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COVID-19 Misinformation Newsletters
26 July 2021
The COVID-19 Misinformation Newsletter is prepared by the staff of the Programme on Democracy and Technology (DemTech) at Oxford University. We summarise the latest independent research and high-quality news reporting on the production and consumption of computational propaganda and campaigns to manipulate public understanding of the health crisis.
Sign up for the DemTech Newsletters on COVID-19 Misinformation and China Information Operations
15 Feb 2022
INAUTHENTIC INTERNATIONAL NETWORK BEHIND TRUCKER MOVEMENT AND “EPHEMERAL” EFFECTS OF FACT-CHECKING
News Briefing: Thomson Reuters Foundation report, Crikey on First Draft’s research and The Times.
Academic Research: Online Information Environment report by the Royal Society, Information, Communication & Society and Nature Human Behaviour.
18 Jan 2022
THE BENEFITS OF A DIVERSE MEDIA DIET AND $6.8 MILLION FOR ANTI-VAXXERS
News Briefing: Associated Press, Logically and International Fact-Checking Network.
Academic Research: Nature, Information, Communication & Society and the Hague Program for Cyber Norms at the Leiden University.
14 Dec 2021
OMICRON REVIVED OLD CONSPIRACY THEORIES. NEW DETAILS ON COVID-19 ORIGINS INFLUENCE OPERATION LINKED TO CHINA
News Briefing: Associated Press, CNN and Adversarial Threat Report.
Academic Research: The Lancet Commission, the Journal Public Health and PLoS ONE.
23 Nov 2021
LOCAL MEDIA AND RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS ARE IN THE FOCUS OF COVID-19 MISINFORMATION INVESTIGATIONS
News Briefing: Kaiser Family Foundation and The New York Times
Academic Research: Vaccine, New Media & Society and the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
9 Nov 2021
LITTLE EVIDENCE OF LARGE -SCALE DISRUPTION BY THE FACEBOOK POLICY OF DEPLATFORMING CONSPIRACY THEORISTS
News Briefing: CNN, Politico & Médecins Sans Frontières.
Academic Research: Information, Communication & Society, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security & Phycological Medicine.
26 Oct 2021
LARGE-SCALE PRO-CHINA INAUTHENTIC NETWORK PROMOTING COVID-19 MISINFORMATION DETECTED BY DEMTECH
News Briefing: Associated Press & CNN.
Academic Research: NBC, First Draft & Social Media + Society.
12 Oct 2021
VACCINE HESISTANCY BECOMES VACCINE RESISTANCE
News Briefing: YouTube, NewsGuard, the Guardian & the New York Times.
Academic Research: Indiana University’s Observatory on Social Media, Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review and New Media & Society.
28 Sep 2021
YOUTUBE COMMENT SECTION IDENTIFIED AS A MAJOR SOURCE OF MISINFORMATION
News Briefing: Washington Post, the Sydney Morning Herald & the New York Times.
Academic Research: Cardiff University, Online Social Networks and Media & Tattle.
14 Sep 2021
CHINA AND RUSSIA EMBRACE DECENTRALISED APPROACH TO SPREADING BIOWEAPONS NARRATIVE
News Briefing: Atlantic Council, Mandiant & Arizona State University
Academic Research: Social Science & Medicine, Memory & Cognition, & the Journal of Information Science
24 Aug 2021
COVID MISINFORMATION TOP PERFORMING FACEBOOK POST AND ADVERTISERS SPENDING BILLIONS ON MISINFORMATION WEBSITES
News Briefing: Newsguard and Comscore, Facebook & the Guardian
Academic Research: JMIR Infodemiology, Fronteirs in Public Research & Political Psychology
27 Jul 2021
ANTI-VAXXERS INCREASINGLY
BORROWING FROM EXTREMIST PLAYBOOK
News Briefing: NBC, Politico & the BBC
Academic Research: Nature Medicine, the Journal of Medical Internet Research & the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
13 Jul 2021
SHOULD PLATFORMS BAN ANTI-VAXXERS OR TALK TO THEM?
News Briefing: First Draft, the Economist & the COVID InfoDisorder project
Academic Research: The American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media & Big Data and Society
29 Jun 2021
News Briefing: NiemanLab, CNN & NPR
Academic Research: Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report, Big Data and Society & the Journal of Public Health
15 Jun 2021
News Briefing: ISD, First Draft & the Brookings Institution
Academic Research: Nature, the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research & the Misinformation Review
1 Jun 2021
News Briefing: French social media, Facebook & the state of Florida
Academic Research: A review article by Khubchandani and Macias, research from Universidade Federal de Pernambuco & a study in Integrative Medicine Research
18 May 2021
News Briefing: UK government draft of the Online Safety Bill, US Fact Checker Registration Act, First Draft & the Institute for Strategic Dialogue
Academic Research: A study by Mosleh et al., research from the Vaccine Confidence Project at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine & a review essay in the American Journal of Public Health study in Integrative Medicine Research
5 May 2021
News Briefing: Indian government, a report from Reuters Institute & a US Senate hearing reported by The Verge
Academic Research: A study from Indiana University, survey data from 40 countries, a survey of US participants & the Journal of Medical Internet Research
20 Apr 2021
From Oxford: The 2020 ‘Cyber Troops’ report & a data memo by Yung Au et al.
Academic Research: A study by Andrew Chadwick et al., research by Gordon Pennycook et al. & a joint study by the Digital Forensic Research Lab and the Associated Press