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YouTube and combatting misinformation, disinformation

Pamela Ephraim
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YouTube and combatting misinformation, disinformation

TO curb the spread of misinformation on the internet, YouTube has joined other platforms such as Google and Facebook to collaborate with fact-checkers using information panels.

These panels, launched in Brazil and India in 2019, inform the public if claims related to searches are true, false, or  “partly true,” according to the publisher’s fact-check verdict.

Although information panels are only available in a limited number of countries and languages, YouTube says it is working to it to more countries.

A few years after it launched the information panel, a consortium of fact-checkers worldwide has come out to demand more effective action against misinformation from the video hosting platform.

In an Open letter, the fact-checkers noted that conspiracy groups are thriving and collaborating across borders, including an international movement that started in Germany, jumped to Spain and spread through Latin America, all on YouTube.

They also pointed out how the platform has been used to amplify hate speech against vulnerable groups, reaching tens of thousands of users. This is in addition to it being a fertile ground for election disinformation.

The Fact-checkers proposed solutions which include: a commitment to meaningful transparency about disinformation on the platform;  providing context and offering debunks, clearly superimposed on videos or as additional video content; Acting against repeat offenders that produce content that is constantly flagged as disinformation and misinformation, Extending current and future efforts against disinformation and misinformation in languages different from English and so on.

How the Information panel work

Authoritative publishers and publishers who are verified signatories of the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles are eligible to have their fact-checks published by YouTube.

The fact-checks will be displayed on the information panel marked as an “independent fact-check” with:

  • The name of the publisher doing the fact-check
  • The claim being fact-checked
  • A snippet of the publisher’s fact-check finding
  • A link to the publisher’s article to learn more
  • Info about the publication date of the fact check article

Fact checks shown in information panels will not be endorsed or created by YouTube.

However, YouTube allows the public to send feedback on fact check that violates its community guidelines.

Is this photo of Kenyan pastor beaten up by church members?

Nurudeen Akewushola
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Is this photo of Kenyan pastor beaten up by church members?

Several social media users and blogs have circulated a photo of a man on a hospital bed claiming he is a pastor who was beaten up by his congregation for asking for money to unlock the 2022 New Year’s blessing. 

Blogs claim the photo shows a Kenyan pastor, James Mungo hospitalised after asking for Ksh4200 (N16,000) from members to unlock their 2022 blessings.

Similar posts with the image were shared here on Twitter and here on Facebook and some Nigerian blogs, as can be seen here.

THE CLAIM:

The photo shows a pastor who demanded money to unlock 2022 blessings hospitalised due to being beaten by church members.

Screenshots of some of the posts on social media.

THE FINDINGS:

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is false.

The photo is an old photo that has been on the internet since 2017.

A Google reverse image check showed that the image is of a  now-deceased Nollywood actor, Adeshina Adesanya, known as Pastor Ajidara, who was reported to have died in 2017.

Read also:

A colleague of the deceased, Adebayo Amusan,  known as Mr Latin, shared the image on his Instagram handle in May 2017, as seen here after his death.

THE VERDICT:

The claim that the photo shows a pastor who demanded money to unlock 2022 blessings hospitalised due to being beaten by church members is FALSE.

The photo is unrelated to the incident. The image has been online since 2017. Therefore it could not have been from an incident touted to have taken place on the eve of 2022.

How to get verified on Twitter as a journalist

Pamela Ephraim
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How to get verified on Twitter as a journalist

JOURNALISTS fall into one of the seven categories eligible for Twitter’s verification.

“The blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. To receive the blue badge, your account must be authentic, notable, and active,” says Twitter.

The verification badge is not necessarily earned by follower count. Journalists with less than 200 followers (as seen in the profile archived here) have been verified by Twitter.

This is not to say accounts don’t get verified due to follower or mention count.

“If your account is detected to be in the top .05 per cent follower or mention count for your geographic location, it may count towards notability evidence for certain categories,” says Twitter.

Read also:

For journalists who have at least three stories published by verified news media within the past six months, all you need to do is prove your identity to Twitter by carefully following the steps below.

You will need:

  • An active account that directly reference your employer’s official URL or handle in your bio. Your employer should have a verified account.
  • In addition, links to three articles with your byline published by a verified medium within the past six months and a valid government-issued ID.
  • Official websites or news articles published by verified organisations referencing your Twitter handle or registered email address to use to authenticate your account.

The steps I followed to get my account verified:

1.

