6 Tools and 6 Techniques Reporters Can Use to Unmask the Actors behind COVID-19 Disinformation

Alexandre Capron expected to find a sinister, well-funded organization when he began investigating a COVID-19 disinformation campaign that had captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of people in Africa and Western Europe.

Newsfeed posts from five popular Facebook pages contained fake quotes attributed to presidents and medical authorities — information with potentially lethal consequences — and appeared to be expertly pitched to exploit resentments among many in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the large Congolese diaspora in France.

Capron, a reporter for France 24’s The Observers, used a set of network-tracking tools — including Hoaxy, whopostedwhat.com, and Facebook’s increasingly powerful Transparency box — to zero in on the organization behind it.

Read more : https://gijn.org/2020/07/08/6-tools-and-6-techniques-reporters-can-use-to-unmask-the-actors-behind-covid-19-disinformation/

Ibe Charlotte
Ibe Charlotte
Articles: 70