IN FOCUS
Media literacy – a way to create a more human and fairer society
During the summer semester, the Faculty of Philology introduced the module Media literacy within the project Preparing future teachers: Education for Democracy and Human Rights. For this occasion, in this month’s DFC Magazine...
Meritocracy – a principle only on paper
Proclaimed principles of the new government, with the principle of meritocracy being particularly emphasized, have announced that the changes in all areas of Montenegrin society, including the intelligence and security sector, will be...
Read the new DFC Magazine issue
The new DFC Magazine issue brings the analysis of the activities of the new government regarding the intelligence and security sector in Montenegro, which have been perceived among a significant part of both the Montenegrin and...
Media coverage of Election Day in Niksic: Heightening tensions and spreading narratives
The Election Day in Niksic passed in a relatively peaceful atmosphere, even though during the weeks prior to March 14, these elections had been evaluated as historic. Several (minor) incidents were reported, such as a violent attempt...
Local Elections of Regional Importance – the DFC analysis of election atmosphere in Niksic
Local parliament elections in Niksic scheduled for March 2021, have undoubtedly drawn a great deal of attention not only in Montenegro but in the region as well. Therefore, the DFC carried out the analysis of the election atmosphere in...
Read the new DFC Magazine issue
The new DFC magazine issue brings the overview of events in Niksic as it heads into the local elections on March 14. Read about fake researches circulating on the Internet ahead of the local elections, media campaign from Serbia, and...
On Friday Afternoon vol. 8
Another Friday has come, together with the new edition of our weekly column On Friday Afternoon. As usual, we will start this week’s overview with the topics related to Montenegro. On Wednesday night, the DFC discovered at least 50...
DFC press release: Impersonation on Twitter
Late last night, the DFC revealed at least 50 Twitter accounts, which impersonated and thus damaged the reputation of several public and political figures in Montenegro. The activities of these accounts were coordinated and...
Campaigns against immunization
Besides changing social, political and economic situation, the global health crisis, caused by the coronavirus pandemic, gave power to social media to reshape and create the perception of reality. In the time when the knowledge is...
On Friday Afternoon vol. 7
Another Friday has come, together with the new edition of our weekly column On Friday Afternoon. As usual, we will start this week’s overview with the topics related to Montenegro. This week, a new issue of our DFC magazine was...
Read the new DFC Magazine issue
The new DFC Magazine issue brings the overview of conspiracy theories surrounding vaccination that are being spread by the media from the region, and which aim at compromising the credibility and trust of citizens in the work of health...
The Russian MID did not insert the Montenegrin coat of arms in Navalny’s documentary
A video-investigation conducted by the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, claiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin spent a huge amount of money on the extravagant palace at the Black Sea, generated more than 100 million...
Apprehension of the Serbian citizens, DFC’s reaction and Telegram groups gaining in popularity
Another Friday has come, together with the new edition of our weekly column On Friday Afternoon. As usual, we will start this week’s overview with the topics related to Montenegro. One of the burning topics was the apprehension...
Found guilty with no guilt proven
Publishing of an inappropriate caricature of Vesna Bratic, the acting Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, which is being spread on social media, provoked public anger for a reason. Basic State Prosecutor’s Office...
Serbian citizens are not arrested only for possessing three-color flags
One of tonight’s breaking news was that the Montenegrin police found 26,500 euros, laptops, and Serbian flags in the possession of three Serbian citizens and one inhabitant of Pljevlja, on the Rance border crossing. The citizens...
Under the Loupe 005: Milivoje Pantovic
The Under the Loop podcast represents a short video form of a conversation with the experts in certain fields, in order to raise awareness of disinformation, media literacy, and technologies. In the final episode 005 of our pilot...
DFC video explainer: What are the consequences of disinformation?
What are the consequences of disinformation? Watch the third video of the project Care before you share – Montenegro. The project has been supported by NATO Public Diplomacy Division with the goal to strengthen the resilience of our...
New podcast, misleading reporting of the public broadcaster and date of vaccine delivery to Montenegro uncertain
Another Friday is here and it is time for another weekly column On Friday Afternoon. As usual, we begin this week’s overview with the events in Montenegro. We posted episode 004 of our podcast Under the Loupe, in which we talked with...
Under the Loupe 004: Darko Brkan
The Under the Loupe podcast represents a short video form of a conversation with the experts in certain fields, in order to raise awareness of disinformation, media literacy, and technologies. In episode 004, we are talking with Darko...
