universities and schools in countries across the region, sometimes in collaboration with NGOs. These are not restricted to urban areas. In Indonesia, the fact-checking organization Liputan6 conducts road shows in Islamic schools, at universities, and in other community centers as a way of tackling hoaxes and disinformation in rural areas with no internet access. Liputan6 also works with local community radio stations to improve media literacy among indigenous groups in the country. In India, the police service has conducted media literacy training among village leaders to educate them on how to identify malicious content in community social media groups and on WhatsApp groups, and on how to report this to the relevant officials. 4.2. INTERSECTION OF RESPONSES Most notably, the work done by organizations in the regions often evinces a multi-levelled response to the problem of information disorder. In linking different issues together in an intersectional manner, these organizations illustrate the importance of approaching information disorder as a complex problem which requires holistic responses. Examples of how different imperatives are linked together by organizations across the regions include the following: • Quality of information is linked with the right of access to information and digital technologies, policy interventions on cybersecurity, surveillance, and data protection by the AlSur consortium in Latin America. The assumption here is that without broadening citizens’ access to digital resources, they cannot empower themselves with quality information with which to counter information disorder. Similarly, if their data are not protected, or if governments use digital platforms for surveillance of citizens, the integrity of the public sphere is compromised. • Anti-information disorder work is linked with media freedom and the right to protest (e.g. by Article 19 in Latin America) and with the combating of hate speech (e.g. by Kashif in Palestine). The linking of these issues is based on the understanding that a democratic public sphere is not one in which bad information is merely rooted out; it is also one where good information is allowed to flourish. • Electoral information disorder is linked with internet rights by organizations like Derechos Digitales in Chile through advocacy campaigns engaging politicians and digital platforms. I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH By linking these issues, it is made clear that for democratic political processes such as elections to succeed, citizens have to be able to participate in online spaces where political agendas are set and discussed. • Fact checking is combined with media literacy initiatives by, for instance, Dubawa and Africa Check in sub-Saharan Africa. This empowers citizens to not only establish the veracity of information they come across, but also engage more holistically with the media environment and become more critical and discerning consumers of media. It also entails work that enables citizens to critically engage with questions around the political economy of media, such as ownership, state influence and control, and the relationship between the market orientation of the media and their ability to serve the public interest. • Several organizations in the regions under study are complementing fact checking with their own investigative journalism (e.g. Chequeado in Argentina and Verificado in Mexico), with workshops on media ethics (e.g. Falso in Libya), or with journalism training (e.g. Desinfox in West Africa). The combination of verification skills with journalistic training and the inculcating of ethical values reflects the fact that what is necessary to combat information disorder is not only eliminating false information from journalism, but also encouraging and developing good, ethical journalism. This intersection of issues and challenges illustrates the need for a holistic, contextual approach to the combating of information disorder in the Global South. The overlapping imperatives further illustrate how information disorder is embedded in a range of social, political, and economic conditions, and how it maps onto historical experiences and wider concerns about the quality of communication in these regions. Because these problems are rooted in social contexts, effective solutions must extend beyond addressing only digital content; rather, they should enable the building of realworld networks, engage politicians and platforms, support independent media, defend the right to information, and understand social identity and lived experience. Successful efforts are likely to be those that are holistic and multi-levelled, and built from the ground up rather than imposed from above. Furthermore, although similarities can be noted across these contexts, the Global South should not be treated as a monolith. Important differences and variations exist between countries within regions, Introduction – 2 0