The spread of disinformation in Sweden is not a new phenomenon and has long been considered a problem for the Swedish Social Services. Though in recent years, misinformation and rumours about the Social Services have increased. The main narratives revolve around the Social Services allegedly kidnapping children of foreign descent without the support of LVU (Care of Young Persons Act) and are commonly referred to as the LVU campaign. Previous research primarily focuses on the portrayal of the Social Services by traditional media, creating a knowledge gap regarding the Social Services and social media. The aim of this study is to examine and increase understanding of discourses about the Social Services among users on the social media platform Flashback. By using a thematic analysis method, we have reduced and sorted the posts found in our Flashback forum of choice. The thematic analysis method enabled the construction of different themes that appeared frequently in the forum. Subsequently, a critical discourse analysis was applied to the material to identify the discourses that emerged in the forum. The critical discourse analysis includes a three-dimensional model and several concepts used to conduct the analysis. The main findings of the study shows that discussions among users on Flashback can involve several different aspects, and users have varying perspectives on the Social Services. This means that the portrayal of the Social Services on Flashback becomes complex as both positive and negative opinions are constantly expressed, along with different problem representations. The Social Services are often described negatively, and when multiple users agree with each other, the negative image of the Social Services becomes a "truth". Positive and negative discourses are also expressed in the Flashback forum, and these are constantly in opposition to each other. In the negative discourses, there is also an expression of fear towards the Social Services and the removal of children, which can be problematic as it may deter people from seeking the care they need.

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Submitted by Priscilla Araujo (priscilla@ibict.br) on 2017-12-05T17:14:33Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Deila Batista Salino-Dissertação-Mestrada-IBICT-UFRJ-2016.pdf: 1439653 bytes, checksum: 7387f9fca454e1881c99b4615e17d7a5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-12-05T17:14:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Deila Batista Salino-Dissertação-Mestrada-IBICT-UFRJ-2016.pdf: 1439653 bytes, checksum: 7387f9fca454e1881c99b4615e17d7a5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-04 / A pesquisa destaca a importância da promoção da transparência no acesso à informação pública, tendo como foco de análise os Tribunais de Contas do Brasil. O estudo propõe um diálogo entre a Ciência da Informação e Filosofia da Linguagem para discutir as questões de informação pública sobre o ponto de vista epistemológico e aplicado. Para esta abordagem teórica, adota-se parte dos conceitos da segunda fase de pensamento de Ludwig Wittgenstein, a saber, ―jogos de linguagem‖, ―semelhança de família‖, ―formas de vida‖ e ―regras‖, encontrados, predominantemente na obra Investigações Filosóficas, como forma de contribuir para a compreensão do uso das noções ―informação pública‖, ―transparência pública‖ e ―desinformação‖. O estudo tem como procedimento metodológico a pesquisa descritiva, bibliográfica e documental, tendo por foco analítico as legislações internas pesquisadas nos sites dos Tribunais de Contas do Brasil, na busca da aplicação da Lei nº 12.527, de 18 de novembro de 2011 (Lei de Acesso à Informação – LAI). Tais legislações, que visam à promoção da transparência através dos serviços prestados, podem ser compreendidas nesta pesquisa a partir das semelhanças e dessemelhanças entre as Cortes de Contas estudadas. As noções wittgensteinianas possibilitam entender as dimensões histórico-institucionais a partir do modo como estas comunicam suas transformações, evidenciando que a pragmática da linguagem influencia na constituição das práticas sociais cotidianas. Assim, a análise da linguagem em sua inserção contextual passa a ser vista como uma ferramenta de compreensão da LAI e de sua aplicação. / The research highlights the importance of promoting transparency in the access to public information, with the focus of analysis the Audit Courts of Brazil. The study proposes a dialogue between the Information Science and Philosophy of Language to discuss the public information issues on the epistemological point of view and applied. For this theoretical approach, we adopt part of the concepts of the second phase of thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein, namely "language games", "family resemblances", "life forms" and "rules" found predominantly in work Philosophical Investigations, in order to contribute to the understanding of the use of the concepts "public information", "public transparency" and "disinformation". The study's methodological approach descriptive research, bibliographic and documentary, with the analytical focus the national legislation surveyed in the portals of the Audit Courts of Brazil, seeking the application of Law n. 12.527 of 18 November 2011 (Access Law to Information - LAI). Such legislation, aimed at promoting transparency through the services provided, can be understood here from the similarities and dissimilarities between the Accounts of Cortes studied. The notion of "language games" makes it possible to understand the historical and institutional dimensions, showing that the pragmatics of language influences the constitution of everyday social practices. Thus, the analysis of language in its contextual integration is seen as an understanding tool of LAI and its application.