Fake survey, misleading news and blocking of Trump’s account
On Friday afternoon is a new and short text form of the Digital Forensic Center, which we use to share significant and interesting news and events that marked a week behind us. We begin this week’s overview with the most...
Under the Loupe 003: Stefan Janjic
The Under the Loupe podcast represents a short video form of a conversation with the experts in certain fields, in order to raise awareness of disinformation, media literacy, and technologies. In episode 003, we are talking with Stefan...
Read the new DFC Magazine issue
The first of this year’s DFC Magazine issue brings the 2020 retrospective of the influence of disinformation, narratives, and conspiracy theories on political events in Montenegro. Recently, the independent experts analyzed the...
DFC video explainer: How is disinformation spread?
How is disinformation spread? Watch the second video of the project Care before you share – Montenegro. The project has been supported by NATO Public Diplomacy Division with a goal to strengthen the resilience of our society to...
Media spin about riots on Christmas
A couple of days before Christmas Eve and Christmas, numerous texts envisaging riots and chaos in Montenegro, planned allegedly by supporters of President Milo Djukanovic, were published. On January 3, Montenegro and Serbia-based news...
DFC video explainer: What is disinformation?
Within the project Care before you share – Montenegro, supported by NATO Public Diplomacy Division, we are publishing the first out of three videos. The goal of the project is to strengthen the resilience of our society to...
Vaccination as a new conspiracy theorists’ inspiration
Great Britain is the first country in the world that approved a vaccine against COVID-19 on December 2, 2020. Among the companies that have been working for almost half a year now on vaccine development, the vaccine produced by...
Under the Loupe 002: Bozena Jelusic
Podcast Under the Loupe represents a short video form of a conversation with the experts in certain fields, in order to raise awareness of disinformation, media literacy, and technologies. In episode 002, we are talking with Bozena...
Under the Loupe 001 – Aleksandar Brezar
Podcast Under the Loupe represents a short video form of a conversation with the experts in certain fields, in order to raise awareness of disinformation, media literacy, and technologies. In episode 001, we are talking with Aleksandar...
Distorted perception of Montenegro in the study conducted for the European Parliament
The study Mapping Fake News and Disinformation in the Western Balkans and Identifying Ways to Effectively Counter Them was published on December 3 on the website of the European Parliament. The authors analyzed the events and...
Political will is also needed to combat disinformation
Education is the only way for societies to fight disinformation in the long run, a dangerous phenomenon that causes serious damage to all countries – was concluded on the panel dedicated to the fight against disinformation,...
Read the new DFC Magazine issue
The Constitution of the new Government of Montenegro was the main topic in the month behind us, in both Montenegrin and Serbian media, whose reporting is marked by sensationalism. Besides this, read about the narratives on a negation...
The Serbian media interpretations of the new government constitution in Montenegro
The session of the Parliament of Montenegro on the appointment of the new Prime Minister and members of the 42nd Parliament started yesterday, on December 2, and the discussion was tainted by criticism mainly of both the government and...
Conspiracy theories on coronavirus not fading away
The first coronavirus case was officially registered in Wuhan in China less than a year ago and that quite a short period was marked by numerous events and global changes. Since the adoption of the restrictive measures introduced to...
The post-election developments in the USA through the lenses of the Serbian media
Joe Biden won the U.S. presidential election but its echo is not dying away even twenty days after the polling stations had closed. We were waiting quite a long time for the winner to be announced since the counting was additionally...
Narrative on the Serbian world negates the Montenegrin identity
Two events out of which one already occurred and the other is ahead of us are again reviving the narrative on the negation of the Montenegrin statehood and identity. The first event were the elections (held on August 30) that were won...
Prelog for the DFC: A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth can put on its shoes
There is no simple decision in the fight against fake news and the best way to fight this phenomenon is through education and strengthening of media literacy, said Lordan Prelog, a founder of the Museum of Fake News from Croatia, in an...
Read the new DFC Magazine issue
Over the last months, we have been witnessing a real political reality show happening in Montenegro’s public scene. However, this new reality is not typical for Montenegro only; we see similar things going on in the region,...
Yearly analysis: The Serbian media about Montenegro
Yearly research of the Digital Forensic Center (DFC), encompassing 11,104 articles with Crna Gora (Montenegro) as the keyword, provides an insight into narratives and the amount at which they were spread by the most read Serbian news...
