NewsGuard

Liberals opposed to Trump’s choice of anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary are falsely claiming that smallpox was never eradicated and that it’s being held in check by vaccines. Read about it in Reality Check: https://lnkd.in/e6sRXPaS

Grateful to have particpated in the annual Distortions, Rumours, Untruths, Misinformation and Smears (DRUMS) conference in Singapore and share NewsGuard’s latest research on generative AI and foreign disinformation campaigns surrounding the 2024 U.S. election. Thank you to the RSIS | S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies for having me and to Harris Zainul and Viet Tho Le for an insightful panel discussion about case studies! Looking forward to more international collaboration in addressing foreign influence and manipulation.

No, there aren’t Coca-Cola-branded “Mobile Morgues” in Ukraine — photos depicting such morgues are in fact a manipulated image pushed by Russian sources. Read about it in Reality Check:? https://lnkd.in/gb6H58FG

Brand Victims of the Week: Ads for Macy's, Lowe's Companies, Inc., Samsung Electronics, Capital One, and others fund false claim that COVID-19 vaccines are bioweapons. In this Reality Check feature, NewsGuard identifies global brands that inadvertently support the spread of misinformation by unintentionally funneling programmatic advertising dollars to sites that repeatedly peddle false claims. Unless advertisers use inclusion or exclusion lists to place their programmatic ads, these ads will appear on websites regardless of their trustworthiness. This week: A NewsGuard analyst based in the U.S. was shown programmatic ads for Macy's, Lowe's Companies, Inc., Samsung Electronics, Capital One, Bloomingdale's, Ulta Beauty, Subaru of America, and T-Mobile on a Nov. 19 article published by Principia-Scientific.com (Trust Score: 20/100). Principia-Scientific.com is a London-based website that has repeatedly advanced false claims about COVID-19 vaccines. The article claimed that “Covid mRNA ‘vaccines’ were created to ‘strict military criteria’ to serve as a ‘bioweapon.’” Representatives for Macy’s, Lowe’s, Samsung, Capital One, Bloomingdale’s, Ulta, Subaru, and T-Mobile did not immediately respond to NewsGuard’s emailed requests for comment.

Low-quality, often inaccurate AI-generated text, images and video can be noticed both on social media and on websites purporting to be news outlets, usually with the purpose of reaching as many people as possible with the least amount of effort. Is this phenomenon, distinct from disinformation, a threat to the quality of the information ecosystem? Marina Adami spoke to three experts to discuss the duties of LLM developers, what news slop looks like in practice, and whether fears about it may be overblown. The experts. Prof Sandra Wachter from the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford described the concept of ‘careless speech’, defined by her and fellow academics Brent Mittelstadt and Chris Russell in a paper published this summer as AI output that is subtly inaccurate, oversimplified or biassed, and the dangers it could pose to society. McKenzie Sadeghi, editor of AI and Foreign Influence at NewsGuard, outlined the AI slop she’s seeing on bogus news sites, and AI in the newsroom expert David Caswell emphasised generative AI is just a tool that can be employed to add value if used thoughtfully. One view: “The thing that is most dangerous to a democratic society is not a liar, it's a bullshitter,” said Professor Sandra Wachter. Another side: “It's like spam. In the early days of email, it was completely out of control. But then we learned how to take care of it, and how to minimise it,” said David Caswell. Read: https://lnkd.in/dW92JcYs

Journalism Today: | Will AI slop kill journalism? | A budget bot | More organisations quit X This edition features Prof Sandra Wachter David Caswell McKenzie Sadeghi Marina Adami Jaemark Tordecilla Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University European Federation of Journalists Maja Sever Human Rights Watch Adrienne Raphel Jane Martinson and others Let us know if we missed anything, give us a like or re-post if you found this useful, and share with colleagues and friends

NewsGuard's co-CEO Gordon Crovitz writes in The Hill: "Until recently, Iran has been the distant third among disinformation superpowers, with Russia and China ahead in spreading false claims attacking the U.S. and sowing divisions in the country. With the election of Donald Trump, Tehran has accelerated its efforts, putting disinformation just behind assassination as a malign state strategy." Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/ejCpteTW

Last week, NewsGuard cataloged its 100th false claim about the U.S.presidential election circulating online since Sept. 1, 2024. Read about it in Reality Check :https://lnkd.in/eGxJJq27

Pro-Kremlin sources cite fake The Economist cover story to fearmonger World War III. The claim was pushed after Biden authorized Ukraine to use American long-range missiles for strikes inside Russia. Read about it in Reality Check: https://lnkd.in/eCr6SaxF

No, Trump did not mock MSNBC “Morning Joe” hosts in Truth Social post, contrary to claims from both sides of the aisle. Read it in Reality Check: https://lnkd.in/eaDpg5zD