8. COLOMBIA 8.1 THE DISINFORMATION SCENARIO IN THE COUNTRY Colombia is no different from other countries in Latin America when it comes to media concentration. This concentration grants the main media conglomerates great influence over public debates, an influence which has been used to set political agendas and support certain groups, including through disinformation strategies. According to the Media Ownership Monitor Colombia project survey,51 promoted by the international organization Reporters Without Borders, the eight largest media groups occupy 78 percent of the Colombian media market. One of the main media conglomerates in the country is Ardilla Lulle, which controls more than fifty media outlets, including TV RCN, RCN Radio, and NTN24h. El Tiempo controls various TV stations, such as CityTV and El Tiempo Televisión; newspapers, such as the eponymous newspaper and ADN; and websites, including an eponymous one and DiarioADN, Metrocuadrado, and Portfolio. In print media, the El Tiempo publishing group had a market share of 31 percent of Colombian readers in 2019; in the same year Grupo Nacional de Medios (GNM) had 30 percent. In Colombia, disinformation is associated with the political situation in the country and the historical conflict involving the state and the political organization FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia; Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). The 2016 referendum, which led to the rejection of the peace agreement between the government and FARC, was marked by a profusion of misleading content. This was not restricted to social media; it was quite prominent in traditional media and was spread through other communication mechanisms as well, such as loudspeaker systems, which were used in poorer areas (Worley 2018). I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH The Detector de Mentiras (“lie detector”) feature of the website La Silla Vacía conducted a mapping of the disinformation regarding the peace agreement. The most widespread untruths were related to the resources available to FARC, or claimed that the agreement was detrimental to farmers, that it would exonerate the kidnappers, and that FARC would buy the elections with resources gained through corruption. Even after the peace agreement was rejected, disinformation spread about the postconflict period (Jaramillo 2017). During the 2018 elections, fake messages, also spread through social media, were common. The leftist candidate Gustavo Petro was the target of fake news, with allegations that he would force families to divide homes if these were larger than 65 m2. It was alleged that the rightist candidate Iván Duque, who was eventually elected, would raise the tax on motorcycles, amongst other things (Worley 2018). In 2019, the IACHR’s Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression recorded several examples of disinformation against opponents of the federal government. Organizations that were interviewed during this study confirmed the use of disinformation in Colombia, for example in the form of cyber-patrols targeting and attacking the press and political opponents. This type of conduct raises concerns about the impacts on freedom of expression. According to the Iceberg Digital survey, carried out by the information security firm Kaspersky, 73 percent of Colombians could not tell the difference between false and real information. Among the five Latin American countries analyzed, Colombia was the second-worst performer in this question, second only to Peru (where 79 percent of respondents could not differentiate between fake and real content) (Diazgranados 2020). 8.2 ACTORS AND STRATEGIES TO COMBAT DISINFORMATION CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS LINTERNA VERDE In Colombia, there are a number of organizations active in the area of freedom of expression and digital rights. One of them is Linterna Verde,52 which acts as a technical support group in the area of communications. They engage in the production of knowledge as one of their strategies. The team has developed research about disinformation involving Venezuelan migrants in Colombia and health, analyzing Facebook groups made up Latin America and the Caribbean – 1 0 4