The thesis entitled "Genesis of Russian propaganda as a serious security threat of the 21st century from the perspective of NATO and EU" examines the phenomenon of contemporary Russian propaganda. Russia commonly uses propaganda as a tool of promoting its interests. Russian propaganda is very sophisticated, aggressive, and massive. Mainly due to the effective use of the internet and social networks, Russian online actors are able, in a short space of time, to successfully generate an information chaos, which is difficult to navigate in. Contemporary Russian propaganda has several key aspects, namely the anti-American and anti-European orientation, attacks on Western democratic values, and the mixing of truth with fiction. Thus, propaganda becomes an effective weapon in the information war that the Kremlin has initiated. The West is aware of these alarming issues and tries to respond. The thesis analyzes the development of the perception of the Kremlin propaganda by the Western international security organizations NATO and EU. At the same time, it attempts to identify the moment when Russian propaganda began to be perceived as a serious security threat. Whereas the key of the analysis is to interpret the perception of Russian propaganda, the concept of securitization was chosen as the theoretical...

This thesis explores to what extent Multinomial Naive Bayes (MNB) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) classifiers can be used to determine the polarity of news, specifically the news coverage of Sweden by the Russian state-funded news outlets RT and Sputnik. Three experiments are conducted.  In the first experiment, an MNB and an SVM classifier are trained with the Large Movie Review Dataset (Maas et al., 2011) with a varying number of samples to determine how training data size affects classifier performance.  In the second experiment, the classifiers are trained with 300 positive, negative, and neutral news articles (Agarwal et al., 2019) and tested on 95 RT and Sputnik news articles about Sweden (Bengtsson, 2019) to determine if the domain specificity of the training data outweighs its limited size.  In the third experiment, the movie-trained classifiers are put up against the domain-specific classifiers to determine if well-trained classifiers from another domain perform better than relatively untrained, domain-specific classifiers.  Four different types of feature sets (unigrams, unigrams without stop words removal, bigrams, trigrams) were used in the experiments. Some of the model parameters (TF-IDF vs. feature count and SVM’s C parameter) were optimized with 10-fold cross-validation.  Other than the superior performance of SVM, the results highlight the need for comprehensive and domain-specific training data when conducting machine learning tasks, as well as the benefits of feature engineering, and to a limited extent, the removal of stop words. Interestingly, the classifiers performed the best on the negative news articles, which made up most of the test set (and possibly of Russian news coverage of Sweden in general).

<p>  </p> <p>We cannot fully assess the normative and epistemic implications of online discourse, especially political discourse, without recognizing how it is being systematically leveraged to undermine the credibility and autonomy of those with marginalized identities. In the following chapters, I supplement social/feminist epistemological methodologies with norm theory to argue that online discourse entrenches the mechanisms of political dominance and cultural hegemony by ignoring and devaluing the experiences and struggles of marginalized individuals. Each chapter investigates a different, concrete manifestation of this dynamic. In Chapter 1, I argue that digital capitalist enterprises like Facebook facilitate the targeting of minoritized users with disproportionate instances of abuse, misinformation, and silencing. This is exemplified by the practice of using racial microtargeting to engage in Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) voter suppression. I contend in Chapter 2 that, given the exploitative nature of racially-microtargeted political advertising campaigns, these social media companies are ultimately morally responsible for initiating and sustaining a burgeoning digital voter suppression industry. In Chapter 3, I argue that the presence of online disinformation, in tandem with key party figures’ explicit endorsement of vicious group epistemic norms like close-mindedness and dogmatism, have directly contributed to the formation and epistemic isolation of conservative political factions in the US. Finally, I argue in Chapter 4 that social media and hostile media bias rhetoric directly reinforce sexist and racist credibility norms, effectively creating a toxic environment of misogynistic online discourse that hurts the perceived credibility of women journalists.</p>

The thesis aims to give readers a more precise knowledge of how narratives in the information environment, mainly social media platforms, can be created and structured by agents of influence operations to subvert and influence a target audience. As a case study, the thesis focuses on the influence agent “Shuoun Islamiya”, as the Swedish Psychological Defence Agency pointed out, to be the initiator of the influence operation targeting Swedish Social Services and the LVU-act. The research in this paper explores the narratives used by the agentto reveal three central narratives propagated by Shuoun Islamiya: Sweden as a fascist state, Swedish authorities as abusive towards children, and depicting Swedish authorities as targeting Muslim families in particular. The findings suggest that these narratives are strategically designed to weaken the existing narrative of Sweden as a democratic state and evoke strong emotions in the targeted audience to align with the influence agent's objectives. Construction of these narratives involves setting up antagonistic actors, portraying the Swedish state and the social services as villains who unfairly and systematically target families of immigrant and Muslim backgrounds. The families are, on the other hand, depicted as helpless victims,emphasising a conflict between the state and the families by using provocative and inflammatory language related to allegations of child kidnapping and abuse carried out by Swedish authorities. These narratives are conveyed mainly through social media platforms, showing a strong visual component in which non-related visually evocative images are oftenused to elicit emotional responses from the target audience. Further, results show how non-state actors can influence a sizable audience and take advantage of the digital information environment, combining false and misleading content taken out of context. Moreover, the analysis highlights potential security implications, including the risk of undermining social trust and cohesion. The study emphasises the need for a critical mindset among information consumers. It suggests avenues for future research, including examining other actors and assessing a potentially more profound impact of the influence operation.