Conspiracy theories and disinformation around the death of Metropolitan Amfilohije
After the death of Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Amfilohije on October 30 due to COVID-19, numerous narratives, disinformation and conspiracy theories could have been read in the Serbian media. On October 29 in the late...
A road to the White House paved with conspiracy theories and disinformation
The U.S. elections have been always globally followed with great attention. However, the attention that this years’ election has attracted (holding on November 3, 2020) has been additionally increased due to the specific circumstances...
Three bot “families” attacking Krivokapic
Prime Minister-designate of Montenegro Zdravko Krivokapic is a target of the Twitter bot accounts, which, with concerted efforts, attacked his attitudes on the formation of a technocratic government. The bot network consisting of more...
Is QAnon winning over our region faster than we think?
Once perceived as an underground conspiracy theory in the U.S., QAnon is becoming mainstream and more real, with its effect being visible in our region as well. Conspiracy theories commonly known as QAnon appeared in the U.S. in 2017...
DFC annual publication – While the Truth Exists
The Digital Forensic Center has a pleasure to publish our annual publication, representing an overview of the second year of the DFC’s work. Read more about disinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories that we discovered...
How the Serbian media are pitting the people against the Army
A planned five-day exercise on Sinjajevina Mountain that was envisaged for the period from October 19 to October 23 was followed by sensational and tendentious content in the Serbian tabloids. In accordance with its activities, the...
Read the new DFC Magazine issue
The 24th DFC Magazine issue brings an interview with Damon Wilson, Executive Vice President of the Atlantic Council of the U.S., which discussed with us, among other things, the influence of disinformation campaigns on democratic...
Wilson for the DFC: Divisions the biggest challenge of the new Government
NATO will have an eye on the people coming into the key positions in the security services, said Executive Vice President at Atlantic Council of the United States Damon Wilson in an interview for the DFC Magazine, stating that the...
Serbian media: more than 10k of articles on Montenegro for one year
Yearly research of the Digital Forensic Center (DFC), encompassing 10,630 articles with Montenegro as the keyword, provides an insight into narratives and the amount at which they were spread by the most read Serbian news portals in...
A false state anthem inserted instead of the real one
After the constitutive session of the Parliament of Montenegro, a false edited video of the intonation of the state anthem appeared on social media. The video posted by Facebook page Српска ЧАСТ + Srpska ČAST is not authentic since the...
Ivan Kontic, an innocent man became the target of the media and public
A disturbing video from Novi Sad displaying a young man brutally beating another man and breaking his arms while he was lying unconscious on the ground, appeared on social media on September 11. The identified perpetrator, Ivan Kontic...
Carevic did not seize public property, the Aktuelno news portal published disinfo
The Aktuelno news portal published today disinformation in an article entitled: Bato’s rules in the SAO Budva: He opened a restaurant on the land seized from the state!? The article states that Marko Bato Carevic opened the...
Read the new DFC Magazine issue
The parliamentary elections and the campaign marked the month behind us, which is the reason why this DFC Magazine issue mostly addresses these topics. Therefore, besides debunked disinformation and fake news published on the eve and...
Patriotic gathering: chaos was announced, but there were no incidents
The patriotic gathering which took place in Podgorica on September 6 (seven days after the parliamentary elections) attracted the attention of the local and regional media, almost to the same extent as the Parliamentary elections on...
Parties spent more than 77,000 euros on Facebook ads in August
Owing to the new Facebook’s advertising policy, these elections were the first we have been able to find out the data on the parties’ spending on Facebook ads. Using the official Facebook data, the Digital Forensic Center...
Fake news and the elections: From unrest on the streets to Internet outage
The Election Day in Montenegro was marked by fake news and disinformation both in the media and on social media platforms. All the published projections did not realize in the end – from unrest on the streets in case the ruling...
Numerous fake news pieces on the eve of the elections
Numerous fake news pieces were published in media and on social media on the eve of the tomorrow’s elections. As an example, the fake news that the French President Emmanuel Macron invited Montenegrins to vote for the opposition on the...
Fake news: there was no revolution, the video created five years ago
On August 25, the news portals Republika.rs and Srbija danas published fake news that the rebellion against the government began in Montenegro, and that the dissatisfied citizens moved the police car with their hands, which was...
