Digital Wildfire: (Mis)information flows, propagation and responsible governance

Lead Research Organisation: University of Oxford
Department Name: Computer Science

Abstract

The rapid growth of social media platforms such as Twitter has had a significant impact on the way people can connect and communicate instantaneously with others. The content that users put onto social media platforms can 'go viral' in minutes and that content, whether text, images or links to other sites, can have profound effects on events as they unfold. This can be both for the good or the bad. In times of disaster, tweeting about events can call people to help from around the globe. But people can also spread dubious and dangerous information, hate speech and rumours, via social media. This type of behaviour has been called "digital wildfires". A World Economic Forum report indicates two situations in which digital wildfires are most dangerous: in situations of high tension, when false information or inaccurately presented imagery can cause damage before it is possible to correct it. The real-world equivalent is shouting "fire!" in a crowded theatre - even if it takes a moment for realisation to spread that there is no fire, in that time people may already have been crushed to death in the scramble for the exit. Another dangerous situation is when widely circulated information leads to 'groupthink' which may be resistant to attempts to correct it. These digital wildfires can seriously challenge the capacity of traditional media, civil society and government to report accurately and respond to events as they unfold. But how people communicate in these digital social spaces is not well understood; users may not fully understand how these spaces 'work' as channels of communication and so what constitutes appropriate and responsible behaviour may be unclear. The challenge then is to develop appropriate ways of governing these spaces and how to apply and use them responsibly.

This project will attempt to address this challenge by framing the study in a programme of work known as Responsible Innovation in ICT and by developing a methodology for the study and advancement of the responsible governance of social media. A key question is to what extent do people in these spaces 'self-regulate' their behaviour? If this is evident then there is a case for exploring how self-correction mechanisms may be amplified so that false rumours are identified more quickly. The legitimacy of new governance mechanisms may be enhanced if they respect and build on such existing self-governance techniques.

Drawing on a range of methods we will examine how social media are used, how people consume information they find there and what roles they play in its production; how (mis)information flows as they spread in real-time. We will draw on a selection of case studies of rumour and hate speech sourced from our recent and on-going research in social media. From the analyses we will produce a digital tool to detect and visualise rumour, misinformation and antagonistic content and how this relates to self-regulative behaviour such as counter speech, dispelling of rumours and verification practices, so that people are able to make better-informed decisions on how to manage emerging situations in response to real-world events. We will also conduct fieldwork at various sites (police, social media platforms, Google, civil rights organisations, news media) to investigate how stakeholders respond to challenges presented by events where misinformation, rumour and antagonistic content via social media may be a concern, for example, during sporting events, civil disturbance and electoral campaigns. From our analyses the project will develop an ethical security map for the practices of governing the use of social media. We will complement this ethical security map with a range of outputs for broader impact such as, engaging with secondary schools, where we will develop a reflection and training module on digital wildfire for young people - one of the largest age groups actively using social media and also a relatively vulnerable social group.

Planned Impact

The project will have three main categories of beneficiary: (1) UK policy makers who have formal responsibility for developing digital society initiatives; (2) a range of government agencies and those responsible for policy implementation and governance processes, and (3) voluntary sector organisations involved in combating discrimination and promoting social cohesion. Furthermore, the social research community will profit from new methodologies and tools for harnessing the potential of 'big data' for social research. The main activities to realising potential benefits are:
1.The recruitment of non-academic, proactive stakeholders for the project's steering committee.
2. Artwork that promotes a creative understanding of digital wildfires to a broader audience.
3. A 'reflection and training module' to be developed with secondary schools aiming at strengthening young people's ethical use of social media.
4. A workshop advancing interdisciplinary knowledge on 'big data'.
5. The recruitment of a broad range of academic and non-academic stakeholders for four Delphi panels. These participants will be encouraged to promote the research results more widely.
6. A collection of short videos on research results and digital wildfires, accessible via the Internet.
7. A final showcase event.
8. Making accessible all project deliverables, the social data analytics infrastructure and training modules about different computational techniques for analyzing social media (Internet).
 
Title Digital Wildfire artwork 
Description Digital Wildfire project artist in residence has produced two paintings based on the themes of the project. These were displayed at the project showcase workshop in Jan 2016 as well as at an art event in Poland in September 2016. They are also featured on our project website. 
Type Of Art Artwork 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact The paintings are intended to creatively disseminate key project themes to a wide audience. The art event received particularly favourable feedback from schools and young people - as described on Barbara Gorayska's website http://barbaragorayska.com/the-act-of-seeing-realities-in-the-making/ and our project website https://sites.google.com/site/digitalwildfireesrc/event-calendar 
URL http://barbaragorayska.com/the-act-of-seeing-realities-in-the-making/
 