Have an active Twitter account that adheres to Twitter rules: You must have a profile name, a recognizable profile image, and your account must have a confirmed email address or phone number. You must have logged into the account in the last six months.

2.

Link your verified Muck Rack profile to your Twitter:  This helps to show articles published under your name. It is, however, not mandated.

3.

Log into your Twitter account, click “Settings and privacy” under your profile.

Screenshot from Twitter

3.

Under Settings, click “Your account”.

4.

Under your account, click “Account Information“.

5.

When your account information is displayed, click “Verification request“. It will take you to a prompt page with “Start Verification”.

7.

Select the “News organisation or journalist” category.

Screenshot from Twitter

8.

Select the account type that best suits you as a journalist.

Screenshot from Twitter.

9.

Confirm the eligibility of your news organisation by entering the Twitter handle.

10.

Click “Yes, it’s complete” if your profile meets the criteria for a journalist (make sure your Twitter bio references the verified organisation you work for).

11.

Add reference of employment: Provide a link that references you as a journalist. The reference must come from the official site of a verified news organisation and also add a link to your author page with a bio that references you as a journalist and has a photo of you and it should also have your Twitter handle too.

 

Screenshot from Twitter.

12.

Review and Submit: Carefully review the provided information, as errors may impact the verification outcome.

13.

You will be VERIFIED within 24 hours if you meet all the requirements.

Fact-checkers write YouTube, demand effective action against disinformation

Niyi Oyedeji
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Fact-checkers write YouTube, demand effective action against disinformation

FACT-CHECKERS across the globe under the auspices of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) has written to the management of the video-sharing platform, YouTube, demanding effective action against the spread of misinformation and disinformation on the platform.

The IFCN in a letter written to the YouTube CEO, Susan Wojcicki, frowned at the rate at which the video-sharing platform has consistently been used for the propagation of different forms of false information.

The letter which urged YouTube to collaborate with fact-checkers also proffered multiple solutions.

See the letter below:

An open letter to YouTube’s CEO from the world’s fact-checkers

January 12th, 2022

Ms. Susan Wojcicki,

It’s been almost two years since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The world has seen time and time again how destructive disinformation and misinformation can be for social harmony, democracy, and public health; too many lives and livelihoods have been ruined, and far too many people have lost loved ones to disinformation. As an international network of fact-checking organizations, we monitor how lies spread online — and everyday, we see that YouTube is one of the major conduits of online disinformation and misinformation worldwide. This is a significant concern among our global fact-checking community.

What we do not see is much effort by YouTube to implement policies that address the problem. On the contrary, YouTube is allowing its platform to be weaponized by unscrupulous actors to manipulate and exploit others, and to organize and fundraise themselves. Current measures are proving insufficient. That is why we urge you to take effective action against disinformation and misinformation, and to elaborate a roadmap of policy and product interventions to improve the information ecosystem – and to do so with the world’s independent, non-partisan fact-checking organizations.

In the last year we have seen conspiracy groups thriving and collaborating across borders, including an international movement that started in Germany, jumped to Spain and spread through Latin America, all on YouTube. Meanwhile, millions of other users were watching videos in Greek and Arabic that encouraged them to boycott vaccinations or treat their COVID-19 infections with bogus cures. Beyond COVID-19, YouTube videos have been promoting false cures for cancer for years.

In Brazil, the platform has been used to amplify hate speech against vulnerable groups, reaching tens of thousands of users. Elections are not safe either. In the Philippines, false content with over 2 million views denying human rights abuses and corruption during the Martial law years are being used to burnish the reputation of the late dictator’s son, one of the candidates in the 2022 elections.  In Taiwan, the last election was marred by unsubstantiated accusations of fraud. The whole world witnessed the consequences of disinformation when a violent mob assaulted the U.S. Capitol last year. From the eve of the U.S. presidential election to the day after, YouTube videos supporting the “fraud” narrative were watched more than 33 million times.

The examples are too many to count. Many of those videos and channels remain online today, and they all went under the radar of YouTube’s policies, especially in non-English speaking countries and the Global South. We are glad that the company has made some moves to try to address this problem lately, but based on what we see daily on the platform, we think these efforts are not working – nor has YouTube produced any quality data to prove their effectiveness.

