The Disinformation Project operated between 2020-2024 as New Zealand’s only independent research group providing best practice monitoring, research and consulting on disinformation and its impacts.
We provided research and guidance to a range of organisations and sectors alongside commentary and resources to help Aotearoa understand and respond to disinformation.
Our story
Originally working within The New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence Te Punaha Matatini, The Disinformation Project was founded in February 2020 to understand the spread of emerging COVID-19 disinformation.
As more people turned to technology for information, support, and a sense of community, we saw groups that had initially formed around false COVID-19 beliefs growing to include increasingly extreme ideas based on disinformation.
To best understand this growing issue, The Disinformation Project became an independent research group in the civil society sector. We were funded by client services, which allowed us to do pro-bono work and public reporting to reflect our community-first priorities.
Throughout our four years of operating, we helped pioneer best-practice analysis of the Aotearoa disinformation landscape and its impacts since the issue first emerged. This makes our dataset, research and services globally unique.
Our former team
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Kate Hannah
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
Kate is a cultural historian of science and technology. She is one of two New Zealand representatives on the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence Responsible AI Working Group, and she was previously a Principal Investigator with Te Pūnaha Matatini, Aotearoa New Zealand’s Centre of Research Excellence for complex systems.
She founded The Disinformation Project in 2020 and has extensive experience in research translation, strategic communications, policy development and community engagement. She is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Science and Society at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington.
Kate provided critical insight, ensuring our work reflected the communities we serve.
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Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa
RESEARCH DIRECTOR
Sanjana is a world-leading academic with over two decades of experience in studying and advising on information disorders. His work at The Disinformation Project is grounded in mixed-methodology research and his knowledge of global best practice in dealing with disinformation.
He regularly works with social media companies on how they can strengthen platform integrity, better identify inauthentic behaviours and prevent the abuse of products. He also provides expertise in platforms dealing with wartime ground conditions and advises on navigating militarised contexts on social media.
His doctoral research at the University of Otago examined the intersection of social media, political communication, propaganda and information disorders in Sri Lanka, as well as how the Christchurch massacre in March 2019 was represented on Twitter. This research was based on Aotearoa New Zealand’s first-ever Data for Good grant by Twitter, in partnership with the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPACS).
He has also written extensively about the nurture and nature of information disorders in Aotearoa New Zealand.
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Nicole Skews-Poole
COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR
Nicole is a public communicator and public relations specialist with a track record of tackling meaty issues in accessible ways.
Her background is primarily in STEM, stakeholder engagement and crisis comms, and she's consulted across a range of sectors.
After leading some of the first government responses to COVID-19 disinformation and online harassment, she joined the Disinformation Project in 2023.Her work involved public education, providing training and resources to organisations and communities to help them understand the changing levels of polarisation, as well as helping produce academic reports.
She is now running her own specialist consultancy Anchordown.
Methodology
Our research methodology used mixed-methods and combined open-source and quantitative data from a range of social media platforms.
This included:
Computational analysis of very large content and commentary collections.
Data visualisation, virality and cross-pollination patterns.
Super-spreader signatures.
Semantic study.
Qualitative analysis data, including discourse shifts over time.