Club Lunch Panel: Information Wars – How Fake News and Disinformation Have Been Weaponized in the Hong Kong Protests

The Hong Kong protests have spawned online disinformation that has ranged from rumors spread via messaging apps to fake news posted via bogus social media accounts. This atmosphere has led Twitter and Facebook to announce they have suspended a network of fake accounts that had been created to sow discord in Hong Kong. The panelists explored the extent of the fake news issue, who is behind it, the implications, and how it can be addressed. Examples of the content that has been circulating online was shown during the panel. The panel was moderated by FCC 1st Vice-President Eric Wishart.

   

Rachel Blundy is a fact-check editor for Agence France-Presse, focusing on disinformation in Asia. In Hong Kong, she formerly held reporting roles with news agency Storyful and the South China Morning Post after several years working as a journalist in London.

   

Selina Cheng is an investigative reporter at HK01, a Chinese-language news outlet in Hong Kong.

   

Masato Kajimoto is an assistant professor of practice at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC), the University of Hong Kong. He specializes in news literacy education and disinformation research. He served as the leading researcher and co-editor for the JMSC paper “Information Disorder in Asia and the Pacific: Overview of Misinformation Ecosystem in Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam.”