Your company platform has so far framed discussions about disinformation as a false dichotomy of deleting or not deleting content. By doing this, YouTube is avoiding the possibility of doing what has been proven to work: our experience as fact-checkers together with academic evidence tells us that surfacing fact-checked information is more effective than deleting content. It also preserves freedom of expression while acknowledging the need for additional information to mitigate the risks of harm to life, health, safety and democratic processes. And given that a large proportion of views on YouTube come from its own recommendation algorithm, YouTube should also make sure it does not actively promote disinformation to its users or recommend content coming from unreliable channels.

With all this in mind, we propose some solutions that would make a great deal of difference in reducing the dissemination of disinformation and misinformation on YouTube.

  1. A commitment to meaningful transparency about disinformation on the platform: YouTube should support independent research about the origins of the different misinformation campaigns, their reach and impact, and the most effective ways to debunk false information. It should also publish its full moderation policy regarding disinformation and misinformation, including the use of artificial intelligence and which data powers it.
  2. Beyond removing content for legal compliance, YouTube’s focus should be on providing context and offering debunks, clearly superimposed on videos or as additional video content. That only can come from entering into a meaningful and structured collaboration taking the responsibility and systematically investing in independent fact-checking efforts around the world that are working to solve these issues.
  3. Acting against repeat offenders that produce content that is constantly flagged as disinformation and misinformation, particularly those monetizing that content on and outside the platform, notably by preventing its recommendation algorithms from promoting content from such sources of misinformation.
  4. Extend current and future efforts against disinformation and misinformation in languages different from English, and providing country- and language-specific data, as well as transcription services that work in any language.

We hope you will consider implementing these ideas for the public good and to make YouTube a platform that truly does its best to prevent disinformation and misinformation being weaponized against its users and society at large. We are ready and able to help YouTube. We wish to meet with you to discuss these matters and find ways forward on a collaboration and look forward to your response to this offer.

Are hand sanitisers flammable?

Pamela Ephraim
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Are hand sanitisers flammable?

A surveillance footage shows a man who had drenched his hair and bare body with hand sanitisers bursting into flames seconds after being tased by the Police.

This was reported by the New York Post.

The report generated reactions, part of which are hand sanitisers flammable?

READ: How true is that claim that washing wounds from dog bite with soap and water is effective against rabies?

The emergence of coronavirus brought hand sanitiser to the fore as part of the preventive methods to reduce transmission.

There are two broad categories of the product; non-alcohol-based hand sanitisers (NABHS) and alcohol-based hand sanitisers (ABHS).

The US Center for Disease Control says alcohol-based hand sanitisers contain ethyl alcohol that readily evaporates at room temperature into an ignitable vapour is considered a flammable liquid.

ALSO READ: Does water obtained from soaking unripe plantain cure ulcer?

These alcohol-based hand sanitisers predominate in health care settings given their low cost and efficacy of reducing infectious transmission, a report published on the National Center for Biotechnology Information notes.

A fact-check notes that, even though alcohol-based hand sanitisers are flammable, they do not self combust “the flammable ingredients in hand sanitiser would need to be at much higher temperatures, over 350°C, to combust without a spark”.

Is the world populated with more women than men?

Pamela Ephraim
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Is the world populated with more women than men?

A post circulating online in Nigeria puts forward that the population of women on earth is three times that of men.

The post, retrieved from a WhatsApp group, gave its source as the 2019 United Nations Demography Report.  It noted that there are 5.6 billion women to 2.2 billion men.

CLAIM

There are 5.6 billion women and 2.2 billion men on earth as of 2019.

Screenshot of claim circulated on Whatsapp

READ: How accurate is Atiku’s claim on population of social media users in Northern Nigeria?

THE FINDINGS

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is false.

The 2019 United Nations report on demography shows that the men to women population are almost at a 1:1 ratio. They are both at an estimated 3.8 billion each.

The 2019 demography puts the women population at 3,824,434 billion while men at 3,889,035 billion which is higher by 64.6 million.

From the data, some countries have a higher ratio of females to males. Nigeria is not one of them.

There are 101 million men to 99 million women in Nigeria [i.e 101,832 million and 99,132 million, respectively].

ALSO READ: Claim that National Population Commission is still recruiting is FALSE!

Consequently, the 2020 data also showed that the male population at 3.92 billion (3,929,974,000)   is higher than women at 3.86 billion (3,864,825,000).

THE VERDICT

The claim that the women population is thrice the number of the male population in 2019  is FALSE.

 

Update: 

21/01/22: The second paragraph under ‘The Findings’ was changed from “…are almost at a 50-50 ratio” to “…are almost at a 1:1 ratio”.

