The World's Top Global Risk Is Misinformation and Disinformation: World Economic Forum
In April, a deepfake recording of a school principal in Baltimore in the US was confirmed by police to be inauthentic. The clip, released in January 2024, included offensive and racist tropes that had already divided the community.
In May, climate disinformation was on show, including that surrounding the Ultra-Low Emissions Zone in London, used to interfere in the Mayoral election.
In June, we saw gendered disinformation in one of its many forms. In this case it was the mass creation of pornographic deepfakes of girls in the Victorian town of Bacchus Marsh.
In July, anti-immigrant riots flared in cities and towns across England, inflamed by disinformation following the murder of children at a dance class in Southport.
In August, postal workers in the New Zealand city of Wellington made headlines for refusing to deliver 80,000 pamphlets that contained disinformation about Muslims and the City Council, fearing that it would harm to community relationships and could lead to violence.
In September, disaster disinformation hampered local emergency response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton in the US, including claims that the storms were manufactured, that aid was being withheld from Republican voters, and that the government would seize land if people evacuated as advised.
In October, local government elections in the City of La Trobe, Australia, were marred by the use of fake social media accounts targeting candidates. That same month, a Carnegie California report found that “Californians overwhelmingly believe that the spread of misinformation is a threat to their state”.
In November and the latter days of October, Valencia in Spain was devastated by floods. Disinformation included accusations that the Spanish government had created the weather system, deliberately not warned people and accused Morocco of responsibility.
In December, false claims circulated swiftly on social media following the firebombing of a synagogue in Melbourne, Australia. These rumors ranged from pointing the finger at the far left to accusing agents of the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.
Bringing Together and Bridging Knowledge
In response to the significant challenges posed by disinformation, the past year has seen extraordinary collaboration and engagement between University of Melbourne scholars and other sectors to understand and inform disinformation response at the city level.
Drawing on the expertise across the University and academic partners, in 2024 researchers delivered the first global Playbook to guide city response to disinformation, in partnership with German Marshall Fund of the United States. This was co-created with 40 multi-sector experts and peer-reviewed by other levels of government.
The Recognizing and Managing Disinformation micro-credential was developed and delivered by the Hunt Lab for Security and Intelligence, the Melbourne Centre for Cities and Municipal Association of Victoria.
The project has informed discussions at many levels, from cities to national governments and supranational entities: G7 and UN-HABITAT – the United Nations Human Settlements Program.
Each of the above demonstrates the powerful role that universities and researchers can play in bringing together and bridging knowledge to inform solutions to society’s most pressing challenges.
In 2025, the Disinformation in the City project will continue to grow with the support of Municipal Association of Victoria and the Institute for Infrastructure in Society at the Crawford School for Public Policy at the Australian National University.
The project will continue to harness the expertise of different sectors, cities and levels of government to tackle pressing disinformation challenges at the local level: natural disasters, technology transitions, sustainability and social cohesion.
As reiterated by the World Economic Forum this week, the risks posed by disinformation are going to continue into the foreseeable future. The impacts are experienced locally, and local response remains key.
Ika Trijsburg is Research Affiliate, Initiative for Peacebuilding, University of Melbourne; Head of Democracy and Diplomacy, Municipal Association of Victoria; Director Urban Analytics, Institute for Infrastructure in Society, Australian National University. This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article.