Title Keeping Social Media Social 
Description We collaborated with Oxford Sparks and colleagues in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford to produce a short video animation that teaches young people about the use of social media in research. The video describes what we can learn from social media data and how we can use research findings to promote online safety and responsibility. 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact The video has been widely disseminated to schools and combined with a set of teaching materials. It has been seen over 1000 times on You Tube. It has been displayed on the Computer Science website of the University of Oxford and shown on Big Screen Bristol 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyhsxUh2G8I&t=5s
 
Title Take Care of Your Digital Self 
Description We worked with the digital company Scriberia to produce a short video animation on the safe use of social media. This is targeted at young people, especially those aged 11 to 14 i.e., those most vulnerable to harm from social media. The video is hosted on our project You Tube channel and forms part of our teaching and learning materials. It was widely disseminated was on Safer Internet Day 2016 and 2017. It has also been displayed on the websites of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and Cardiff University. We have shown the video at teach meet events and outreach sessions at the University of Oxford. . 
Type Of Art Film/Video/Animation 
Year Produced 2016 
Impact We have received very positive feedback about the animation - in particular from schools, who have used it in their e-safety lessons. The video has also proved popular with older audiences and was displayed on the IT Security website of University College Dublin as part of an online privacy campaign. The video has been viewed over 1460 times on You Tube. 
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nXaEctiVhs
 
Description The achievements generated by this project can be grouped into 4 key areas:

1. Substantive findings about the spread of harmful content on social media and its consequences
The results of our examination of social media content (WP2), Delphi panel survey (WP3) and fieldwork (WP4), combined with other activities such as our youth panels have produced novel substantive findings regarding the scale and breadth of the 'problem' of harmful content on social media. We have identified:
a) the different kinds of social media content that can have negative effects on individuals, groups and entire communities, in particular when spreading rapidly;
b) the wide range of agencies now required to deal with this kind of content;
c) the challenges these agencies face - for instance due to lack of capacity to deal with the volume of social media content and limitations in current governance mechanisms.

2. Empirically and conceptually driven recommendations for the responsible governance of social media
In WP1 we examined the potential governance of Digital Wildfires in relation to competing traditions of ethics and extant regulatory mechanisms. This informed our empirical work in WPs 2,3 and 4. In combination we have identified key limitations in existing governance mechanisms on social media. Legal, social media platform and institutional (e.g. restrictions on social media content set out by employers etc.) governance mechanisms all tend to be retrospective in character, dealing with content after it has spread and caused harm. They also tend to focus on individual posts and users, rather than the large numbers of posts and users associated with a digital wildfire. By contrast user self-governance (in which individuals monitor their own online behaviours and the behaviours of others) and education/training each have the capacity to proactively prevent the posting and spread of harmful content without limiting freedom of speech.

3. Development of methodological techniques to examine social media content
In WP2 we combined qualitative and quantitative methods to examine conversational 'threads' on Twitter. In our qualitative analysis we drew on interactional approaches typically used in studies of face to face conversation to analyse the communicative actions that occur when Twitter users post and respond to each other. This analysis produced novel and substantive findings, and also formed a foundation for further quantitative analysis. This involved building a classifier tool based on human coded Twitter threads and modelling the impact of user self-governance (in the form of counter speech) on conversations beginning with a hateful post.

4. Stakeholder engagement and impact
Early in the project we identified a genuine and pressing interest among stakeholders of various kinds to 1) make their voices heard in current debates around social media and 2) be informed by research findings on best practice for social media governance. We have therefore dedicated much of our project time to meeting these interests - for instance through the conduct of our Showcase workshop, youth panels and the development of our online toolkit in WP5. This is described further in our Narrative Impact statement.
Exploitation Route Our findings are being taken forward in the following ways: 3 published papers, 4 papers currently under review and further papers planned; we have been presenting the findings to key academic and non-academic audiences; the conclusions of the study are being put into the ethical security map - we have broadened the scope of this may to provide an online resource for stakeholders dealing with social media content in various ways; we have produced various teaching and learning materials for schools and your people - also to be used in internet campaigns such as safer internet day; Marina Jirotka gave evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications for their inquiry into Children and the Internet - she reported on the findings from Digital Wildfire and the committee found them so pertinent that she was appointed Specialist Advisor to the ongoing inquiry; the findings are currently being used in an ESRC Impact Acceleration account project led by Rob Procter (co-pi) at Warwick; the findings of the project fed into a successful proposal to EPSRC - UnBias - Emancipating Users against Algorithmic Biases for a Trusted Digital Economy and are being used as the basis for further projects.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Government, Democracy and Justice
URL http://www.digitalwildfire.org
 