Udar – from anonymous disinformation to the conspiracy theories
Since its appearing on the media scene, the Udar news portal has been publishing unverified information, almost always with the reference to the unknown sources, and one month from its first texts, it still does not have an Impressum,...
FAKE PUBLIC OPINION RESEARCH ON SOCIAL MEDIA
New and fake public opinion research appeared yesterday on social media. It is stated in the post that the IPSOS agency conducted a piece of research for one political party in August. IPSOS agency said for the DFC that the piece of...
DFC monitoring: The majority of negative content about DPS, the positive about DF
During the first 15 days of August, the most read Montenegrin portals (six of them) published 627 articles mentioning the Democratic Party of Socialists (Demokratska partija socijalista). Out of them, 63.4 percent were negative, 19.9...
We will always respond to foreign interference in democratic processes
Countering disinformation is a long-term issue and there are no quick fixes, said the outgoing Ambassador of the UK in Montenegro for the DFC Magazine. She assessed that the best way to fight such phenomenon is through transparency,...
Read the new DFC Magazine issue
In the new DFC Magazine issue read what the British Ambassador to Montenegro Alison Kemp told us about the way the United Kingdom is fighting against disinformation and foreign interference. Read about the way the Montenegrin political...
Disinformation: Sparrows in PG didn’t die because of 5G technology
The news on the death of several hundreds of sparrows, due to a thunderstorm that hit Podgorica last night, created an avalanche of comments that the 5G technology is responsible for their death. That disinformation could be found...
Election campaign – fighting for the votes on Facebook
All around the world, social media have been actively used as the means of influence in the prominent events and political processes. However, Facebook is the most used when it comes to the election campaigns, thanks to its features...
From coronavirus as a global experiment to the endangered Serbs in Montenegro
The appearance of a publicist Danilo Tvrdisic on the National TV IN4S in the Srpski svijet (The Serbian World) TV show on July 19 was marked by the narratives on coronavirus, as the greatest global experiment in the history of mankind,...
Negation of Montenegro – the narrative that dominates
Negation of Montenegro – the narrative that dominates and by that could be heard in the IN4Smisija (IN4Smission) TV show of a newly founded the IN4S National television on July 14, was also rich with debatable statements. Besides the...
Dr. Gajic for the DFC Magazine: The virus is spreading as fast as disinformation
Doctors who express unverified and controversial attitudes during coronavirus pandemic contribute to the creation of the information chaos, said Ognjen Gajic for the DFC magazine, a specialist in intensive care medicine and lung...
Read the new DFC Magazine issue
In the new DFC Magazine read what Dr. Ognjen Gajic, a doctor at the famous Mayo Clinic said about disinformation being as harmful as the coronavirus; why Facebook groups are destroying America; whether the referendum in Russia made...
The overseas lobbying for the Serbian interests in MNE
In the context of the current events in Montenegro, the emergence of numerous organizations advocating for the Serbian interests and rights in Serbia and over the world is noticeable The Serbian- American Leadership Conference (SALC)...
More insults from the same address
Proclaiming corona free destination on June 2 and opening the borders for particular countries in the region and Europe incited the new attacks on Montenegro Even though Kosovo and the upcoming elections in Serbia were the occasion and...
Zonjo for the DFC Magazine: We love sucking on phallic candies of fake news
Montenegro is the least developed society in Europe when it comes to media and informatics literacy. Instead of searching for reliable information on relevant media, we wait for them to appear on social media, estimated Zoran Markovic...
The objectiveness of the IFIMES’ analyses in question
The Digital Forensic Center did a detailed analysis of the pieces of research of the International Institute for Middle-East and Balkan studies (IFIMES), due to discovered inconsistencies in claims, biased coverage of specific topics...
Montenegrin tourism under attack of the Serbian tabloids
Last days, the intensive anti-Montenegrin campaign on the Serbian portals aims at degrading the image of Montenegro as an attractive tourist destination. The Serbian and pro-Serbian media are not missing the opportunity to emphasize...
The DFC discovers: Montenegro under attack of the bots from Serbia
After a recent debunking of the bot network connected with the ruling party in Serbia which was promoting the Chinese aid in that country during coronavirus pandemic, the Digital Forensic Center discovered a new network of accounts...
Fake news about Joanikije’s trial being refused and bombs in Berane
Sputnik just published a piece of information, which was republished by many media in Montenegro and Serbia. The information claims that the judges refused to try Bishop Joanikije and that they gave a written statement about it. That...