L'évolution rapide des réseaux sociaux en ligne (RSO) représente un défi significatif dans l'identification et l'atténuation des fausses informations, incluant les fausses nouvelles, la désinformation et la mésinformation. Cette complexité est amplifiée dans les environnements numériques où les informations sont rapidement diffusées, nécessitant des stratégies sophistiquées pour différencier le contenu authentique du faux. L'un des principaux défis dans la détection automatique de fausses informations est leur présentation réaliste, ressemblant souvent de près aux faits vérifiables. Cela pose de considérables défis aux systèmes d'intelligence artificielle (IA), nécessitant des données supplémentaires de sources externes, telles que des vérifications par des tiers, pour discerner efficacement la vérité. Par conséquent, il y a une évolution technologique continue pour contrer la sophistication croissante des fausses informations, mettant au défi et avançant les capacités de l'IA. En réponse à ces défis, ma thèse introduit le cadre FACTS-ON (Fighting Against Counterfeit Truths in Online Social Networks), une approche complète et systématique pour combattre la désinformation dans les RSO. FACTS-ON intègre une série de systèmes avancés, chacun s'appuyant sur les capacités de son prédécesseur pour améliorer la stratégie globale de détection et d'atténuation des fausses informations. Je commence par présenter le cadre FACTS-ON, qui pose les fondements de ma solution, puis je détaille chaque système au sein du cadre : EXMULF (Explainable Multimodal Content-based Fake News Detection) se concentre sur l'analyse du texte et des images dans les contenus en ligne en utilisant des techniques multimodales avancées, couplées à une IA explicable pour fournir des évaluations transparentes et compréhensibles des fausses informations. En s'appuyant sur les bases d'EXMULF, MythXpose (Multimodal Content and Social Context-based System for Explainable False Information Detection with Personality Prediction) ajoute une couche d'analyse du contexte social en prédisant les traits de personnalité des utilisateurs des RSO, améliorant la détection et les stratégies d'intervention précoce contre la désinformation. ExFake (Explainable False Information Detection Based on Content, Context, and External Evidence) élargit encore le cadre, combinant l'analyse de contenu avec des insights du contexte social et des preuves externes. Il tire parti des données d'organisations de vérification des faits réputées et de comptes officiels, garantissant une approche plus complète et fiable de la détection de la désinformation. La méthodologie sophistiquée d'ExFake évalue non seulement le contenu des publications en ligne, mais prend également en compte le contexte plus large et corrobore les informations avec des sources externes crédibles, offrant ainsi une solution bien arrondie et robuste pour combattre les fausses informations dans les réseaux sociaux en ligne. Complétant le cadre, AFCC (Automated Fact-checkers Consensus and Credibility) traite l'hétérogénéité des évaluations des différentes organisations de vérification des faits. Il standardise ces évaluations et évalue la crédibilité des sources, fournissant une évaluation unifiée et fiable de l'information. Chaque système au sein du cadre FACTS-ON est rigoureusement évalué pour démontrer son efficacité dans la lutte contre la désinformation sur les RSO. Cette thèse détaille le développement, la mise en œuvre et l'évaluation complète de ces systèmes, soulignant leur contribution collective au domaine de la détection des fausses informations. La recherche ne met pas seulement en évidence les capacités actuelles dans la lutte contre la désinformation, mais prépare également le terrain pour de futures avancées dans ce domaine critique d'étude. / The rapid evolution of online social networks (OSN) presents a significant challenge in identifying and mitigating false information, which includes Fake News, Disinformation, and Misinformation. This complexity is amplified in digital environments where information is quickly disseminated, requiring sophisticated strategies to differentiate between genuine and false content. One of the primary challenges in automatically detecting false information is its realistic presentation, often closely resembling verifiable facts. This poses considerable challenges for artificial intelligence (AI) systems, necessitating additional data from external sources, such as third-party verifications, to effectively discern the truth. Consequently, there is a continuous technological evolution to counter the growing sophistication of false information, challenging and advancing the capabilities of AI. In response to these challenges, my dissertation introduces the FACTS-ON framework (Fighting Against Counterfeit Truths in Online Social Networks), a comprehensive and systematic approach to combat false information in OSNs. FACTS-ON integrates a series of advanced systems, each building upon the capabilities of its predecessor to enhance the overall strategy for