Description The project has produced meaningful impact in a number of areas. Our impact strategy was guided by our original project bid, advice from our project Steering Committee and our emerging study findings. We have evaluated the success of our impact activities through feedback from relevant audiences, quantitative measures (viewing figures for our You Tube videos etc.), input from our Steering Committee, and team reflection. Even though the project was completed in November 2016 we notice continuing impact, and the project has established a considerable legacy. Early in the project we discovered the great extent to which young people are vulnerable on social media and uncovered a great desire amongst educationalists for appropriate resources to promote digital maturity and responsibility. Subsequently we dedicated much of our impact strategy to engaging with schools, youth groups and young people. We ran two highly successful youth panel competitions - involving 10 different schools/youth groups and around 150 young people - which were designed to encourage teenagers to think about the safe use of social media in a fun and constructive way. We prepared two sets of teaching and learning materials - one for teenagers aged 11 to 15 and one for those aged 16+. These were launched to coincide with Safer Internet Day 2016 and and have now been made available on tes.com for free, where they have been downloaded over 500 times. We have also produced two video animations aimed at young people #TakeCareOfYourDigitalSelf and Keeping Social Media Social. These are both available on You Tube (where each has been viewed over 3000 times) and have been disseminated via Twitter, the project website and the website of our consortium universities. Throughout the project we participated in various outreach events with young people (such a Women in Computer Science day and outreach events at the University of Oxford and a symposium on computer ethics at Queen Mary's school in Reading) and with teachers at education events held at the Universities of Oxford and Cardiff. Our focus on young people was also continued in an ESRC funded IAA project, conducted at the University of Warwick. This project, called "Digital Wildfires: Mediation and Responsible Citizenship in the Digital Age", involved working within various state and independent schools to establish the schools' knowledge of their students' use of social media. It then identified potential approaches to reducing the gaps in their understanding, facilitating a space for teachers to work collaboratively with students to address the misuse of social media and encourage digital maturity and citizenship. The project made a strong contribution to policy in relation to young people's use of digital technologies. In 2016 project PI Marina Jirotka gave evidence to an inquiry on Children and the Internet run by the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications. She was subsequently appointed as a specialist advisor to the inquiry. She was subsequently appointed a specialist advisor to the inquiry and played a key role in the development of its report Growing up with the Internet5.The report was debated in the House of Lords and several of its recommendations have been incorporated in ongoing inquiries into an age appropriate design code for online platforms. For instance, the report recommends child friendly design features and content filters for platforms, as well as the upholding of the GDPR in relation to children's data irrespective of the UK's position within the EU. This government focused policy work has also led to an ongoing and fruitful relationship between Professor Jirotka and Baroness Beeban Kidron, in particular with regard to Baroness Kidron's work as co-founder of 5Rights, a foundation that campaigns to uphold the best interests of children online We have drawn on our project themes and findings to engage stakeholders in debates around the spread of harmful content on social media and the responsible governance of digital social spaces. These stakeholders include social media users, educators, young people, policy makers, police and law enforcement agencies, charities and anti-harassment organisations, students and other researchers. During the project we provided these groups with opportunities to voice their views and promote inclusive debate. We also promoted broad understandings of social media governance in policy and public discourse. Specific activities include: 1) Our project Steering Committee. This included academics and members from the Greater Manchester Police, Big Brother Watch, Kick it Out, the Institute of Welsh Affairs and Whitchurch School, Cardiff. Members advised on the direction of the project and disseminated our work within their own fields. 2) Delphi panel. We ran a Delphi panel in workpackage 3 to solicit the informed views of key experts on the appropriate governance of social media. The Delphi provided opportunities for these panellists to (anonymously) exchange views and attempt to reach consensus. Their views were then disseminated through our project work. 3) Our project showcase workshop in January 2016 brought together researchers and stakeholders from law, commerce, education, policy, law enforcement and equality/anti-harassment organisations. This event successfully encouraged the productive sharing of views, established new engagement networks and consolidated existing ones. 4) Our prototype online ethics toolkit, which we used to engage with various stakeholders over issues of social media governance. 5) Participation at stakeholder events discussing archiving in the era of 'post truth' and 'fake news'. We engaged with the general public through our website, You Tube channel, Twitter account and articles in online newspapers such as The Conversation, engagement blogs and University publications such as Inspired Research at the University of Oxford. Project members also appeared on television, on the radio and in a TedX talk. Project artist-in-residence Barbara Gorayska produced two paintings which brough a creative understanding of social media to wide audiences. These paintings can be viewed online and were also displayed at our Showcase workshop and a special art event in winter 2016. We have been part of various public engagement events running information sessions and drop in activities to raise awareness about the risks of harmful content on social media and encourage individuals to reflect what can be done to address the problems caused. Key examples of these activities include participation in the European Researchers' Night 2017 at the University of Oxford, MozFest 2017 in London, and the Digital Design Weekend at the Victoria and Albert museum in London in October 2018. We have undertaken capacity building activities involving students and other researchers. We have run mini projects based on Digital Wildfires for students at the University of Oxford, given student seminars at the Universities of Oxford, Cardiff and Nottingham and spoken about the project at outreach events designed to encourage young people from non-academic backgrounds to think about issues relating to digital technologies. We have published articles, presented at conferences and spoken at various research workshops. We have built up strong collaborations with other research groups. For instance, we have established strong links with the Digital Economy Horizon group University of Nottingham, which has led to two successful EPSRC projects in the TIPS theme. The legacy of the project will be ensured through 1) our ongoing research projects 2) the long term availability of some of our outputs - such as the videos on our You Tube channel and teaching materials 3) our influence on policy debates and decision making 4) our capacity building activities that contribute to initiatives that widen participation and develop skill sets amongst key groups. The quality of our impact has been shown in through the provision of a University of Oxford Vice Chancellor's Innovation Award. The project was awarded Highly Commended in the category of policy impact.
First Year Of Impact 2014
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Healthcare,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural,Societal,Policy & public services
 
