Fake news
Ruurd Oosterwoud |
TEDxSittardGeleen
• May 2019
Ruurd Oosterwoud is the founder of DROG, an organization that creates proactive and applied solutions to reduce the impact of disinformation on society, governments and businesses. DROG has specialized in pre-emptive debunking, or ‘pre-bunking’, developing antidotes to disinformation. In partnership with researchers at Cambridge University they are providing evidence that their innovative and unconventional approach is seriously effective.
In 2018, DROG organized a preliminary disinformation attack on the European Parliamentary elections of 2019, launched a very successful serious game where you have to become a fake news monger and has advised the European Commission and the British House of Commons.
Ruurd has an MA in Russian and Eurasian Studies at the University of Leiden. He was the first to specialize in Russian disinformation.
Disinformation and fake news. How does it work, what does it do to us, and how can we fight it? Regulation is the key, many people think. Start to regulate information as well as journalism. Politicians have a specific interest in regulating all information that is brought into the world.
As Ruurd argues, the only way we can understand how targeting works, is if we start thinking like the bad guy/girl and be pro-active instead of reactive. Become a bad guy to recognise a bad guy, become a troll ourselves! Who are the enemies and who are the allies? Ruurd invites us to join his troll army.