In the last year, so-called 'Fake News' has moved into the mainstream and brands are struggling to respond. But in a world where facts are disputed, how do corporations respond to deliberate attack? And how can we all play a part in containing the spread of these new online threats? We will look at why many governments are panicking about the threat of disinformation, what the digital platforms are doing to respond and how communications specialists can use technology and behavioural science to fight back.

1. Powered by
What’s Next:
Fake News 2.0

2. Welcome
Dayoán Daumont
Consulting Partner,
Customer Experience & Innovation,
Ogilvy Consulting
Iain Bundred
Managing Director, PR & Influence, Ogilvy EMEA
UK Executive Director, WPP Government &
Public Sector Practice

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5. THE RISE OF DISINFORMATION
And how to tackle it on social
Iain Bundred
Managing Director, PR & Influence, Ogilvy EMEA
UK Executive Director, WPP Government & Public Sector Practice
Thursday 21st March 2019

6. Today’s discussion
What you must do to
respond when you
come under attack
Why everyone is
rattled by
disinformation
Why fact-checking
doesn’t solve the
problem
How platforms are
reacting

9. Governments and institutions may
face completely false campaigns mounted
against them in high volume and rapid frequency,
starting with 2019 elections

10. But it’s not just governments that need to be afraid

11. But social media is still in its teenage yearsThe term ‘fake news’ is bandied around with no clear idea of what it means, or agreed definition. The term has taken
on a variety of meanings, including a description of any statement that is not liked or agreed with by the reader. We
recommend that the Government rejects the term ‘fake news’, and instead puts forward an agreed definition of the
words ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’
UK DCMS Select
Committee on
Fake News
Orchestrated campaigns are spreading untruths - disinformation, mal-information and misinformation - that are often
unwittingly shared on social media:
• Disinformation: Information that is false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organisation or country
• Misinformation: Information that is false but not created with the intention of causing harm
• Mal-information: Information that is based on reality, used to inflict harm on a person, social group, organisation or country.
UNESCO
Handbook of
Journalism Training
on Disinformation
We define it as false, inaccurate, or misleading information designed, presented and promoted to intentionally cause
public harm or for profit.
EU High Level
Working Group on
Fake News
What are we talking about?

12. STATE SPONSORED
MIS- & MALINFORMATION DISINFORMATION
CLICKBAIT
PROPAGANDA
GENUINE MISUNDERSTANDING
DELIBERATE
REALISTIC

13. In a world where facts are disputed…
WHAT IS FAKE?

14. Harper’s Magazine |
Fake News And The Public 1925
“Once the news faker obtains access to the
press wires all the hoest editors alive will not be
able to repair the mischef he can do. An editor
receiving a news item over the wire has no
opportunity to test its authenticity as he would
in the case of a local report.”
Mark Twain |
"A lie can travel half way around the
world while the truth is putting on its
shoes."
Of course this isn’t new
James II's 1688 proclamation "to
restrain the spreading of false news"

15. 15

16. We
shouldn’t
laugh

17. Social media is still
in its teenage years
A new era of intimacy is not
yet reflected in social
behaviours
Rapid spread of unverified
information, with little to no
regulation
Algorithms drive confirmation
bias, especially in ‘vulnerable
communities’
In this situation, disinformation campaigns can thrive and
cause policy pressure

18. With
more
to come

19. At the same
time, social
media
increasingly
becomes the
go-to source
for news

20. Facing real
questions of
trust
Fake News and Disinformation Online | European
Commission February 2018

21. Especially at
this time
Fake News and Disinformation Online | European
Commission February 2018

22. Yet
awareness of
“fake news”
is not
impacting
usage

23. In a world where facts are disputed…
WHO CAN RESPOND?

24. Constant
monitoring of
effective responses
Framework for
enhanced
transparency
Media literacy
initiatives whilst
protecting free
speech
Regulatory options

25. With the threat of more tax

26. Social media platforms are reacting

27. Remove accounts and content
that violate Community
Standards or ad policies
Reduce the distribution of false
news and inauthentic content
like clickbait
Inform people by giving them
more context on the posts they
see
REMOVE REDUCE INFORM
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/05/hard-questions-false-news/
Example of Facebook

28. "Inauthentic activity
has no place on our
platform.
That's why we devote
significant resources
to detecting and
stopping this behavior,
including disabling
millions of fake
accounts every day.”
Paul Grewal,
Facebook's deputy
general counsel of
litigation,
Removing the accounts and content that
violate Community Standards or ad policies

29. Domestic &
individual
Cross-
border &
individual
Domestic &
State-like
actors
Cross-
border &
State-like
actors
“If you look at
volume, the majority
of the information
operations we see are
domestic actors”
Nathaniel Gleicher,
Facebook’s head of
security

31. Facebook started penalizing clickbait, links shared more
frequently by spammers, and links to low-quality web pages,
also known as “ad farms.”
Organic Reach
Clickbait headlines intentionally omit crucial information or
exaggerate the details of a story to make it seem like a bigger
deal than it really is. This gets attention and lures visitors into
clicking on a link, but they then quickly return to News Feed.
Reducing the spread of fake news and inauthentic content

32. Helping people better
assess the stories They
see in News Feed with the
context button.
Related Articles from third-party
fact-checkers immediately below a
story on the same topic.
Information about how many times
the article has been shared on
Facebook and where it is has
been shared.
Informing community with additional context

33. Researchers found interactions with 570 suspicious sites on both Facebook and Twitter rose steadily through the end of 2016. Interactions
then fell sharply on Facebook while they continued to rise on Twitter, with the ratio of Facebook engagements to Twitter shares
falling by approximately 60 percent.
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/10/inside-feed-michigan-lemonde/
With some targeted success

