Black Lives Matter Fights Disinformation to Keep the Movement Strong
As with an civil rights movement, there is always a disinformation campaign launched against movement that advocates for social change. Considering what is happening in Belarus with Roman Protasevich or Russia with Alexei Navalny, muzzling movements by claiming they are violent is nothing new. Although the previous administration ignored cyber disinformation campaigns, it's good to see there are steps being taken to fight disinformation.
OP Topic: What do you believe the future is for tech companies and social media platforms as it relates to fighting disinformation?
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd died under the knee of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and protests erupted worldwide. Support for Black Lives Matter — the movement that actually began as a hashtag in 2013 — surged. To this day, posts on social media continue to call for racial justice and an end to police brutality.
But also online are posts riddled with disinformation, including those specifically targeting BLM. Activists charge that those disparaging posts are part of an overall effort to undermine the movement and its message.
One post, for example, falsely claims the government has identified it as a terrorist group. Another that circulated widely claimed that BLM activists had badly beaten a group of elderly white people. That post was debunked by fact checkers who found the photos were of South Africans and had been online for years. It was removed, however Jorden Giger, an organizer with Black Lives Matter in South Bend, Ind., says there's still plenty of disinformation online designed to create confusion and distrust.
Giger says that's why BLM launched an effort to stop disinformation and urges people to submit details about suspicious posts or stories to the Black Lives Matter website.
WinBlack/Pa'lante, a nonpartisan group created after the 2016 presidential election, also monitors disinformation aimed at people of color. Hundreds of organizers across the country formed a digital war room during last year's election. They tracked bots that automatically send out scripted disinformation, often from Russia or other foreign governments trying to sow discord in the U.S. They tracked what are known as digital blackface accounts that steal images to masquerade as Black people and spread disinformation. Ashley Bryant, one of the co-leaders of WinBlack/Pa'lante, says they also found conspiracy theories about Black Lives Matter.
"That went from George Floyd not being dead to, you know, George Soros funding protests and the full out attacks on BLM where there's foreign actors, there's fake accounts pretending to be Antifa — all to actually just build this violent narrative around BLM," she says.
As with an civil rights movement, there is always a disinformation campaign launched against movement that advocates for social change. Considering what is happening in Belarus with Roman Protasevich or Russia with Alexei Navalny, muzzling movements by claiming they are violent is nothing new. Although the previous administration ignored cyber disinformation campaigns, it's good to see there are steps being taken to fight disinformation.
OP Topic: What do you believe the future is for tech companies and social media platforms as it relates to fighting disinformation?