Description Marina Jirotka was one of the contributors to a major report prepared by academics and policy stakeholders about the safety of children online. The report calls for a digital environment that is fit for childhood and produces a number of recommendations including: education for children receiving their first smartphone; design standards to meet childhood development milestones; and the government to take account of children's views when preparing policy. The report was convened by Baroness Beeban Kidron OBE, member of the House of Lords and founder of the 5 Rights campaign. The report was Children's Global Media Summit in Manchester. Co-authors Baroness Beeban Kidron, Founder of 5Rights, and Dr. Angharad Rudkin, Child Clinical Psychologist at University of Southampton, were joined on the panel by Parentzone CEO, Vicki Shotbolt in a session hosted by Giles Dilnot from the Children's Commissioner for England's Office.
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL http://d1qmdf3vop2l07.cloudfront.net/eggplant-cherry.cloudvent.net/compressed/01972a9579924cbba7943c...
 
Description Provision of evidence to and specialist advisor role in the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications Inquiry into Children and the Internet. Professor Marina Jirotka was called to give evidence to this inquiry and was subsequently appointed as a specialist advisor to it. A report from the inquiry is currently under preparation and will be debated in parliament. The scope of the inquiry is 'The Committee is conducting an inquiry into children's access to, and use of, the internet. It aims to investigate the risks and as well as the benefits. The Committee will also investigate how children's use of the internet is governed and regulated, examining the roles that parents, schools, media companies and regulators should all play.'
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL http://www.parliament.uk/children-and-the-internet
 
Description Co-producing Understandings of Digital Responsibility: 'Digital Wildfires', Social Media and Responsible Citizenship
Amount £9,997 (GBP)
Organisation The British Academy 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2015 
End 08/2017
 
Description University of Oxford Public Engagement with Research (PER) Seed Fund
Amount £1,690 (GBP)
Organisation University of Oxford 
Sector Academic/University
Country United Kingdom
Start 04/2016 
End 08/2016
 
Description Warwick Social Science Impact Fund (ESRC Impact Acceleration Fund)
Amount £45,000 (GBP)
Funding ID ES/M500434/1 
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 09/2016 
End 08/2017
 
Description Digital Wildfire and CaSMa collaboration 
Organisation University of Nottingham
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution The project team (led by the University of Oxford) have established strong links with the CaSMa group at the University of Nottingham. This has led to shared workshops and the joint preparation of a showcase workshop on Jan 12 2016. We have also collaborated on a successful funding bid (see below) joint funding bid and members of the CaSMa team helped to judge our youth panel entries.
Collaborator Contribution Our partners contributed to the planning of the Jan 2016 showcase workshop and paid half the cost. This has led to shared workshops and the joint preparation of a showcase workshop on Jan 12 2016. We have also collaborated on a joint funding bid and members of the CaSMa team helped to judge our youth panel entries. UnBias: Emancipating users against algorithmic biases for a trusted digital economy. EPSRC funded research project (Ref EP/NO2785X/1) led by the University of Nottingham in collaboration with the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh. This is an interdisciplinary collaboration involving social science and computer science
Impact Showcase workshop: Digital Wildfires - respond now at the Digital Catapult! UnBias: Emancipating users against algorithmic biases for a trusted digital economy. EPSRC funded research project (Ref EP/NO2785X/1) Digital Wildfire youth panel - What makes a good digital citizen on social media? This collaboration involves social science, computer science and psychology.
Start Year 2015
 
Description Proboscis 
Organisation Proboscis
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Charity/Non Profit 
PI Contribution Proboscis is a creative art practice that collaborates with research groups to produce materials that help to solve problems for different kinds of users. The Digital Wildfire team has has several beneficial meetings with Probosics members - in particular founder Giles Lane. These discussions have helped Proboscis generate ideas for their work.
Collaborator Contribution Our meetings with Giles Lane have helped us to build ideas for meaningful ouptuts we can create from the project. For instance Giles has helped us to think through an effective format for our WP5 ethical security map, which has led to us widening the scope of the resource. Giles was also a member of the judging panel on our second youth panel competition - How can young people stay safe on social media?
Impact Digital Wildfire youth panel competition - How can young people stay safe on social media? Giles Lane is also a consultant on a project that follows on from some of the work of Digital Wildfire: UnBias: Emancipating Users from Algorithmic Biases for a Trusted Digital Economy EPSRC EP/N02785X/1
Start Year 2015
 