Were two brothers promoted to Major General on the same day?

Pamela Ephraim
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Were two brothers promoted to Major General on the same day?

A photo of two Nigerian Army officers has been circulated on social media with accompanying caption that they were two brothers promoted to the rank of Major General on the same day.

One of such posts archived here made by  Olusoga Owoeye (@olusogaowoeye) on Twitter has garnered over 1000 engagements, including retweets.

The post read in part, “Two brothers, same parents from Bayelsa, both belong to the Artillery Corp[s] of the Nigerian Army, and they were both promoted to the rank of Major General today.” 

THE CLAIM:

Two army officers who are brothers were both promoted to the rank of Major General on the same day.

A screenshot of the tweet reshared on Facebook.

THE FINDINGS:

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is false.

A senior officer of the Nigerian army confirmed to the FactCheckHub that both officers Taritimiye and Teriworie in the viral photo are brothers.

Taritimiye Ayibakuro is the eldest of the two Gagariga brothers.

However, they were not promoted to the rank of Major General on the same day.

The eldest, Taritimiye Ayibakuro Gagariga, was promoted to the rank of Major General several years before his younger brother, Teriworie,  who got his promotion in December of 2021.

The viral photo in circulation was taken when the older brother graced his younger brother’s promotion decoration ceremony to Major General.

As of 2019, Taritimiye was already a Major General.  Multiple reports when he led a fact-finding team on the Abonema killings addressed him as such.

In August and September 2021, different news reports also addressed him as a Major General.

THE VERDICT

The claim that two brothers, Taritimiye and Teriworie Gagariga, were promoted to the rank of Major General on the same day is FALSE.

Fake front-page apology to Meghan Markle circulates online

Niyi Oyedeji
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Fake front-page apology to Meghan Markle circulates online

Following a court judgement that ruled in favour of the Duchess of Sussex Megan Markle against the Associated Press over a letter she sent to her father, a front-page apology purported to be from the Mail on Sunday has been widely circulated online. 

The page retrieved on WhatsApp on December 26, 2021, has Markle’s picture on the left-hand side with a screaming headline underneath it which reads “She won!”

“We are sorry we ever messed with you Meghan. Your victory is well deserved, and we were out of order,” the accompanying article read in part.

THE CLAIM:

It shows the front page of Mail on Sunday, which offered Meghan Markle an apology.

The fake front page of The Mail on Sunday in circulation.

THE FINDINGS:

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is FALSE, the page in circulation has been manipulated.

It is different from the Mail on Sunday front page published on boxing day, December 26, 2021.

The language used in the apology page in circulation, the font size and the page layout were red flags that necessitated verification as they did not conform to the style of the Mail on Sunday.

Meghan had in 2019 started legal action against the Mail on Sunday, claiming that the paper unlawfully published one of her private letters, particularly the one she sent to her father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.

However, two years down the line, the Appeal Court in the UK ruled in favour of Markle on the privacy battle.

The newspaper said that it was “very disappointed” and is considering an appeal to the UK’s Supreme Court.

Markle, in her part, celebrated the judgment and said that she hopes it would help in changing the UK newspaper industry.

“This is a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right,” reads,” her statement read in part.

The Judge had ordered Mail on Sunday to report the court decision on its print and online versions.

The original front page of Mail on Sunday of December 26, 2021.

The newspaper made the publication on Boxing day. It had a headline on the front page “The Duchess of Sussex wins her legal case for copyright infringement against Associated Newspapers for articles published in The Mail on Sunday and posted on Mail Online – SEE PAGE 3”.

It also has a short report on page three published on its website titled “Duchess of Sussex”.

It stated that Markle won her copyright infringement case against them. It also added that “Financial remedies have been agreed.”

The publication at the top left hand on page three of Mail on Sunday.

THE VERDICT:

Findings by the FactCheckHub shows that the front-page apology in circulation has been manipulated and, therefore, FALSE.

Is Islam the second-largest religion in the United Kingdom?

Niyi Oyedeji
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Is Islam the second-largest religion in the United Kingdom?

ON DECEMBER 25, during the Christmas festivities, Nigerians on social media, particularly on Twitter, argued about the population of Muslims in the United Kingdom (UK).

In response to a particular post stating that children of Nigerian migrants in the UK are mostly going to end up in schools or churches, where they would be participating in Christmas activities, irrespective of their religious affiliations, A Twitter user claimed that Islam is the second-largest religion in the UK.

