Manipulation

Disinformation in Spain, Heidi Larson, Social Media and EU Vaccine Hesitancy: The Inoculation’s Press Review

Russian Vaccine Disinformation and the Collapse of Slovakia's Government

On the Fence -- We talk to parents who are mulling vaccination

Sputnik vs. the West: How the Russian government is discrediting Western vaccines

Disinformation, Misinformation, Propaganda: What’s the Difference?

Who is spreading vaccination misinformation and why?

Vaccine communication -- how to avoid common mistakes

Misinformation in Slovakia

Estimating the size of anti-vaccination movements

Welcome to The Inoculation

Conspiracy 🤝 Spirituality = Conspirituality