The Disinformation Project

The Disinformation Project was a research group studying the effects of disinformation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. The research group was established in 2020 to combat disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic but subsequently expanded its scope to cover other "conspiracy theory beliefs" including anti-vaccine, climate change denial, anti-immigration, the anti-gender movement, anti-Māori racism and hatred towards the LGBTQ+ community. The Disinformation Project also took an interest in monitoring neo-Nazism, far right activism, antisemitism and Islamophobia.

The Disinformation Project was an independent, interdisciplinary and non-governmental New Zealand research team that collected and analysed data on the causes and impact of mis- and disinformation within the country's society from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 through to, and beyond, the 2022 Wellington protest when the grounds of Parliament House and surrounding streets were occupied by anti-vaccine and anti-mandate groups. It was led by social historian Kate Hannah.

The project claimed its research identified how the digital world, shaped by social media platforms globally, has the potential to make elements of a society more vulnerable to disinformation and social exclusion. Hannah has acknowledged the importance of showing empathy toward people who are "hoodwinked into extremist beliefs."

The Disinformation Project's research used mixed methods which combined open and quantitative data from social media platforms, social and mainstream media and other forms of information-sharing, looking for patterns and meaning in super-spreader events and qualitative research and discourse analysis to identify shifts over time.

Key to the project's approach was researching and assessing how scientific uncertainty, due to the presentation and distribution of unreliable information within the context of an infodemic, could manifest as narratives that linked to conspiracy theories. The project held that while some people might have genuine reasons to be wary of the state and mainstream media, they could be influenced by those holding conspiracy theories or extremist beliefs in social media spaces that appeared to offer support, but are often driven by groups with different agendas. The position is therefore taken that "those most marginalised by or disaffected within contemporary society, are more likely to have lived experiences that might make them more susceptible to unreliable sources and untrustworthy stories."

Exploring what Hannah has described as a "shared information landscape", underpinned the research of the project into how New Zealand society understood and managed the infodemic that has come to the fore as a result of COVID-19. The project's work emphasized the impact of colonisation on the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities, increasing their vulnerability to mis- and disinformation.

The researchers took the position that the lack of a shared narrative can shape how a country understands and builds its "historical memory", with the storming of the Capitol in the United States in January 2021 as an example of how contemporary myths such as conspiracy theories can cause different groups to interpret events in different ways. As events such as these began to influence the international information landscape, the researchers contended that their work was to help New Zealand develop values that are "democratic, inclusive, and progressive" to consolidate social cohesion built on trust and cooperation. The potential of the Treaty of Waitangi to enable a partnership is cited as a "necessary starting point for any discussion or development of a strategy which seeks to address and make redress for the impacts of online harm, hateful and violent extremism, and disinformation for New Zealand...[and]...it is from a position of the partnership that Te Tiriti provides that Aotearoa can make a global contribution to these pressing and immediate issues."

Hannah warned against increasing censorship as a way to manage disinformation, expressing the importance of people being "self-regulating...[talking to each other]...at an interpersonal community-based level."