During last week’s National Press Club Debate, Defence Minister Peter Dutton was determined to keep afloat false claims that Labor had done a back-door deal with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Citing Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s now defunct WeChat account as evidence of foreign interference, Dutton declared there was “no question at all” that the “CCP would like to see a change of government.” Morrison’s WeChat account was taken over and rebranded back in January, but a First Draft investigation found no evidence that the account was hacked or tampered with. Nonetheless, the narrative p ..read more

The challenge of monitoring, understanding, defining and responding to mis- and disinformation is exacerbated during election campaigns. This report outlines tactics used by agents of disinformation to undermine elections as observed by First Draft’s global monitoring since 2015.  This is placed within a brief overview of the characteristics and vulnerabilities that bear consideration during elections in the Australian context. Campaign tactics have also furthered the spread of falsehoods and mis- and disinformation in Australia. This creates additional challenges (for which there are eme ..read more

What does the rise of live, audio-based social media mean for identifying and moderating misinformation? We’ve taken a look at the platforms and their moderation policies, and offer some key takeaways for journalists and misinformation researchers. (Updated January 31, 2022.) Audio misinformation comes in many forms One of the challenges of tracking audio misinformation on social media is that audio is easily recorded, remixed and transcribed. During the 2020 US election, one piece of misinformation that went viral was a recording of a poll worker training in Detroit. The recording itself didn ..read more

False claims and conspiracy theories about the new Covid-19 variant Omicron emerged online after the variant was reported by South Africa to the World Health Organization (WHO) on November 24. The WHO said the variant has had a large number of mutations and may present an increased risk of reinfection, but studies on its transmissibility, severity of infection (including symptoms), performance of vaccines and diagnostic tests, and effectiveness of treatments are still underway. Conservative influencers are circulating claims that the variant is part of a government plan to oppress unvaccinated ..read more

As the United States is poised to roll out its Covid-19 vaccine booster program for all adults, misleading information on social media around this latest development is likely to become the focal point of the next round of vaccine misinformation. Already, false narratives about additional vaccine shots creating a new wave of infections and newer variants of the coronavirus elsewhere in the world have resurfaced. For example, Robert Malone, a Covid-19 vaccine skeptic known for his role in contributing to the development of mRNA vaccine technology but has since been promoting claims of the vacci ..read more

False comparisons have again been drawn between Nazi Germany and Covid-19 pandemic measures, this time prompted by the introduction of a lockdown for people in Austria who are not fully vaccinated. About two million people in Austria, or one-third of the population, were placed in lockdown on Monday, November 15, with the country facing a surge of infections. Austria has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Western Europe, with anti-vaccine sentiment encouraged by the far-right opposition Freedom Party. In the hours after the announcement of the lockdown, the following statements were made i ..read more

Vaccine misinformation concerning the coronavirus spike protein has again picked up in recent days. Vaccine skeptics and deniers have weaponized this medical term to deter people from trusting Covid-19 vaccines, which have been proven effective and safe. Natural News, InfoWars and other well-known disinformation actors intentionally misinterpreted a recently published paper on a potential mechanism of how full-length spike protein found on the coronavirus could diminish a person’s DNA repair system — especially in older people — and obstruct their adaptive immunity. Yet these disinformation ac ..read more

Last week Pfizer published interim trial results for its experimental Covid-19 antiviral pill, Paxlovid, which the company said reduced the chance of hospitalization or death for some adults by almost 90 per cent. The US pharmaceutical giant’s analysis included 1,219 adults who had been diagnosed with mild to moderate Covid-19 and who had at least one risk factor for developing severe disease. First Draft examined Facebook posts by Australian news publishers covering this story and found that misinformation and misunderstandings flourished in the comment sections, with potential audiences in t ..read more

Several videos of anti-vaccine medical workers recording themselves being suspended or fired from their jobs at healthcare facilities have generated significant interest in the past few days. Most physicians and healthcare workers in the United States have received Covid-19 vaccines. In a June survey, the American Medical Association reported that 96 percent of physicians have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. And in earlier surveys of thousands of members, the American Nurses Association and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners reported that most of their members had received ..read more

Australia will begin offering Covid-19 vaccine booster shots to eligible members of its adult population on November 8. News that the country’s medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), had provisionally approved the Pfizer vaccine as a third dose was met with skepticism, misinformation and conspiracy theories online. Shared as posts and comments on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts in Australia, these narratives had potential audiences in the hundreds of thousands in the past week. Some social media users suggested the need for Covid-19 booster shots means previo ..read more