34. But recent events show how hard it is to respond at scale
“The team worked through the night, trying to identify and
remove tens of thousands of videos — many repackaged or recut
versions of the original footage that showed the horrific murders.
As soon as the group took down one, another would appear, as
quickly as one per second in the hours after the shooting”

35. In a world where facts are disputed…
HOW DO WE GET THE TRUTH OUT?

36. RUSSIAN BOTS? ACTIVISTS? CITIZEN JOURNALISTS?
Responsible for sharing ‘fake news’?

37. Fake News has permeated our worlds in areas of discord
With many
sources
seeking to
disrupt
Climate Change
Public Health
Police Brutality
Alleged images on ‘Yellow Vests’ violence in
Paris actually from 2012 protest in Madrid
Censorship
Alleged censorship against ‘Yellow Vests’
while photo was available on Le Monde

38. Adults’ Media Use and Attitudes Report | Ofcom report May 2018
Can users tell the difference?

39. “Contrary to conventional wisdom,
robots accelerated the spread of
true and false news at the same rate,
implying that false news spreads
more than the truth because
humans, not robots, are more likely
to spread it.”
WE are responsible
Vosoughi, Roy and Aral paper in Science Magazine March 2018

40. Distribution of total
and fake news shares
on Facebook
Guess, Nagler and Tucker, in Science Magazine January 2019
The vast majority do not share fake news at all

41. Bot versus public post comparison,
Blue State Digital, April 2018
Automated accounts often lead the debate
Weaponized Health Communication: Twitter Bots
and Russian Trolls Amplify the Vaccine Debate,
Broniatowski et al, American Journal of Public Health
September 2018

42. But humans respond consistent with natural biases

43. Average number of fake news shares
using the list of domains derived
from (a) Party Indentification
(b) Age group (c) Ideology
(d) Overall number of Facebook wall
posts
Guess, Nagler and Tucker, in Science Magazine January 2019
And those that share are not the same we tend to target
with social-first campaigns

44. “We find that providing counter information is generally ineffective at
remedying misperceptions and can, depending on the source, increase
endorsements of misperceptions among Republicans”
"The public’s engagement with fake news is not credulous;
it is motivated… ‘Fact checking' and like means of correcting
false belief are unlikely to be effective and could in fact
backfire.”
Dan Kahan, Cultural Cognition Project, June 2018
They See Dead People (Voting). Mirya R. Holman &J.
Celeste Lay, Tulane University, July 2018
Where fact-checking can actually back-fire, depending on your worldview

45. In a world where facts are disputed…
HOW SHOULD YOU REACT?

46. Don’t overreact
Stick to the
strategy
Clarify, don’t
amplify Never mislead

47. A tried and tested behavioural science driven approach

48. Detect Volume
Signals
Remove the
Noise
Generate
Actionable Insights
Find & Assess

49. Some tools may help you detect volume.
1. Find 2. 3. 4.

50. A new era of intimacy is not yet reflected in social behaviours.
Younger and older audiences are especially vulnerable. Policymakers too!
OfCom | Children’s Media Lives 2019
Science Advance | Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook
2. Assess 3. 4.1.

51. Tell a Counter
Narrative
Analyse Daily
Coordinate Across
Departments
3. Create 4.1. 2.

52. Create appropriate (mobile-first) content with the aim of
rebalancing the narrative.
This may be a press office line, a social media post, or the
creation of a new asset.
1,7s
Time spent
with content
on mobile
3. Create 4.1. 2.
87%
OF FACEBOOK
IMPRESSIONS
HAPPEN ON A
MOBILE
DEVICE WITHIN
THEIR OWN
CONTEXT

53. Facebook Carousel
Scroll right and left to discover
all the cards of the carousel
Facebook Canvas
When clicked, the user enters an
immersive mobile-only
experience.
Instagram Stories
Immersive full-screen ad in either
picture of video format.
Create social friendly content to change the conversation

54. Paid campaigns can help you achieve greater results

55. Build Campaigning
Mentality
Methodically Reach
and Target
Optimise and
Evolve
4. Target3.1. 2.

56. Most platforms allow you to target users based on locations,
behaviours, interests, demographics, or connections.
Locations Behaviours Interests Demographics Connections
4. Target3.1. 2.

57. Dashboard
Monitoring*
1. Find 2. Assess Optimise
& evolve3. Create 4. Target
Volumes around a
topic in market(s)
increases above
usual threshold
triggering an alert
Organisation
assesses
‘opportunity’ alert
with relevant team
Brand evaluate
whether alert
requires further
exploration
If yes, a short memo
is shared detailing
conversation,
themes & authors
Context setting
campaigns
commissioned to
respond to potential
attacks
Brand decide where
best real time
content & campaign
opportunities lie
Brand spins up
landing page to
drive real time
responses
Volume Relevance/Impact
Learnings and insights fuel any
changes to operational model
*in place following alignment
of initial data requirements
Ogilvy can help you with the set up of
the ‘Find’ and ‘Assess’ steps
Ogilvy can assist you on a daily basis with the
‘Create’ and ‘Target’ steps
Building a long term resilience

58. In a world where facts are disputed…
CAN YOU CHANGE THE CONVERSATION?

59. Questions?
Dayoán Daumont
Consulting Partner,
Customer Experience & Innovation,
Ogilvy Consulting
dayoan.daumont@ogilvy.com
Iain Bundred
Managing Director, PR & Influence,
Ogilvy EMEA
iain.bundred@ogilvy.com

60. Thank you.