This week, Kinzen’s Head of Policy, Karolina Pietkiewicz, published a new blog post about how the key to a safer internet is local nuance and deep language understanding. In it, she points out the balance that is required between global policies and local expertise. 

“Speech can be ambiguous and a binary approach can lead to inequitable treatment of users and creators, particularly in underserved regions. Accounting for local nuance is essential to understanding and appropriately addressing signals of imminent harm and information risk.”

She also points out the features of a “Safety by Design” approach to content moderation, with thought given to the overall health of the platform when designing any new feature or product. 

Check it out here. 

Editor’s Pick

This week I've been reading Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway. It's an incredibly insightful work highlighting how those with vested interests will seek to mislead the public by cherry picking data or, as the title alludes, sowing doubt about what the overwhelming scientific evidence says.

For Your Ears

Moderated Content is a new podcast from Stanford Law School hosted by Evelyn Douek. In the first episode, she focuses on the controversial Texas social media law that has implications for the future of the internet. Douek interviews Daphne Keller about the subject. Listen here. 

From the Kinzen Slack Channels

Articles recommended by our uniquely experienced group of engineers, scientists, designers, developers and editorial experts

EU Disinfo Lab. Doppelganger - Media Clones Serving Russian Propaganda

Research published this week by EU Disinfo Lab showcases how Russia-based actors “cloned” legitimate media outlets in several countries in attempts to undermine Western support for Ukraine. There is a useful summary in this Twitter thread. The outlets that were cloned included Bild, 20minutes, Ansa, The Guardian and RBC Ukraine, among others. 

Meta. Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior From China and Russia

On a similar theme, Ben Nimmo at Meta posted about the takedown of networks in China and Russia for coordinated inauthentic behaviour. The China activity was focused on influencing the US midterms. The Russian activity was mainly focused on Europe and the war in Ukraine.

The Program on Extremism at George Washington University. Create, Connect, and Deceive: Islamic State Supporters' Maintenance of the Virtual Caliphate Through Adaptation and Innovation

This research by Meili Criezis goes deep on the activities of Islamic State supporters online, including how they try to evade content moderators and how they try to grow their audiences. 

Buzzfeed News. “My Brother Is So Far Gone”: How Male Influencers Turned The Men In These People’s Lives Toxic

In this article, Buzzfeed shares the stories of people who feel their male family members or friends have been lost to the toxic online manosphere culture of misogyny.