Hate and polarisation

Latest

Fostering Civic Responses to Online Harms: Learnings from the Online Civil Courage Initiative and the Online Civic Fund

This report reviews the impact of the Online Courage Civic Initiative and Online Civic Fund in 2019, demonstrating how effective civil society actors can be when provided with the necessary resources and platform. Our overview shows the significant impact that civil society can have in countering hate online and offline, providing key learnings, inspiring similar initiatives and demonstrating the ways the civil sector can co-ordinate long term.

Responding to a Terror Attack: A Strong Cities Toolkit

This Strong Cities Network (SCN) toolkit offers a guide for local governments in formulating a sensitive and effective response in the wake of a terror attack.

Spin Cycle: Information Laundering on Facebook

The report outlines an investigation by ISD into a series of Facebook groups and pages exhibiting suspicious, potentially coordinated and inauthentic activity. The report illustrates how spam-like networks on Facebook can be used to distribute potentially harmful content across the platform at scale.

Seconde vague et désinformation : Aperçu des tendances sur les réseaux sociaux

Ce rapport analyse, en utilisant des données publiquement accessibles, les échanges relatifs à la deuxième vague de COVID-19 en France sur les principales plateformes de réseaux sociaux (Facebook et Twitter). Ont ainsi été analysés les discours les plus prégnants en rapport avec la deuxième vague de la pandémie ainsi que les types de contenu les plus largement partagés et les figures clés qui ont influencé le débat.

The Interplay Between Australia’s Political Fringes on the Right and Left: Online Messaging on Facebook

This research briefing outlines findings from an analysis of the far-right and far-left Facebook ecosystem in Australia in the first seven months of 2020. It analyses how the far-right and far-left discuss each other on Facebook and how narratives about the other side of the political spectrum shape the online activity of these groups. It also seeks to understand how central discussion about the ‘other side’ is to the far-right and far-left and how it fits within the broader online activities of these movements.

Disinformation briefing: Narratives around Black Lives Matter and voter fraud

This short briefing details the methodology and key findings of a study conducted jointly by the ISD team and Politico. Leveraging data from across social media platforms, this investigation seeks to understand online discussions around the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the issue of voter fraud ahead of the US Presidential election.

Bankrolling Bigotry: An overview of the Online Funding Strategies of American Hate Groups

Hatred is surging across the United States, threatening the safety, security and wellbeing of minority communities, and societal harmony writ large. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and Global Disinformation Index (GDI) have analysed the digital footprints of 73 US-based hate groups, assessing the extent to which they used 54 online funding mechanisms.

QAnon and Conspiracy Beliefs

The findings from this study provide important context for understanding the relationship between QAnon and the broader problem of conspiracy theory beliefs. A majority of Americans know nothing about QAnon and fewer than one-in-ten have a favorable view toward it; yet, a majority of those who recognize and believe in QAnon conspiracy theories are not QAnon supporters (most said they had not even heard of QAnon).

Public Figures, Public Rage: Candidate abuse on social media

This report presents the findings of our research into the scale of online abuse targeting Congressional candidates in the 2020 US election. We found that women and candidates from an ethnic minority background are more likely to receive abusive content on mainstream social media platforms. It provides recommendations and next steps which should be taken by technology companies and policymakers to protect candidates who are more likely to be targeted online and receive abusive content.

Political Monopoly: How Europe’s New Authoritarians Stifle Democracy and Get Away With it

"Political Monopoly: How Europe’s New Authoritarians Stifle Democracy and Get Away With it" is a new analysis of how Europe’s new authoritarians in Hungary, Poland and elsewhere consolidate power while maintaining a democratic facade. Comparing them to economic monopolies, it proposes a framework of “political anti-trust” to restore competitive politics.