Tag Archives: Misinformation

Yesterday.

Dail Eireann.

Independent Clare/Offaly TD Carol Nolan raised the role of Kinzen, an Irish media tech start-up, hired by the state to identify online misinformation related to Covid-19 and the Covid-19 vaccines.

Last September, The Business Post reported:

“The work, which began earlier this year and consists of almost daily briefings from Kinzen to state officials, marks the first time the department has engaged the services of a third-party company to conduct work on misinformation…and the first time a government body in Ireland has paid a third-party company for this type of work.”

Deputy Nolan said:

“I note the European Council will discuss the Covid-19 pandemic in the context of the emergence of a new variant, and that participants will also exchange views on how best to tackle vaccine hesitancy and disinformation and the effectiveness of various measures and strategies adopted in this respect.

“What I would like to know, and what I need to ask, is the following question: when will we have a debate in the House on the fact the Department of Health employed a social media monitoring company to gather and report all online and Oireachtas commentary, some of which was only questions, relating to Covid-19 and the Government’s approach to the handling of the crisis? This was at a cost of almost €100,000.

“In October, it was revealed to me following a parliamentary question I tabled on this matter that the Department employed Kinzen Media in early 2021 to monitor the online dissemination of misinformation and disinformation relating to Covid-19 and the Covid vaccine. Were it not for Gary Kavanagh at Gript media the public would not have been made aware of these issues. I pay tribute to Gript for focusing on stories that are of real public concern.

“Our role as parliamentarians is to ask questions and find better ways to do things. Many Deputies were quoted in these reports. They include many statements of genuine concern from Deputies and Senators. There were also statements from others, including doctors. They were gathered together in daily reports to the Department and the HSE.

“This was unknown to us and without our consent. By an amazing coincidence, an enormous volume of the so-called misinformation and disinformation related to comments critical of the Government and the policies it has adopted.

“There was no tendering process for the particular contract awarded. There has been absolutely zero accountability for the fact that a private company was employed by the State to monitor and report the legitimate concern of Oireachtas Members as if they were a threat to the State.”

Acting Chairman (Deputy Bernard J. Durkan), interjecting:

“Next.”

Deputy Nolan:

“We are merely doing our jobs of Deputies and Senators in bringing forward the concerns of the public and medical professions to the floor of the House.”

Durkan:

“Thank you, Deputy.”

Deputy Nolan:

“I would like answers because I believe this is a very serious matter.”

Durkan:

“I know but we are under pressure.”

Deputy Nolan:

“It is very serious.”

Previously: “We Helped Flatten The Curve Of An Infodemic”

Meanwhile…

Oh.

No one likes a snitch.

Meanwhile…

…are we hot?

We are not.

Mark Little of disinfo agency Kinzen

Sunday.

The Business Post reported that The Department of Health is paying Kinzen, an Irish media tech start-up, to identify online misinformation related to Covid-19 and the Covid-19 vaccines.

Via The Business Post:

The work, which began earlier this year and consists of almost daily briefings from Kinzen to state officials, marks the first time the department has engaged the services of a third-party company to conduct work on misinformation. It is also believed to be the first time a government body in Ireland has paid a third-party company for this type of work.

Kinzen, founded by former RTÉ news journalist Mark Little and Aine Kerr in 2018, promotes itself as a service which can track disinformation campaigns online. It says it has developed its own automatic speech recognition (ASR) system which can sift through audio and video content to highlight “high risk” material. It combines this with a language model it feeds with terms which are relevant to searching for potential misinformation.

…Little said the work with the Department of Health was entirely “research-driven” and did not involve the company’s scoring system which rates content depending on the level of “risk” identified.

…Little said that all credit for Ireland’s successful rollout of the vaccine should go to public health workers and the Irish people. He said Kinzen was proud to have supported the Department of Health.

“Our role was to bring a global perspective on disinformation to the Irish environment,” he said.

“By helping public health communicators stay ahead of campaigns of disinformation, we hope we helped flatten the curve of an infodemic that deepened the impact of the Covid-19 crisis in other countries.”

Not all heroes deploy tasteless metaphors.

Kinzen briefing the Department of Health on Covid-19 online misinformation (Business Post)

Pic via Mark Little