Taiwan has been able to effectively respond to Chinese disinformation in part because of how seriously the threat is perceived there, according to Kenton Thibaut, a senior resident fellow and expert on Chinese disinformation at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Instead of a piecemeal approach — focusing solely on media literacy, for instance, or relying only on the government to fact-check false rumors — Taiwan adopted a multifaceted approach, what Thibaut called a “whole of society response” that relied on government, independent fact-check groups and even private citizens to call out disinformation and propaganda.
Given the degrees of separation from other nations’ disinformants in some situations, how do you help the public take the hostility/threat of their disinformants more seriously to help build a counterinfluence apparatus?
Good question… US still unprepared for Russian election interference, Robert Mueller says. I’m not a policy wonk, but it’s clear to me that while media literacy and awareness campaigns have some level of utility, they are not sufficient to move the dial for the general public. Especially in the US, the people repeating Russian disinformation talking points are in fact often aware of this, but because those talking points are an effective way of attacking their domestic opponents, they just don’t seem to care whether what they are saying is true or not.
Source - AP News article linked in OP article.
Given the degrees of separation from other nations’ disinformants in some situations, how do you help the public take the hostility/threat of their disinformants more seriously to help build a counterinfluence apparatus?
Good question… US still unprepared for Russian election interference, Robert Mueller says. I’m not a policy wonk, but it’s clear to me that while media literacy and awareness campaigns have some level of utility, they are not sufficient to move the dial for the general public. Especially in the US, the people repeating Russian disinformation talking points are in fact often aware of this, but because those talking points are an effective way of attacking their domestic opponents, they just don’t seem to care whether what they are saying is true or not.