Episode 10: Phil Howard and Peter Pomerantsev

05/23/20 • 36 min

The Infotagion Podcast with Damian Collins MP

Is COVID disinformation being used to fuel existing geopolitical tensions and further certain political agendas? What misinformation trends should we be looking out for ahead of the 2020 US election? Phil Howard, Director of the Oxford Institute and Peter Pomerantsev, author of “This Is Not Propaganda” join Damian Collins MP this week to discuss. Dr Charles Kriel shares his favourite COVID conspiracy theory meme and John Quinlan unpacks one of the popular theories flagged to Infotagion this week: whether you’re immune after you’ve had the virus.

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Episode 9: Tristan Harris

Tristan Harris, former Google insider and co-founder for the Centre for Human Technology joins Damian Collins MP. Damian first met Tristan while giving him a lift to the airport in Washington D.C. when he was there for the DCMS Committee’s fact-finding trip on Disinformation back in 2018. They’ve been discussing how tech can be used for good ever since. On this episode they talk about how much power the tech companies wield in the information space during this pandemic, and what can be done about it. Dr Charles Kriel revisits the confusion over COVID-19 death stats and John Quinlan describes how fake news about the ‘plandemic’ continues to crop up.

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Episode 11: Joey D’Urso and Claire Wardle

What’s it like being a journalist or a fact checker during this pandemic? Claire Wardle, US Director of First Draft, talks about misinformation techniques she has been studying for years being writ large during coronavirus. Former BBC and Buzzfeed journalist Joey D’Urso unpacks the important relationship between the social media giants and the media. Dr Charles Kriel describes the pitfalls of publishing papers without peer review and John Quinlan clears up whether the Gates Foundation just lost a big court case over vaccinations.