Description William Housley and Sciences Po 
Organisation Sciences Po
Country France 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Digital Wildfire CoI William Housley was awarded the prestigious Vincent Wright Chair at the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) for 2017. Inaugurated in 2003, the Vincent Wright Chair is a visiting professorship that promotes academic exchanges between France and Britain by welcoming one professor from a UK university to Sciences Po each year. The Vincent Wright Chair encourages European comparative research and helps develop cooperation between Science Po and British universities. During his visit Professor Housley engaged with the University's Media Lab and arranged for other members of the project team to travel over and present a workshop on the project findings.
Collaborator Contribution Sharing of ideas, discussion of key themes raised by the project and plans for future collaborations
Impact Joint workshop and plans for future collaborations
Start Year 2017
 
Description 'Digital Wildfires': a challenge to the governance of social media? WebSci 2015 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Members of the project team attended the WebSci2015 conference and presented a poster based on some initial project findings. Marina Jirotka also participated in a panel session on ethical web science. This is an international conference attended by over 200 researchers, professionals and policy makers from across the world.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://websci15.org/accepted-submissions
 
Description Archives and Truth Forum 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Helena Webb was invited to attend a Forum held by the British Records Association. This was an annual Forum and focused on discussions of issues around trust in archives and records. It brought together research professionals and archivists to consider the challenges and opportunities of archiving and digitising content in the age of misinformation. Helena contributed to discussions across the day and helped in the drafting of guidance for best practice.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Article in The Conversation 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We were invited to submit an article on the project to The Conversation. This was disseminated widely and led to a large amount of interest in the project. We received a number of follow up contacts from it.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://theconversation.com/how-to-police-digital-wildfires-on-social-media-63220
 
Description Article on EmergencyJournalism.net 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact We were invited to post an article about the project on EmergencyJournalism.net - an initiative of the European Journalism Centre that promotes the use of digital tools to promote responsible journalism in emergency situations.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://emergencyjournalism.net/3-ways-to-stop-false-news-spreading-like-wildfires/
 
Description Citizens Online workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Project member Adam Edwards gave a presentation on the Digital Wildfire project at the Citizens Online workshop in February 2016 in London.

The event was funded by the ESRC Integrator for Ethics and Rights in a Security Context and organised by the Interdisciplinary Ethics Research Group at Warwick University. The workshop brought together researchers to discuss these central questions:
- A significant amount of online activity involves anti-social, offensive, or harmful behaviour, involving rumours, insults, or outright defamation. How can governance of conduct in digital social spaces be realised in a way that is both ethical and effective in practice? How far is this a matter for full-blown government involvement?
- It is often said that functioning democratic systems require some collective commitment or identity on the part of citizens. Information technology increasingly facilitates the formation of trans-national communities. What challenges does this technological trend pose to the way that we traditionally conceive of citizenship and statehood? If the 'common good' is one of our aims, how do we delineate membership of the relevant group(s)? Are governance structures keeping up?
- What counts as private is partly conventional and cultural, and internet culture is in flux. Given the arc of technological development, is there any future for privacy online? What special consideration ought we to give to political speech and activism? How do attitudes to privacy and democracy interact with new security measures and technologies?

The workshop was attended by around 20 people and streamed online. Over 100 peopled viewed footage of the event in the week after it was posted.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/researchcentres/ierg/multimedia
 
Description Digital Wildfire TedX 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Project team member Rob Procter gave a TedX talk about social media and the Digital Wildfire project in February 2016. The talk was attended by over 100 members of the public and video footage will be posted online in due course.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.tedxmanchester.com/speakers/rob-procter
 
Description Digital Wildfire You Tube Channel 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We have set up a You Tube Channel to host various videos relating to the project. This includes footage of our Jan 12th Showcase workshop, the #TakeCareOfYourDigitalSelf animation, an video based on our youth panel work and mini interviews with different stakeholders. The channel is advertised over our dissemination networks and the videos in it were accessed over 700 times in its first two months. We have received positive feedback from viewers - in particular teachers at schools - on the usefulness of the videos in prompting discussion about social media governance and e-safety.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGspO-4WN_VlF5hyh7vp28Q
 
Description Digital Wildfire schools outreach activities 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Project member Helena Webb has given various talks on Digital Wildfire to school groups as part of the University of Oxford's outreach programme. Groups from across the country have had the opportunity to learn about the project and engage with some of its core themes. This has raised discussion and debate as well as requests for further information about the project. These are regular activities; so far around 300 students have been addressed from schools around the country. These talks have taken place at the University of Oxford as part of 'taster days' for students to learn about the University and have also taken place at schools around the country as part of the University's widening participation programme.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016,2017,2018
 
Description Digital Wildfire teaching and learning materials 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact To coincide with Safer Internet Day 2016 we prepared a set of e-safety teaching and learning materials. These were designed to promote digital resilience and maturity amongst young people and were made available to secondary schools across the country. The materials consisted lesson plans and assembly plans for students aged 11 to 14 and 14+. We received requests from over 30 schools to receive copies of the materials.

