The Participatory Disinformation Observatory was the big winner of the Extension Recognition Award at the 6th International PDPP Meeting. It is an initiative by the Citizens’ Initiatives Agency (AIC), sponsored by the Open Society Foundations and supported by Margem – the Research Group on Democracy and Justice at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The project was born out of experiences during the pandemic, when various grassroots groups and community leaders requested support to tackle COVID-19 disinformation with materials and strategies tailored to their communities.

"From that point on, it became clear that there was a need to somehow coordinate the efforts against disinformation carried out by civil society. In 2023, the Participatory Disinformation Observatory was officially launched, with the aim of strengthening, coordinating and promoting community-based initiatives to combat disinformation," says Ricardo Fabrino Mendonça from Margem.

“For that very reason, the Observatory seeks to listen to diverse communities in order to jointly develop practices that reflect the contemporary communication landscape. More than just countering fake news, the Observatory looks for sparks of creativity that can offer new ways to address the epistemic crisis,” he adds.

Currently, the Observatory operates on three fronts, according to Juliano Antunes from AIC:

• Listening Unit: Through which we engage with and connect dozens of community leaders to understand the specific nature of disinformation in their territories and the obstacles it poses to the building of citizenship.
• Creation Unit: Comprising three grant-holders, this team is responsible for producing the content for our campaigns. To date, we have run a campaign to tackle cyber scams in four territories; a campaign encouraging young people to register to vote (“Sort Out Your Voter ID”); a campaign to combat disinformation about the right to decent housing (“The Right Thing for Our Roof”); a campaign addressing electoral disinformation; a campaign reflecting on disinformation in hip-hop and the role of hip-hop in combating disinformation; and we are currently developing a campaign aimed at Christian audiences to reflect on disinformation in religious contexts.
• Periphery Without Fakes Grant Scheme: Through which we provide guidance and direct funding for various initiatives tackling disinformation. Through this scheme, we have supported mini-documentaries in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) to tackle disinformation among the Deaf community; school performances in peripheral areas to raise awareness and educate children and adolescents about disinformation and cyberbullying; community journalism initiatives; and a booklet to address health-related disinformation among sex workers, among other projects.