Docket+ 16 September

Hi! I'm Victoria and welcome to DisinfoDocket. Docket+ is a weekly roundup of the latest influence operations-related academic research, events and job opportunities.

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Highlights

1. GUIDEBOOK: Best Practices for Producing Culturally Competent Prebunking Messages for U.S. Latinos (DDIA, 4 September)
2. Why Scholars Should Stop Studying ‘Misinformation’. The term caught on in the COVID era, but it makes good research impossible. (Chronicle, 10 September)
3. From the People Who Brought You Project 2025: Manufactured Evidence of Voter Fraud (Brennan Centre, 10 September)
4. Mapping The Far Right: The Movement’s Conferences Illuminate Its Growing Transnational Networks (GPAHE, September)
5. Input Needed: Mapping the Tools, Service and Platforms that Serve the Common Good (Common Good Cyber, 5 September)

1. Academia & Research

1.1 Platforms & Technology

1. With X Blocked in Brazil, Musk Doubles Down on Attacks Against Brazil’s Democracy Using Classic Tactics of Manipulation (Tech Policy Press, 10 September)
2. Empowered or Constrained in Platform Governance? An Analysis of Twitter Users’ Responses to Elon Musk’s Takeover (SAGE, 12 September)
3. The Struggle Over Digital Infrastructure (Tech Policy Press, 11 September)
4. Banning TikTok: A Self-Inflicted Wound on Liberal Democracy (Tech Policy Press, 11 September)
5. Trust & Safety growing pains - Rapid growth presents a unique problem for Trust & Safety teams, especially for startups with limited resources. Bluesky's rapid rise in Brazil is a great example of why this practice is anything but easy. (Everything in Moderation, 9 September)
6. Open Measures Datasets: What is Scored? Open Measures' datasets include millions of posts from Scored, an alt-tech platform spun-off from the banned subreddit r/TheDonald. (Open Measures, 12 September)

AI & LLMs

1. Why AI undermines democracy and what to do about it (Oxford Academic, 9 September)
2. Understanding Knowledge Drift in LLMs through Misinformation (ArXiv, 11 September)
3. Propaganda to Hate: A Multimodal Analysis of Arabic Memes with Multi-Agent LLMs (ArXiv, 11 September)
4. AI-Paraphrasing Increases Perceptions of Social Consensus & Belief in False Information (OSF, 11 September)
5. Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI (Science, 13 September)

Availability and spread of information

1. Sequential Classification of Misinformation (ArXiv, 7 September)
2. Measuring receptivity to misinformation at scale on a social media platform (Oxford Academic, 10 September)
3. He Said, She Said: Who Gets Believed When Spreading (Mis)Information (SSRN, 12 September)

1.2 World News 

1. Adaptation Procedure in Misinformation Games (ArXiv, 7 September)
2. Unpacking platform governance through meaningful human agency: How Chinese moderators make discretionary decisions in a dynamic network (SAGE, 10 September)
3. Researching hate speech online: Exploring the potential and limitations of Facebook as a survey tool in Africa (SAGE, 10 September)
4. The Brazilian Extreme-Right and China (SAGE, 10 September)
5. Overhyped and Misleading Claims of a ‘Tren de Aragua’ Criminal Influx in Aurora, CO Fuel Anti-Immigrant Sentiments (DDIA, 5 September)

Russia & Ukraine

1. Explainer: the Russian influence operations targeting the 2024 US elections (DFRLab, 6 September)
2. Tell me it’s raining (EUvsDisinfo, 12 September)
3. Back to school in Russia – more revision of history (EUvsDisinfo, 6 September)
4. Kremlin disinformation targets US elections (EUvsDisinfo, 6 September)
5. The U.S. Government's Busy Week Combating Russian Operatives (Lawfare, 9 September)
6. US indictment of RT employees may have limited impact (ISD, 7 September)

Israel & Palestine

1. Public sentiment on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict: insights from YouTube, Mastodon, and Google Trends (T&F, 11 September)