In summer 2016 we posted the materials on tes.com where they are available for free download. https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/digital-wildfire-digital-citizenship-and-social-media-resource-pack-ks4-5-11313686 and https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/digital-wildfire-e-safety-and-social-media-resource-pack-ks3-11313658

We have received consistently favourable feedback from schools who have used the materials - with teachers telling us they are helpful in providing resources to promote e-safety and critical thinking about the use of social media.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016,2017
URL https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/digital-wildfire-e-safety-and-social-media-resource-pack-ks3-1...
 
Description Digital Wildfire: Inspired Research article 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact We published an article outlining the project aims and activities in 'Inspired Research' . This is the regular outreach magazine produced by the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/innovation/inspiredresearch/IRwinter2015.pdf
 
Description Digital Wildfires: respond now at the Digital Catapult! Showcase workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Our showcase workshop was held on Jan 12 2015. It brought together around 70 researchers and key stakeholders to foster debate around important questions arising from the prevalence of digital wildfires in modern life
- How can we understand social media content and its impacts?
- How can we gather and use social media data in a responsible manner?
- Which organisations, groups and individuals are responsible for managing the spread of provocative content?
- How can we balance out concerns over the harms caused by social media posts with rights to freedom of speech?
The one day event was attended by representatives from academia, government, law enforcement, online platforms, commerce, education and civil society. It involved speaker presentations, a discussion roundtable, a youth panel and a keynote address by Baroness Beeban Kidron, founder of the iRights campaign for children and young people.

Around 70 people attended the day and we received very positive feedback - especially stating that the event raised important debates and brought together different relevant stakeholders. Over 70 people attended and more have had an opportunity to watch some of the presentations on our Digital Wildfire project You Tube channel.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.publicengagement.ac.uk/blog/digital-wildfire
 
Description ETHICOMP 2015 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Members of the project team attended the ETHICOMP 2015 conference and presented some of the initial study findings. This is an international conference attended by researchers, policy makers and professionals from around the world. The presentation abstract states:

The last 5-10 years have seen a massive rise in the popularity of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr etc. These platforms enable users to post and share their own content instantly, meaning that material can be seen by multiple others in a short period of time. The growing use of social media has been accompanied by concerns that these platforms enable the rapid and global spread of harmful content. A report by the World Economic Forum puts forward the global risk factor of 'digital wildfires' - social media events in which provocative content spreads rapidly and broadly, causing significant harm. This provocative content may take the form of rumour, hate speech or inflammatory messages etc. and the harms caused may affect individuals, groups, organisations or populations. In this paper we draw on the World Economic Forum report to ask a central question: does the risk of digital wildfires necessitate new forms of social media governance? We discuss the results of a scoping exercise that examined this central question. Focusing on the UK context, we present short case studies of digital wildfire scenarios



and describe four key mechanisms that currently govern social media content. As these mechanisms tend to be retrospective and individual in focus, it is possible that further governance practices could be introduced to deal with the propagation of content proactively and as a form of collective behaviour. However ethical concerns arise over any restrictions to freedom of speech brought about by further governance. Empirical investigation of social media practices and perspectives is needed before it is possible to determine whether new governance practices are necessary or ethically justifiable
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.dmu.ac.uk/documents/research-documents/technology/ccsr/ethicomp-2015-programme-september....
 
Description Ethics in networked engineering workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Helena Webb talked about the Digital Wildfire project at a workshop on 'Ethics and Engineering' held as part of the Oxford Internet Institute's Ethics in Networked Systems research project. This was attended by around 30 researchers from the UK, Europe and the USA.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://ensr.oii.ox.ac.uk/2015/03/09/gtc-ethics-in-internet-engineering-participative-workshop-at-5-3...
 
Description European Researchers' Night: Curiosity Carnival 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Members of the Digital Wildfire project teamed up the EPSRC project UnBias to run an engagement stall at European Researchers' Night 2017 in Oxford. The Curiosity Carnival formed part of European Researchers' Night, celebrated in cities across Europe. Oxford ran a city wide programme of activities across its universities, libraries, gardens and woods to give members of the public a chance to find out about real research projects and meet the people who conduct them. The combined team set up information displays about the two projects and ran an activity that invited visitors to learn about common scenarios in which safety and fairness on the Internet are undermined and then vote to give their responses to them. Team members then engaged visitors in discussion about our research work and findings. Hundreds of participants - mostly families with children but also students - attended the event and took part in our engagement activities over the course of the evening.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://unbias.wp.horizon.ac.uk/2017/10/02/unbias-takes-part-in-european-researchers-night/
 