FAKE NEWS ON AN INJURED BABY WAS CIRCULATING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
A photography of a wounded baby was circulating on social media last night. A description of the posts on social media stated that the injuries on the baby’s face were caused by the police officers in Niksic, which is the...
MISUSE OF THE CONTENT – HOW DID THE PROTESTS AGAINST JUDICIARY REFORMS IN POLAND TURNED INTO ANTI-VACCINATION PROTESTS?
A video with a description Eight days of protest in Poland against mandatory vaccination was posted on May 9 on a Facebook page Pravo na slobodu (Right to Freedom). The video displays tens of thousands of citizens gathered on the...
CONSPIRACY THEORIES FROM THE PARLIAMENT OF SERBIA
In her speech in the Parliament of the Republic of Serbia on April 29, 2020, Nada Kostic, MP, internist and professor on the Medical Faculty in Belgrade, presented numerous conspiracy theories on coronavirus, its emergence, situation...
NATO published the DFC’s research on Russian narratives in the Balkans
The project Russia’s Footprint in the Western Balkan Information Environment, published by NATO Stratcom Centre of Excellence, investigates Russia’s tools of influence in the Western Balkans (WB), with a focus on the media landscape....
Public opinion survey – Media literacy, coronavirus and the citizens of Montenegro
About the research In order to estimate the attitudes and opinions of the citizens of Montenegro when it comes to their critical view on media content available on a daily basis, the Digital Forensic Center conducted quantitative field...
A doctor for conspiracy theories
The Protiv Novog Svetskog Poretka (Against New World Order) Facebook page posted on April 22 a video from the Next News Network TV show with dr. Rashid Buttar. Within fifty minutes, dr. Buttar made many assertions on the novel...
New narrative: Church under attack of the regime
Measures introduced to prevent the spreading of coronavirus are in force in Montenegro just like in the rest of the world. Even though the citizens are obliged to comply with the measures in order to avoid possible consequences, the...
Everything that the Chinese ambassador hid
The Digital Forensic Center analyzed an interview of Liu Jinn, an Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China, published in the “Vijesti” daily newspaper on April 15. Since the coronavirus outbreak, China has been accused many...
Who is disturbed by bot analysis?
After the Digital Forensic Center had published the analysis on new network of bot accounts in Serbia, which was published by almost all local, but also regional and even Chinese, American and Central European media, the web sites of...
After the analysis on bots, DFC attacked by hackers
After the Digital Forensic Center had published the analysis on new bot network in Serbia, which was taken by all domestic, regional but also Chinese and American media, the web sites of DFC, Atlantic Council of Montenegro and To be...
A bot network arrived in Serbia along with coronavirus
Analyzing posts on Twitter for the period from March 9 to April 9, we discovered 30,000 tweets coming from accounts in Serbia with keywords Kina (China) and Srbija (Serbia) in their content. As much as 71.9 percent of the content was...
DFC Magazine #18
These days have seen numerous disinformation and conspiracy theories posted and shared on social media, doing unmeasurable harm to individuals and the community. In this short video, find out what the new DFC Magazine issue brings,...
Montenegro’s information environment through history
The following article is the first piece of a two-part series done by our team and published by the DFRLab. Read more about the developments that shaped #Montenegro as a country, media, and information environment as well as foreign...
Outright deception of the public
A coordinated campaign against Montenegro, which has been spreading negative and bizarre disinformation over the last 3 months, continues unabated Another narrative has emerged in the last few days: NATO requires from the President of...
STATE OF PLAY
The beginning of the 21st century marked the shift in definition of the power from conventional, military and hard power to its much more non-violent and non-conventional form, in a way that mass media, social media and information have become weapons of choice. Many countries, Western Balkans states included, face the same challenge of responding and resisting to the disinformation campaigns aimed against them.
OUR MISSION
Our mission is to identify, explain and counter the problem of disinformation and fake news narratives through open source research; to promote truth and critical thinking; reduce problem of digital/media illiteracy through events, workshops and lectures that will raise awareness of this issue. We have the right to always question and search for the evidences!
UNDERSTANDING DISINFO
The problem of disinformation is broader than any individual country or actor spreading malign narratives. These campaigns are synchronized and systematic, so the response must be as well.That is why we, within Digital Forensic Center, established the foundations for the hub that will fight new media and digital disinformation through the multi-sector and multi-disciplinary approach and cooperation between NGOs, media and governments.