CORPORATE CRIME OBSERVATORY

Session 1 - Select Opinions and Arguments
(click on the specific timestamp in the citation for a direct link to the relevant part of the discussion)

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One of the most alarming threats faced by our democratic societies has been the veil of ignorance generated through malinformation, misinformation, and disinformation as well as limiting access to or filtering relevant information. Such techniques have sometimes been used to cover the distorted ways in which institutions may operate and have altered the citizens’ perception of reality, adversely affecting how our societies hold onto the fundamental values of justice, fairness, and equality (Grasso, 2022).

Suggested citation: Grasso, Costantino (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 04:22. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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I have experienced a remarkable whistleblower situation at the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Voice of America [...] I'm here independently today because my employer has asked that I expressly mention that I'm not representing the agency at this forum [...] as many whistleblowers can tell you, this is a common occurrence and you have the familiar feeling that as a whistleblower you are often left on your own without adequate cover (Turner, 2022).

Suggested citation: Turner, Grant (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 16:02. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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During the last year of the Trump administration, the Senate finally confirmed Donald Trump's controversial nominee Michael Pack to head my agency, who according to the Washington Post was recommended for the job by Steve Bannon [...] Agency for Global Media is one of the largest news organizations in the world it includes, among others, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle-East broadcasting network Alhurra [...] The Agency does not do any domestic broadcasting, our audience is typically in countries with immature media markets or where the government itself doesn't permit or want a free press to operate [...] So it was a deeply disturbing irony that our networks were targeted for takeover by people that I believe ultimately wanted to turn the Agency into a cheerleader for President Trump and his policies; something very far from what professional journalism should be (Turner, 2022).

Suggested citation: Turner, Grant (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 16:36. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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Disinformation, especially when it has an impact on public opinion and policymaking, affects whistleblowers and cast shadows on their motivation to disclose sensitive information. It discourages them, and those tasked with investigating the act of retaliation from fairly doing their job (Georgiev, 2022).

Suggested citation: Georgiev, Goran (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 29:59. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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In both the public and private sector, we are experiencing a whistleblowing crisis in the same way we have a disinformation crisis, and they shouldn't be required to put themselves at great personal risk in order to speak truth to power (Feinstein, 2022).

Suggested citation: Feinstein, Samantha (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 35:05. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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There is a triangle of investigative journalists, fact-checkers, and whistleblowers, who all need to collaborate together to combat government players in disseminating misinformation and disinformation. They are the ones who spread this type of information and retaliate strongly and harshly against all three for speaking out (Damen, 2022).

Suggested citation: Damen, Rawan  (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 35:49. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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Journalists may find it very difficult to figure out if something is a real or erroneous piece of information, or if it is purposely being peddled as a lie. It’s also difficult to identify if something is a conspiracy theory. Journalists' obligation is to sift through the information gathered through adequate sources and to question those sources. This is particularly true where they’re in a position of power or authority (Eisinger, 2022).

Suggested citation: Eisinger, Jesse (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 38:16. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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The gold standard for whistleblowers is that they have the reasonable belief that the information and evidence they provided is of some sort of wrongdoing. So it’s fine for them to be proven wrong after an investigation as long as they sincerely believed that what they had reported was true. What is crucial in that regard is the intentionality concerning the veracity of the reported story (Feinstein, 2022).

Suggested citation: Feinstein, Samantha (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 42:46. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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Authoritarian regimes have changed their tactics during the pandemic. Much of what we see today represents long-term plans that such governments were waiting to implement. They exploited the pandemic and the imposition of closure of national borders as well as other security-focused measures to implement censorship, surveillance systems, and broadcast propaganda. It has been the perfect timing for authoritarian regimes to implement these restrictive measures (Damen, 2022).
Suggested citation: Damen, Rawan (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 45:03. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector
 

Misinformation and disinformation may be used to generate the basis of knowledge that is available in a given society. Authoritarian states can centralize the production of this knowledge and this allows such states and their leaders to justify certain political views and approaches as they can create the narratives and pretext they need to act on their ambitions. They can bend reality to their goal. This is why it is crucial to have independent media to challenge such propaganda (Georgiev 2022).
Suggested citation: Georgiev, Goran (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 46:59. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector
 

During the pandemic, we saw countries with nationwide gagging orders who threatened to take action against those spreading "rumors" against COVID-19. This was a method of rulers harnessing control and restricting freedom of expression, movement, and assembly. This has allowed the expansion of an extreme form of control, whereby critics of the government or the government responses have faced criminal sanctions, and the rule of law has been weaponized against journalists and whistleblowers (Feinstein, 2022).