Description MozFest 2017 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact MozFest is an annual event that celebrates the open Internet movement. It organised by the Mozilla Foundation and held in London each year. In 2017 Digital Wildfire researcher Helena Webb represented the project at a Science Fair and then during a drop in session during which attendees were invited to learn about the project and reflect on issues connected to social media safety. The event was attended by hundreds of participants from around the world. In addition to members of the general public, there were students, educators, policy makers and members of NGOs and Third Sector organisations present.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
URL https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/news/1412-full.html
 
Description OxDEG talk on the ethics of analysing social media data 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Postgraduate students
Results and Impact Marina Jirotka was invited to present in a special session of the OxDEG series held at the Oxford Internet Institute on research ethics. She spoke about the Digital Wildfire project and our review of the ethics of analysing and publishing social media data.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description School visit (Reading) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact In November 2016 Marina Jirotka and Helena Webb took part in a schools symposium on computer ethics. They talked about the project in relation to the theme of not causing harm when using computers. The symposium was attended by 80 students aged 16+ from local schools in Reading. The students and teachers were highly engaged in constructive debate.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://cybersymposium.weebly.com/
 
Description Schools outreach: March2020 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Helena Webb participated in a schools outreach session organised by St Anne's College at the University of Oxford. The session brought over 60 school students (aged 10-11 years old) from a school in South London to spend the day in Oxford. The school was from an economically disadvantaged area and the students were from backgrounds with little familial experience of Oxbridge. Helena gave a taster session to two groups of 15 students to introduce them to her work.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Science and Security: Governance, Ethics and the Law A PaCCS Science and Security Policy Workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Organised by Tristram Riley-Smith of the Partnership for Conflict, Crime & Security Research, on behalf of Dstl this workshop explored the ethical and legal challenges facing policy-makers and practitioners working in the defence and security sectors as they manage the development and application of new technological capabilities. The starting-point was the "Science and Security" Programme. It specifically looked at research on three topics: Social Media, Drones and Data Collection and Exploitation.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www.paccsresearch.org.uk/research/research-portfolio/science-and-security/).
 
Description Social Informatics seminar at University of Warwick 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact Helena Webb gave a presentation in the UG Social Informatics seminar at the University of Warwick. This was online and attended by undergraduate students. She spoke about the project and the relevance of its findings to ongoing debates around fake news, online hate speech and the regulation of social media platforms.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Social Media and Civil Society: Participation, Regulation and Governance: WISERD panel 2015 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Members of the project team ran a panel on Social Media and Civil Society: Participation, Regulation and Governance at the 2015 WISERD conference.

The abstract is as follows:

Technological innovation in digital communications, epitomised in the shift from the informational web
(Web1.0) to the interactional web (Web2.0), is transforming traditional social configurations and relations.
Web2.0 technologies, particularly the new social media (e.g. social networking, blogging and microblogging),
enable users to share information with multiple others quickly and easily. This can be seen to
reinvigorate civil society via new forms of digital participation through networked debate, deliberation and
information sharing. This can have positive impacts, for instance promoting social cohesion and supporting
civil society actions. However, social media interactions can also become 'digital wildfires' in which
misleading or provocative content - e.g., in the form of rumour or hate speech - spreads rapidly with very
negative impact. Society thus faces a major challenge in establishing appropriate regulatory frameworks
for the governance of new digital spaces. This panel will discuss the development of these governance
frameworks. We will reflect upon current research on how 'digital wildfire events' emerge and unfold. We
will explore the evidence for self-governance through which social media users manage their own and
others' online behaviours and examine how these practices may be consolidated and enhanced. Finally,
we will consider matters relating to wider issues of governance, regulation and freedom of expression.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.wiserd.ac.uk/files/5314/3530/8346/Abstract_Booklet_.pdf
 
Description Social media television debate 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Media (as a channel to the public)
Results and Impact Project member Bernd Stahl took part in a discussion panel on Facebook censorship on Al Jazeera television.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcChvUmVuWc
 
Description Social media, Activism and Organisation 2015 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Members of the project team presented study findings at the Social media, Activism and Organisation symposium in November 2015. This was a 1 day event attended by researchers and PG students. We were subsequently invited to submit a full paper for a special issue of Sociological Review based on the themes of the symposium. This was submitted in Feb 2016 and is undergoing reviews.

