1. What is Tech Diplomacy? A Very Short Definition (Eugenio V. Garcia)
Anyone trying to make sense of technology and international relations today will stumble into a plethora of closely related terms, such as e-diplomacy, cyber diplomacy, digital technology, tech diplomacy, and so forth. All these options on the menu seem very confusing (and they are), even for experts. They have been used interchangeably to apply to similar domains, but a bit more clarity would be welcomed. I will put forward here a few suggestions as a personal contribution to this ongoing debate.
2. TWIPLOMACY 2022 – Top 50 Power Ranking (Burson Cohn & Wolfe)
The new World Organisation Power Ranking includes all UN-recognised organisations consisting of its own agencies and the intergovernmental organisations with a standing invitation from the UN to participate as observers.
3. Memetic Engagement in the #Ukraine War (Ilan Manor Blog)
An important question is whether memes respond to reality or create reality. Because they tend to go viral, memes can shape how the online publics make sense of world events.
4. The 2022 Code of Practice on Disinformation (European Commission)
Major online platforms, emerging and specialised platforms, players in the advertising industry, fact-checkers, research and civil society organisations delivered a strengthened Code of Practice on Disinformation following the Commission’s Guidance of May 2021.
5. Wikipedia fights Russian order to remove Ukraine war information (Euractiv)
The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, has filed an appeal against a Moscow court decision demanding that it remove information related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, arguing that people have a right to know the facts of the war.
6. Overview and key findings of the 2022 Digital News Report (Reuters)
Last year’s report contained some positive signs for the news industry, with higher consumption and rising trust amidst a second wave of Coronavirus lockdowns.A year on and we find a slightly less optimistic picture. While a break-out group of primarily upmarket news publishers across the world report record digital subscription numbers and growing revenues, more broadly, we find that interest in news and overall news consumption has declined considerably in many countries while trust has fallen back almost everywhere – though it mostly remains higher than before the Coronavirus crisis began.
7. The Ghost of Internet Explorer Will Haunt the Web for Years (Wired)
Microsoft’s legacy browser may be dead—but its remnants are not going anywhere, and neither are its lingering risks.
8. An Apple Store Votes to Unionize for the First Time (Wired)
Employees at the company’s retail location in Towson, Maryland, have successfully organized.
9. Can tech tackle the global crisis of depression and anxiety? (The Economist)
Quite possibly. A new WHO report sets out the scale of the need.
When confronted with a hoax, disinformation researchers often wonder about its relevance: is it just an isolated post? Will it go viral? And if it does, could it have any impact in the offline world? The study of the impact of mis- and disinformation is one of the most challenging aspects for researchers, but it is also extremely relevant.
EU DisinfoLab’s impact–risk index offers an approach to assess the potential impact of single hoaxes. The method goes through a list of eight indicators related to the virality and engagement of a single disinformation content.