Disinformation and Fake News as a Threat to Modern Democratic Societies – Case Study of the City of Veles

28.02.2023 Darko Cvetkovski

As part of the NATO PDD sponsored project the Association of Macedonian Alumni of the “George C. Marshall” European Centre for Security Studies held the final workshop entitled “Disinformation and Fake News as a Threat to Modern Democratic Societies – Case Study of the City of Veles”, in Veles.

Why Veles?

According to world media reports, in a certain period of time, the city of Veles in Macedonia, has become synonymous with a narrative for a city where fake news are being created and spread. To be more specific, according to the report about the “world capital of fake news” – in the period immediately before and after the US elections in 2016, groups of young people have created, copied and shared fake news through social media in Veles. Hence, the more serious the problem of creating and spreading misinformation, the greater the effort to deal with this challenge becomes.

Main goal of this specific project proposal was to contribute to the prevention and annulment of the possibility of further creation and dissemination of fake news and disinformation by trying to raise the public awareness of the harmful consequences that directly or indirectly cause these phenomena and processes.

One of the specific project goals was to send electronic messages and appeal to the institutions in the country responsible to create a framework for coordinated effort in the prevention and fighting disinformation and fake news.

Target groups were people who create, participate in creating or spreading fake news through social media (Facebook, Twitter or Reddit). Selection of participants involved several categories: young people aged 18-35, with versatile gender, ethnic, religious and other types of structure. Students, employed and unemployed persons, different type of various educational and social status.

OUTPUTS:

three video clips entitled FAKE NEWS MAKES FAKE VIEWS are available on https://duma.mk/; http://ktv.mk/;
Scientific paper to be published in the Contemporary Macedonian Defense Volume 22 Nr. 44;
Final workshop focused on How to counter misinformation? and FAKE NEWS AS A TOOL TO SPREAD HATE SPEECH.

“It was rewarding to see the young people responding to the input and their interaction during the workshop. The Workshop was completed with an interest the vide material to be used in the YOUTH CENTER in Veles for their project on Media Literacy. Hence Marshall Center Macedonia continues its commitment to contribute to creating more resilient democratic society“.
Biljana Popovska, President of the Association

25 people, defence experts, representatives of NGO’s, ministries and government agencies attended the event.