Are you a journalist or activist looking to tackle fake news? This website may be of help

Are you a journalist or a civil society group looking to tackle the growing problem of disinformation and fake news? You would do well to check out ComProp Navigator, a curation of “resources about disinformation and computational propaganda by civil society practitioners and the Computational Propaganda Project”. Computational propaganda, the website states, involves the “use of algorithms, automation, and human curation to purposefully distribute misleading information over social media networks”. The project is run by Oxford University’s Oxford Internet Institute.

ComProp Navigator offers resources explaining the mechanics of disinformation, how it works, how it is deployed, and lists a range of strategies for tackling it, including ways to avoid amplification of disinformation. This one in particular is a critical resource, for in the age of social media, even otherwise diligent journalists have fallen prey to sharing and amplifying fake news.

For journalists and activists who may be targeted, online and offline, the website curates cybersecurity resources to help them keep their communications and work from prying eyes of state and non-state actors. There’s also a handy guide to keep your phones and computers secure, including by identifying risks. Then there are resources on tackling online harassment and doxxing, a growing problem in an increasingly online world.

In April this year, the Computational Propaganda Project conducted a workshop for the civil society in Delhi where it shared the findings of its research on the propagation of misinformation through Facebook and WhatsApp by India’s political parties ahead of the parliamentary election.

Full disclosure: The Computational Propaganda Project team had partnered with Newslaundry to conduct the workshop in Delhi.