Research related to the fight against COVID-19 conducted by the GDHRNet is featured in the COST Annual Report 2020 as a success story.
GDHRNet was only launched at the beginning of November 2020. Remarkably, its first working paper – ‘Viral Information: How States and Platforms Deal with COVID-19-related Disinformation: an Exploratory Study of 20 Countries’ – was published before the end of that year. The study provides an important overview of how states and platforms have dealt with COVID-related disinformation. A key finding is that all companies have developed compliance policies against COVID disinformation. We were able to show that throughout the world platforms have put increased effort into factchecking and, where appropriate, removal of content.
GDHRNet has continued its research in 2021 with studies on vaccination passports and de-platforming politicians.
