The Disinformation Age

The Disinformation Age episodes:

• 09.11.2019

  Where we go one, we go crazy - a beginners guide to the #QAnon conspiracy

  Mike Hind & conspiracy theory chronicler Mike Rothschild discuss the many facets of a Trump-era classic - the 'grand unifying' theory of QAnon

  
• 05.01.2019

  Game on! Quantified motivation & value capture: things we don't notice in online social life

  Something about the structures of online social discourse is changing us. Thi Nguyen sees similarities with the gaming world. Plus the 'expert finding' problem and more.

  
• 01.21.2019

  Ya basta! - a conversation with Erin Gallagher on digital information pollution in Latin America

  Digital disinformation on the social web is not confined to the US and Britain. In this episode Gephi digital social networks visualisation expert Erin Gallagher discusses her findings from Mexico, Honduras and other countries in the region.

  
• 07.16.2018

  #Moggmentum & #FreeTommy busted - plus the power of digital sleuthing

  #Moggmentum & #FreeTommy are two hash tags designed to promote and gain support for right wing talking points. But they are anything but organic in their spread.

  
• 04.15.2018

  Follow Bot Pro EU

  Mike and John discuss the similarities in the tenor, tone and approaches of the pro-European #FBPE Twitter community with those of the earlier pro-Brexit campaign.

  
• 02.03.2018

  Trust me, I'm an influencer

  Mike and John discuss the use of fake social profiles by non-political influencers - and the wider risks that come with this kind of gaming of social platforms. The reputational damage to real people caused by account hijacking, the increased...

  
• 12.30.2017

  Rhizome theory, Remainers and news pollution

  Mike and John discuss the 'rootless' nature of the internet and the difficulties that poses to reaching the sources of information pollution. The explosion of pro-'Remain' accounts on Twitter and the problem of low quality news aggregation sites is also...

  
• 11.27.2017

  'Look over there!' How the social media giants got a free pass on Twitter during the #techhearings

  In this episode Mike and John discuss how the conversation on Twitter unfolded around the appearances of Google, Facebook and Twitter at the so-called 'tech hearings' before representatives of Congress and the Senate in the United States. They conclude that because...

  
• 11.15.2017

  Episode 5 - fighting for truth in a post-fake news world - interviews from Misinfocon

  Fake news may have reached the mainstream, as a story, but experts in the field of combating disinformation are now thinking far beyond that. In this episode we catch up with delegates and presenters at the Misinfocon event, held in...

  
• 10.13.2017

  Episode 4 - Uber and the Taxibots

  Mike Hind and John Gray discuss the apparent astroturfing of anti-Uber sentiment by the London taxi industry and reveal a 'pornopolitical' Bot of the Week.

  
• 09.15.2017

  Episode 1 - setting the scene for a journey into fake

  Setting the scene for our future work and a heads up on a story that will unfold over time. It's about an apparent multi-platform network of social media accounts that connect across Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. A fake information network...