Harnessing data intelligence for strategic communications

Authored by Michael White, a co-leader of Kekst CNC’s (part of Publicis Groupe) digital reputation management services.

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Misinformation recognised as a major threat to governments, businesses, and society in 2024

The start of 2024 has brought with it a range of misinformation and disinformation challenges to governments, businesses, and society. Every week, 5 – 10 incidents reach my inbox of harmful content circulating the internet that has had a proven impact on audience beliefs. Organisations have never been more focused on developing a model of resilience to navigate the complexities and dangers of...

Bots and unreliable websites spread COP28 misinformation

Man reading newspaper with burning city backdrop

We’ve all seen the headlines around COP28, but what was going on behind the scenes? It was a troubling trend of misinformation, mistrust, and polarization. 2.2 million posts on X were published during the conference – the same as COP27 which is surprising given this year’s controversies, but this could also be indicative of X’s declining role in public discourse – with 8,584 X profiles mentioning...

AI Safety Summit reveals tensions and unaddressed risks

Digital ministers poses for a family photo day one of the UK AI Summit at Bletchley Park. Picture by Marcel Grabowski / UK Government/Identity

At Chatham House recently I heard a rather sombre reflection from Professor Yoshua Bengio, one of the world’s distinguished AI computer scientists. Bengio stated that AI models never act as intended. A dark insight and revelation from a deep learning pioneer that accentuates why the speed of AI developments must be met with regulation. Predicting the twists of human affairs, much like AI itself...

Experts at Chatham House discuss AI risks and regulation ahead of AI Safety Summit

A 14-year-old has been accused by his school of cheating in an exam by using ChatGPT. This is just one of the everyday harms Artificial Intelligence (AI) is presenting, and we’re not even talking about killer robots yet. Next week the UK Government is making a bold play to join the regulatory and geopolitical discussions related to AI technologies. The AI Safety Summit at the historic Bletchley...

Global companies under daily assault from misinformation and disinformation

For over the last year, I’ve been closely monitoring the impact of misinformation and disinformation on the world’s largest companies – specifically the FTSE 100. It’s led to some staggering results. 95% of FTSE 100 listed companies were mentioned in the past six months by online publications assessed to spread mis- and disinformation. Assessing the publications to understand which ‘should be...

How disinformation threatens the success of COP28

The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) was dominated by disinformation that sought to undermine the conference’s goals and the businesses involved. With COP28 taking place in the United Arab Emirates from 30th November 2023, disinformation will inevitably climb once again. Last year, Kekst CNC Intelligence evidenced that 6% of the Twitter profiles mentioning COP27 were suspected bots...

Language traits of disinformation in the age of generative AI

The rapid acceleration of generative AI has democratized access to technologies that will transform entire industries. When it comes to the spread of mis- and disinformation the harm could be significant. For several years, it’s had a tangible business impact that has been well-recorded with an estimation made that disinformation causes share price loses totalling $78bn per year. This year, the...

Introducing Threads: Meta’s new social network now 100m users strong

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, made a significant announcement on July 6th, 2023—the launch of their new social network, Threads. Backed by Meta, Threads has emerged as a serious contender against Twitter. Although not yet available in EU countries due to regulatory concerns, the platform gained immense traction, with 100 million sign-ups as of today. Threads holds...

CEOs on LinkedIn increase personal posts amidst geopolitical tension and declining living standards

Geopolitical tension and a global decline in living standards means business leaders face a catalogue of difficult decisions. This is the backdrop of the third edition of Kekst CNC’s FTSE100 CEO LinkedIn Tracker, which analyses 1,076 posts published by FTSE100 CEOs during 2022. This is further substantiated by additionally reviewing thousands of posts by CEOs across U.S, Germany, and Sweden...