The abstract states:

The increasing use and popularity of social media platforms creates new digital social networks in which individuals can interact and share information, news and opinion. The use of these technologies appears to have the capacity to transform current social configurations and relations, not least within the public and civic spheres. Within the social sciences, much emphasis has been placed on conceptualising social media's role in modern society, and the interrelationships between online and offline actors and events. In contrast, little attention has been paid to exploring user practices on social media and how individual posts respond to each other. To demonstrate the value of an interactional approach towards social media analysis, we performed a detailed analysis of Twitter-based online campaigns. After categorising social media posts based on action, we developed a typology for studying user exchanges. We found these social media campaigns to be highly heterogeneous in content, with a wide range of actions performed and substantial numbers of tweets not engaged with the substance of the campaign. We argue that this interactional approach to analysis can form the basis for further work conceptualising the broader impact of activist campaigns.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015
URL http://www.social--media.org/programme/
 
Description Truth and Lies: Information in the Archives 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Helena Webb was invited to be part of the 'Truth and Lies: Information in the Archives' event held at the National Archives in October 2019. This was a one day symposium organised by The National Archives, the Institute of Historical Research and Digital Humanities at the School of Advanced Study. It brought together researchers, archivists and other professionals to discuss archiving in the disinformation era. Discussions interrogated how disinformation is created and spread, what its effects are, how the archive should deal with and capture it, and how scholars might interpret the evidence it yields. The symposium concluded in the drawing up of a 'manifesto' on how to deal with disinformation in our time. Helena gave a presentation based on the Digital Wildfire project to highlight the capacity of misinformation to spread in various contexts and contributed to a panel discussion.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Undergraduate student group projects (Oxford) 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact In 2016 Marina Jirotka and Helena Webb joined colleagues in the Department of Computer Science at Oxford to sponsor two teams of undergraduate students to work on a group project about social media. Their task was to build a prototype system that could identify and analyse fast spreading content on social media. This was a valuable opportunity for the groups to think about the kinds of professional users who would benefit from this kind if information about social media content.

In 2017 we sponsored another group of undergraduates to build a system to identify and analyse fake content on social media. In 2018 Helena Webb is sponsoring another group to build a system that can aid journalists to verify online content
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016,2017,2018
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNzG7q1tkBw
 
Description University of Oxford - Women in Computer Science day 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact The University of Oxford runs an annual Women in Computer Science Day. Young women from around the country aged 14+ attend with their schools or parents to learn about studying computer science and careers in the field. In the 2017 event Helena Webb and Menisha Patel gave a talk about the UnBias project and ran an stand in an exhibition where attendees could find our more information about UnBias and the ESRC Digital Wildfire project. The event was attended by around 200 young women. They had the opportunity to take information leaflets about the project and ask questions to Drs Webb and Patel.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description University of Oxford - Women in Computer Science day 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact The Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford holds an annual Women in Computer Science day. This is targeted at female school students from the age of 15 upwards. They attend the day with their schools or parents in order to learn about the discipline of computer science and other connected areas - such as social computing. Digital Wildfire researcher Helena Webb is a regular contributor to the event - she gives talks about the project to the participants (on average 200 per year) and takes part in exhibition session during which individual students, teachers and parents can talk to her one-to-one and ask questions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2015,2016,2017,2018
 
Description Workshop on Emergent Technologies 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Digital Wildfire's Adam Edwards hosted a two day workshop at Cardiff University on Emergent Technologies. The workshop brought together researchers and professionals from a range of disciplines to discuss the implications new technologies have for governance, security, policy and regulation. Non academic attendees included those working in the fields of law and social policy. Adam gave a presentation on the Digital Wildfire project's findings - in particular in relation to our Delphi survey findings regarding the suitable regulation of social media. Other speakers included John Cooper QC discussing how the criminal justice system tries to adapt to the challenges posed by social media and Harry Collins on artificial intelligence and sociality.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2017
 
Description Workshop presentation (Ethics and Rights in a Security Context) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact In November 2016 Marina Jirotka presented the major findings of the Digital Wildfire project at the 'Ethics and Rights in a Security Context' workshop held in London and organised by the Interdisciplinary Research Group at the University of Warwick. The event was attended by academics, policy makers, members of industry and members of NGOs. The presentation generated a significant amount of debate over the responsible governance of social media.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/research/researchcentres/ierg/events/ethics__rights_in_a_secu...
 
Description Youth panel 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact We invited a small number of schools and youth groups across the country to take part in our youth panel. Young people aged 16-18 were invited to submit pieces of work that answered the question: what makes a good digital citizen on social media? We received essays, poems, artwork, narratives, research and videos. A judging panel selected the top 5 entries and the students who produced them attended our workshop in Jan 2016 to talk about their work and receive a £100 prize voucher.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2014,2015
URL https://sites.google.com/site/digitalwildfireesrc/youth-panel
 
Description Youth panel 2: How can young people stay safe on social media? 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact Following the success of our first youth panel competition, we have several requests from schools to run another one. We secured funding from the University of Oxford's Public Engagement in Research Seed Fund and ran a competition inviting entries from school children aged 11 to 15. In groups or as individuals the students created a piece of work to answer the question 'how can young people stay safe on social media?'. We received over 100 impressive entries which were first marked be members of the project team. A panel of specialist judges from organisations connected to the project (police, Kick It out etc.) selected the winning entries from a short list. They selected 10 winners and 4 runners up from two age groups. The winners received a prize voucher and their work is shown - with their consent - on our project website.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2016
URL https://sites.google.com/site/digitalwildfireesrc/youth-panel