Australian city councils will soon have access to a new tool to counter the spread of disinformation in their regions.
Researchers from Australian universities and overseas institutions have collaborated to create a Disinformation in the City Response Playbook, to be released today, to address the growing problem of disinformation both locally and across the globe.
University of Melbourne researcher Ika Trijsburg said disinformation, or false information, such as “fake news,” was deliberately created to harm or mislead a target audience.
Ms Trijsburg said it was different to misinformation, which was false or misleading information that was shared without intent to harm.
She said the team designed the playbook to give local governments the tools to stop disinformation before it started.
“Current knowledge of disinformation management is focused at national and international levels and doesn’t address urban governance needs.
“Disinformation costs cities money, time and resources, and puts communities at risk. The playbook establishes a new normal for city functioning and for policymaking,” Ms Trijsburg said.
She said disinformation response was good governance.
“Responsibilities for many of society’s complex challenges, like climate change and community resilience, sit at the local level of governance. Disinformation can impact their ability to deliver on the mandate provided to them by their constituents.”
Ms Trijsburg said the team of researchers found that a non-partisan approach was essential to stopping the spread of disinformation, with research showing that disinformation thrived on division.
She said the playbook offered a three-phase strategy to help cities address the problem: pre-emption and early detection; spread prevention and pre-bunking (the process of addressing potentially harmful disinformation before it takes hold); and debunking and recovery.
“While disinformation often starts online, it can manifest on city streets. Recent examples include the UK riots where more than 460 people were charged in connection with the violent disorder fuelled by disinformation stemming from far-right, anti-immigration organisers,” Ms Trijsburg said.
She said cities were uniquely positioned to respond to the growing challenge of disinformation.
“Their relative size makes them agile compared to other levels of government. Their proximity to communities gives them awareness of community issues and grievances and makes them capable of comprehensive locally embedded actions,” Ms Trijsburg said.
She said the playbook also addressed the role that technology and social media played in cities, noting that technology companies, especially those developing artificial intelligence, were key to the disinformation response.
