Strategy to Combat Disinformation and Fake News

What does disinformation mean to Colombian citizens? Survey and Identification of Vulnerable and Thematic Segments and Polarized Channels.

The starting point of the strategy was to design a survey that produced relevant information on the situation of citizens in Colombia regarding disinformation and fake news. Thus, a foreign and independent pollster, GAD3, conducted 1,216 surveys, demographically and geographically, among the Colombian population entitled to exercise their right to vote. By way of example, the survey found that nearly 90% of respondents felt that disinformation is a real problem for democracy in the country and about 65% encountered fake news (every day/at least once a week).

This survey in turn enabled vulnerable segments to be identified, as well as polarised themes and channels related to disinformation and fake news in Colombia. This made it possible to profile the three segments most vulnerable to disinformation in Colombia, resulting in the definition of the different audiences at whom to target the communication strategy effectively.

Co-Creation of the Model: AI Platform and Involvement of Actors.

The volume of news and comments for manipulative purposes circulating on social networks, weeks before an election, makes manually verifying and disproving fake content impossible. This is why, with the support of our implementing partners, Indra-Minsait, a platform was launched aimed at detecting fake or misleading news (on social networks or media) more likely to go viral and influence the vote of much of the electorate or to generate reputational damage to the Entity. This Big Data platform automatically detects content with a "high risk" of disinformation and virality.

The aforementioned platform was in production two months before Election Day, fed with a volume of more than one million three hundred thousand news reports and mentions on social networks, and led to a total of 1,186 verification jobs and 31 debunking and educational initiatives around the successful electoral process on 27 October of the same year. This is a task in which the strategy of collaboration and feedback with the different parties involved, such as La Silla Vacía (The Empty Chair) with its successful role of checking, plays a prominent part.

Without a doubt, one of the great successes of the model lies in the ecosystem of actors involved in the strategy. The launch of #VerdadElecciones2019, was attended by the President of the Republic, Dr. Iván Duque Márquez, with representatives of the Government such as the Attorney General of the Nation, as well as the academic institutions involved, such as The Pontifical Xavierian University.

This was the setting for two important achievements of the strategy: on the one hand, the Ethical Pact was signed by information signed by representatives of 17 political movements and parties to promote Ethics and Communication Responsibility among their affiliates and militants, as well as an undertaking through the signing of Memorandums of Understanding and Commitment to Digital Platforms (Twitter, Facebook and Google) to mitigate the phenomenon of disinformation and the dissemination of fake news.

"Fake News does not rest; neither do we": Real and Verified Information Available to Citizens.

As part of the #VerdadElecciones2019 strategy, the Electoral Registration Office launches verified, clarified and debunked news consultation web portal. More than 59 publications and educational videos were disseminated on social networks, with more than 800,000 views. Furthermore, and in parallel, La Silla Vacía and other verifiers, disseminated through their own channels and portals their work of checking the more than 1,186 election-related news items.

By Election Day, on 27 October, 2019, smart and targeted active listening picked up more than 90,000 mentions with more than 80,000 from social media. On this, the technological platform allowed to group in 5,000 publications of which the Factcheckers reviewed a total of 18 contents. In addition, in the early hours of election day #VerdadElecciones2019 was a trending topic, only with organic traffic (unpaid), on the Twitter network in Colombia with real and verified information about the election process.

To sum up, we can say that the National Register of Civil Status successfully implemented the objectives pursued by the National Strategy to Combat Disinformation, anticipating the possible effects of confusion and intended disorder with the publication of news and mentions with clear intent to spread disinformation. The #VerdadElecciones2019 strategy has undoubtedly been a historic milestone in the effective protection of democracy during an electoral process at a national level, such as that of the last Territorial Elections held in Colombia, which turned out to be the most peaceful and transparent territorial elections ever held in this country.