Brand24 from Wroclaw fights against propaganda and disinformation
Brand24 reacted to the events in Ukraine by providing a free media monitoring tool to the organizations that have to fight against disinformation. The initiative was the result of noticing an increased number of mentions aimed at spreading hatred towards Ukraine and its citizens who are fleeing the war. According to the company, among the registered phrases appeared, among others, “peace operation” or “provoked Russia”.
– We came to the conclusion that since we have been dealing with media monitoring for many years, we can use both the potential of our tool and our skills to do something good – says Mikołaj Winkiel from Brand24.pl.
The enormous power of the Internet users
Making the media monitoring tool available was the first step that Brand24 made in the fight against disinformation. On the initiative of its owner, Michał Sadowski, a dedicated Twitter account Demaskujemy dezinformację (We expose disinformation) was created. It is used to identify propaganda content and to report it to the portal’s administration as soon as possible. Of course, with the help of Internet users.
Representatives of the company do not hide that just catching the harmful content is not enough. It is important to involve the Internet community. The number of reports has a huge impact on the effectiveness of the fight against fake news, bots and trolls. Brand24 cooperates with NASK (National Research Institute), which has the clout to effectively fight the propaganda.
The most important is the awareness
However, the submissions are not everything. It’s also very important to raise awareness of other Internet users – especially those who have a large social media reach and spread false information.
– We cannot report such accounts – especially since they are the effect of the problem, not its cause. Internet users can help us by explaining to such people that they share propaganda content. It is important to do it calmly, without aggression and in a factual way – admits Winkiel.
A publicly available guide was created
The company treated the issue of public awareness in a complex way and on its website it placed a guide, in which you can read how to deal with disinformation and how to recognize fake news, bots and trolls.
– The guide was created in two language versions – Polish and English. We wanted people to come out of their bubble and try to check the information. For example, sometimes seemingly pro-Ukrainian content comes from accounts responsible for Russian propaganda. It is important to verify facts in several sources – says Mikołaj Winkiel.
BBC deletes recording
The fact that Michal Sadowski and his staff managed to correct the content published by the twitter profile of BBC, one of the largest television stations in the world, proves the power of internet users. According to the video posted by BBC, one of the refugees was treated in a racist way on the Polish side of the border. After the intervention of Brand24 and internet users the post was deleted. It turned out that in the further part of the video words were said that the refugee was received very warmly.
Employees of the company are also involved in a number of other charity actions, such as collecting teddy bears for children in need or supporting Ukrainian pets. Moreover, some of them are present at the border.