detecting and mitigating false information. I begin by introducing the FACTS-ON framework, which sets the foundation for my solution, and then detail each system within the framework: EXMULF (Explainable Multimodal Content-based Fake News Detection) focuses on analyzing both text and image in online content using advanced multimodal techniques, coupled with explainable AI to provide transparent and understandable assessments of false information. Building upon EXMULF’s foundation, MythXpose (Multimodal Content and Social Context-based System for Explainable False Information Detection with Personality Prediction) adds a layer of social context analysis by predicting the personality traits of OSN users, enhancing the detection and early intervention strategies against false information. ExFake (Explainable False Information Detection Based on Content, Context, and External Evidence) further expands the framework, combining content analysis with insights from social context and external evidence. It leverages data from reputable fact-checking organizations and official social accounts, ensuring a more comprehensive and reliable approach to the detection of false information. ExFake's sophisticated methodology not only evaluates the content of online posts but also considers the broader context and corroborates information with external, credible sources, thereby offering a well-rounded and robust solution for combating false information in online social networks. Completing the framework, AFCC (Automated Fact-checkers Consensus and Credibility) addresses the heterogeneity of ratings from various fact-checking organizations. It standardizes these ratings and assesses the credibility of the sources, providing a unified and trustworthy assessment of information. Each system within the FACTS-ON framework is rigorously evaluated to demonstrate its effectiveness in combating false information on OSN. This dissertation details the development, implementation, and comprehensive evaluation of these systems, highlighting their collective contribution to the field of false information detection. The research not only showcases the current capabilities in addressing false information but also sets the stage for future advancements in this critical area of study.

[ES] En el momento en que decidí dedicarme académicamente al mundo de la comunicación empecé a ser consciente del poder que el ámbito de la información y la comunicación poseen a diferentes niveles. En aquel momento las tecnologías empezaban a despuntar en su gran evolución y revolución que vivimos a día de hoy, pero todavía no éramos conscientes, al menos del todo, de los resultados que pueden provocar determinadas informaciones poco rigurosas, más todavía, debido a su gran difusión y elevadas posibilidades de transmisión a gran velocidad a día de hoy. Dentro de esta tesis se analiza la evolución y revolución que las tecnologías digitales de la información y la comunicación han aportado al ámbito de los medios y como han logrado cambiar de paradigma. Se analiza como la ciudadanía cambia su rol de ser un agente pasivo que recibe informaciones a ser activo y con responsabilidades al poder ser también creador y transmisor de informaciones. Se realiza un análisis de las técnicas y estrategias que utilizan los profesionales de los medios de comunicación en el tratamiento de los hechos y datos para poder transformarlos en informaciones y como muchas veces este tratamiento se utiliza con intereses ocultos para favorecer objetivos políticos, económicos o bien de opinión social. Se concluye en esta tesis con una propuesta de currículum docente para poder llevar a cabo una educación en información y comunicación que nos ayude a facilitar el aprendizaje hacia una futura ciudadanía para que posea un pensamiento crítico ante cualquier tipo de información que reciba desde cualquier tipo de medio de comunicación y transmisión de la información. / [CA] En el moment en què vaig decidir dedicar-me acadèmicament al món de la comunicació vaig començar a ser conscient del poder que l'àmbit de la informació i la comunicació posseeixen a diferents nivells. En aquell moment les tecnologies començaven a despuntar en la seva gran evolució i revolució que vivim avui dia, però encara no érem conscients, almenys del tot, dels resultats que poden provocar determinades informacions poc rigoroses, més encara, a causa de la seva gran difusió i elevades possibilitats de transmissió a gran velocitat avui dia. Dins d'aquesta tesi s'analitza l'evolució i revolució que les noves tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació han aportat a l'àmbit dels mitjans i com han aconseguit canviar de paradigma. S'analitza com la ciutadania canvia el seu rol de ser un agent passiu que rep informacions a ser actiu i amb responsabilitats en poder ser també creador i transmissor d'informacions. Es realitza una anàlisi de les tècniques i estratègies que utilitzen els professionals dels mitjans de comunicació en el tractament dels fets i dades per a poder transformar-los en informacions i com