Black Lives Matter Fights Disinformation to Keep the Movement Strong

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.

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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.

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A Facebook report released Wednesday says that Russia is still the largest producer of disinformation, a notable finding just five years after Russian operatives launched a far-reaching campaign to infiltrate social media during the 2016 presidential election campaign.

Facebook says it has uncovered disinformation campaigns in more than 50 countries since 2017, when it began the cat-and-mouse game of cracking down on political actors seeking to manipulate public debate on its platform. The report, which summarizes 150 disinformation operations the company says it has disrupted in that period, highlights how such coordinated efforts have become more sophisticated and costly to run in recent years — even as these operators struggle to influence large numbers of people as they once did.

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98cwitr said:

Who gets to decide what is true or false?

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The European Commission wants to hold Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter accountable for disinformation shared on their platforms. Under proposed rules released Wednesday, the European Commission is requesting that the tech companies do more to properly address disinformation online and show proof they've taken action.

The guidance issued Wednesday urges platforms and players in online advertising to block accounts sharing disinformation and ban those that regularly post debunked content. The commission also wants social media sites to improve transparency of political ads, including by properly labeling paid-for content and allowing users to see who is providing those ads.

"Threats posed by disinformation online are fast evolving and we need to step up our collective action to empower citizens and protect the democratic information space," Věra Jourová, the European Commission's vice president for values and transparency, said in a statement.

The commission's proposals issued Wednesday are meant to strengthen its Code of Practice on Disinformation, a voluntary pact signed by the world's largest social media companies in 2018. The signatories at the time included Facebook, Google, Twitter and Mozilla as well as trade associations representing online platforms, the advertising industry and advertisers.

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civilwarbuff said:

And how would it be guaranteed the names and faces match up?.........Papers please?..............

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civilwarbuff said:

No, I didn't. Take some time to understand my question......and all the potential abuse of providing such access to personal information that it entails.........

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