The Twitter user Ayo with the user ID, @AladejanaDeji, tweeted that about 4.4 per cent of the total population of UK residents were Muslims as of 2011.

He added that over 3.3 million people were estimated to be Muslim in Great Britain as of 2018.

“In 2011, 2,516,000 individuals, about 4.4% of the total population of UK residents were Muslims. In 2018, the Office of National Statistics estimated that there are about 3,372,966 Muslims in Great Britain alone. Islam is currently the second-largest religion in the UK,” his tweet read.

A screenshot of the tweets.

From the tweet, the following claims were established:

CLAIM 1:

‘2,516,000 people making up of 4.4 per cent of UK residents were Muslim as of 2011’

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is half true.

Data from the United Nation data bank show that there were  63.2 million (63,182,178) people in the UK as of 2011.

Out of the total population, almost 2.8 million (2,786,635)  identified as Muslims.

The 2,786,635 equate to 4.4 per cent of the total population.

The United Nations stated that the data was extracted from the population census conducted in the country in 2011

THE VERDICT: The claim is HALF TRUE. While 4.4 per cent of the total UK population were Muslims as of 2011, the total Muslim population were  2,786,635 and not 2,516,000.

CLAIM 2:

‘3,372,966 million people were estimated to be Muslim in Great Britain as of 2018.’

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is true.

A report by the UK’s Office for National Statistics stated that there were almost 3.4 million (3,372,966) Muslims in Great Britain as of 2018.

THE VERDICT: The claim is TRUE.

CLAIM 3:

‘Islam is the second-largest religion in the UK’

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is true.

Data from the United Nations show that the second-largest religious group in the UK is Islam, with  4.4 per cent of the population equating to almost 2.8 million (2,786,635) people identifying as Muslims.

Christianity is the largest religious group with  37.5 million (37,583,962) people.

However, 16 million (16,221,509) people said they had no religion, while another 4.5 million (4,528,323) did not specify.

The data was based on information from the census conducted in the UK in 2011.

Census in the UK is done every ten years.

The most recent was in March 2021; due to the COVID-19 pandemic,  the census in Scotland was shifted to be conducted in 2022. As such, the data is not yet available.

THE VERDICT: The claim is TRUE.

On the Immigration letter in circulation on planned terrorist attack

Bamas Victoria
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On the Immigration letter in circulation on planned terrorist attack

In the fourth week of December 2021, a circular with the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) letterhead putting its officers at various border posts across the country on alert about a possible terrorist attack in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital surfaced online.

Blogs and mainstream media alike reported this.  It generated reactions, with some sceptical about its authenticity.

Reacting to the development, the Minister of Interior Rauf Aregbesola, when briefing  State House correspondents on the outcome of the emergency meeting of the National Security Council, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, said, “there isn’t any threat to safety and security of Abuja”.

He added that “Abuja is secure and very safe. If there was a leak, as you mentioned, it could just be [an] operational alert that does not require any worry or concern.”

However, a top government security official confirmed to The FactCheckHub that the document is authentic but was not meant for public consumption.

The official said the advisory was sent to the NIS because it concerns foreigners. The NIS, in turn, alerted its various commands and sectors.

The official explained that the document should have been classified so that the person who receives it in any of the commands would have treated it as such.

The letter dated December 23, 2021, was titled, ‘Terrorists Plan Attacks In Abuja’ and signed by the Land Border Patrol Commander, Edirin Okoto, on behalf of the Acting Comptroller General of Immigration Service, Idris Jere said the terrorist planned to in December.

The letter from NIS in circulation.

It reads in part, “The Office of the Ag CGI is in receipt of a Security Report (URGENT) from the Presidency (OSGF). The import is about a looming attack on Nigeria’s Capital City, Abuja, between 17th and 31st December 2021. The planned attack is purportedly being led by one DRAHMANE. OULD ALI, aka Mohammed Ould Sidat, an Algerian national to be assisted by one Zahid Aminon, a Nigerien national.

It further noted that the duo suspected of having four accomplices already in Nigeria were en route Nigeria from Mali through Gan and Niger Republic, riding a white Toyota Hilux van with Reg. No- AG157EKY.

The letter was addressed to all sector commanders and border patrol corps all over the country; Seme, Idi Iroko, Jibia, Illela land borders, as well as Immigration officers at the airports.  It directed them to intensify alert levels.

Similarly, in November, the DSS had alerted the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) of a possible terrorist attack on Ogun border communities.

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