Suggested citation: Feinstein, Samantha (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 49:05. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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One of the significant modern challenges we face is the expansion of social media. Previously the news was covered by journalists in newspapers and large broadcast networks, but now anyone can use the phone and start a YouTube channel, drawing a large number of views by saying things that are not necessarily truthful (Turner, 2022).

Suggested citation: Turner, Grant (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 53:44. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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The methodologies used to spread malinformation, misinformation or disinformation are the ones that have been used by political strategists in many countries such as the United States, Latin America, and the Middle East. They include geotargeting and microtargeting advertisements, or psychometric profiling. Because of their use, people get access to different pieces of information and this makes it difficult to ascertain their veracity (Ghnaim, 2022).

Suggested citation: Ghnaim, Safa (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 57:09. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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The Cambridge Analytica case has shown us, both in the Trump and pro-Brexit political campaigns, we have experienced strategies designed to stir up nativism and anti-immigration sentiments. This was done through psychological profiling on Facebook aimed at sending such propaganda to the individuals who were more susceptible to it. We discovered all of this thanks to the whistleblowers, who exposed how these sophisticated techniques had been used (Inman, 2022).

Suggested citation: Inman, Mary (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 59:06. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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Acting timely against disinformation is crucial. To have an impact, fact-checking must be well-timed because after that misleading or fake pieces of information are circulated they take on a life of their own. This would be particularly beneficial in political debates where moderators should conduct real-time fact-checking. (Inman, 2022).

Suggested citation: Inman, Mary (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 59:06. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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When we look at political actors, mal- mis- and disinformation in democratic environments is problematic where politicians make unrealistic or misleading statements to be elected. For example, where they promise not to raise taxes but in reality do so cutting services. The absence of a legally binding mandate allows them to do so. One valid option to counter such a strategy could be to adequately educate voters to identify misleading information and evaluate the political promises as well as the reliability of the politicians that make them (Vozza, 2022).

Suggested citation: Vozza, Donato (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 1:07:05. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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Some governments invest significant funds to gain control of the domestic media markets this deprives other local independent media of crucial human resources and discourages people to look outside of state borders for information. Such a sort of monopoly represents an additional problem in combating state-sponsored disinformation. Even if people may potentially be able to explore content elsewhere, they have no incentive due to such a pervasive presence of domestic state-controlled media (Turner, 2022).

Suggested citation: Turner, Grant (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 1:17:35. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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Although what we see in authoritarian countries and in situations characterized by the presence of state-controlled media is highly problematic, at the same time free market is no panacea for the problem of misleading information. For example, in the United States, we have little presence of state-controlled media but, nevertheless, the biggest cable network in the country [i.e., Fox News] is a font of disinformation and fake news, which makes it a dangerous outlet (Eisinger, 2022).

Suggested citation: Eisinger, Jesse (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 1:20:07. Available at at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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The media are currently facing a crisis because the traditional economic model has collapsed over the last 25 years. This has led to the breakdown of traditional funding models in small newspapers. These resources are now going to other advertising platforms, such as Facebook or Google. This results in a large amount of high-quality journalism only being available on a subscription basis, for example, the New York Times or Washington Post, and while these have been very successful, this means that only a limited amount of people may access such high-quality information. In other words, good journalism and truthful pieces of information simply do not reach the population at large as they should (Eisinger, 2022).

Suggested citation: Eisinger, Jesse (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 1:21:45. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector

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There remains a disconnect between the rhetoric and reality of political statements. For instance, political leaders in London say they intend to clamp down on corruption, however, they have continued to allow financial institutions to accept money from Russian oligarchs through the use of shell companies. A phenomenon that undermines the integrity of the financial markets. When coupled with foreign ownership of newspapers and sports teams, this has the potential to create a very corruptive effect that allows bad-faith actors to have influence over government at all levels (Maguire, 2022).

Suggested citation: Maguire, Mary (2022) Whistling at the Fake International Roundtable “Disinformation and the Public Sector“, Session 1 [Online]. Video recording at 1:22:50. Available at https://www.corporatecrime.co.uk/whistling-at-the-fake-roundtable-public-sector