moltes vegades aquest tractament s'utilitza amb interessos ocults per a afavorir objectius polítics, econòmics o bé d'opinió social. Aquesta tesi conclou amb una proposta de currículum docent per a poder dur a terme una educació en informació i comunicació que ens ajudi a facilitar l'aprenentatge cap a una futura ciutadania perquè posseeixi un pensament crític davant qualsevol mena d'informació que rebi des de qualsevol mena de mitjà de comunicació i transmissió de la informació. / [EN] When I decided to dedicate myself academically to the world of communication, I began to be aware of the power that the field of information and communication has at different levels. At that time, technologies were still to emerge in their great evolution and revolution that we are living today, but we were not yet aware, at least not fully, of the results certain less rigorous information can cause, even more so, due to its wide dissemination and high possibilities of transmission at high speed today. This thesis analyzes the evolution and revolution that the new information and communication technologies have brought to the media and how they have changed the paradigm. It analyzes how citizens change their role from being passive agents who receive information to being active and with responsibilities as they can also be creators and transmitters of information. An analysis is made of the techniques and strategies used by media professionals in the treatment of facts and data in order to transform them into information and how this treatment is often used with hidden interests to favor political, economic or social opinion objectives. This thesis concludes with a proposal for a teaching curriculum in order to carry out an education in information and communication that helps us to facilitate learning towards a future citizenry that possesses critical thinking in the face of any type of information received from any type of media and information transmission. / Climent Ferrer, JJ. (2022). Educación en información comunicación: análisis y propuesta para capacitar el consumo responsable de la información [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/185505

In dem Beitrag wird Kritik an die Gauguin-Ausstellung an der Alten Nationalgalerie Berlin, die von einer heftigen Hypernervosität/Hyperverstörung erfasst ist und an eine ideologische und voreingenommene Beschäftigung mit der Darstellenden Kunst (aber auch mit Literatur, Theater, Ballett usw.) und wo Theorien und Begriffe wie Kolonialismus, Dekolonisierung, Postkolonialismus, Dekonstruktion und Multiperspektivismus zu modischen Schlagwörtern verkommen. Die Texte strotzen von kulturtheoretischer Unwissenheit und Halbverdautem. Diese tragen mit einem Bombardement teilweise irreführender Texte zu Desinformation, Exotisierung und Stereotypisierung von Gauguins Werken bei, indem sie undifferenziert und naiv-idealisierend die Welt in Schwarz-Weiß einteilen: Hier die bösen Europäer, dort die guten Indigenen, und an ihrer Seite die guten aufgeklärten und moralisch tadellosen neuen Menschen Europas, die neuen Gralshüter:innen von Moral und Kunst des 21. Jahrhunderts. / The article is critical of the Gauguin exhibition at the Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin, which is gripped by a vehement hypernervousness/hyperdisturbance, and of an ideological and biased preoccupation with the performing arts (but also with literature, theatre, ballet, etc.) and of the use of theories and concepts such as colonialism, decolonisation, postcolonialism, deconstruction and multiperspectivism in fashionable buzzwords. The texts bristle with cultural-theoretical ignorance and half-digestedness. They contribute to the disinformation, exoticisation and stereotyping of Gauguin's works with a bombardment of partly misleading texts by undifferentiatedly and naively idealisingly dividing the world into black and white: Here the bad Europeans, there the good indigenous people, and alongside them the good enlightened and morally impeccable new people of Europe, the new guardians of the Grail of morality and art in the 21st century. / El artículo critica la exposición de Gauguin en la Alte Nationalgalerie de Berlín, que está embarcada en una fuerte hipernerviosidad/hiperperperperturbación, así como en una preocupación ideológicamente sesgada por las artes escénicas (pero también por la literatura, el teatro, el ballet, etc.) y en el uso de teorías y conceptos como colonialismo, deco-lonización, postcolonialismo, deconstrucción y multiperspectivismo en términos de moda. En los textos abunda la ignorancia cultural y teórica, semidigeridos. Contribuyen a la desinformación, exotización y estereotipación de la obra de Gauguin mediante un bombardeo de textos parcialmente erróneos, al dividir el mundo en blanco y negro de forma indiferenciada e ingenuamente idealizadora: Aquí los malos europeos, allí los buenos nativos, y junto a ellos los buenos nuevos pueblos ilustrados y moralmente irreprochables de Europa, los nuevos guardianes del Grial de la moral y el arte en el siglo XXI.