Fighting false information

Dr  Sanjana Hattotuwa.

Keeping communities safe is the focus of work by social media researchers such as University of Otago alumnus Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa.

Sanjana was encouraged to study at the University of Otago by two of his former professors; Ben Schonthal and Kevin Clements. Both were then based in Dunedin at the University’s National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.

Now retired, Professor Clements supervised Sanjana while doing his master’s degree in Queensland and later encouraged him to pursue his PhD at the Centre.

“The Centre was great, it ticked all the boxes and it was where I wanted to do my research into propaganda, political communication and the spread of hate via social media,” Sanjana says.

In terms of his time at Otago, he says “It was great, it was a very different time. Student life has changed so much since Covid-19 and the global pandemic. I came to an idyllic campus.”

However, he was starting to have second thoughts when he first arrived in Dunedin as it was pouring and misty and all he could see was a few sheep and flooded roadways. Luckily, he soon got to experience all the beautiful scenery and explore the area and says he made the most of his time in Dunedin.

He says he was very lucky as he had only been back in the city for two weeks after completing all his field work, when the first Covid-19 lockdown happened in March 2020.

Santana completed his PhD in 2021 and was initially based in New Zealand, working for the Disinformation Project.

He is now working as the project’s Research Director and is currently based in Sri Lanka.

Ringing the bell on PhD completion.

He says there are some very powerful people around the globe who are actively distributing disinformation.

Sanjana has advised several Kiwi universities that staff and students are increasingly being targeted by far-right disinformation networks, which aim to spread hatred.

He was the first person to investigate the use of Twitter in the aftermath of the Christchurch Mosque shootings on 15 March 2019, as part of the country’s first-ever Data for Good grant by Twitter (before it was acquired by Elon Musk).

“Fifteen March 2019 was a pivotal day for New Zealand, when we saw how social media was used to promote extreme violence, and harm.”

He continues to work on truth decay in New Zealand.

Sanjana says the time zone difference (Sri Lanka is currently six hours ahead of NZ) means he can somewhat more easily study New Zealand’s information environments.

He has studied the changes in social media in Aotearoa NZ since 2021 and says content, and commentary, is increasingly polarised.
“We are seeing the weaponisation of ‘free speech’ arguments to support the incorrect view that content and commentary inciting hate, and harm, is acceptable, even as it continues to grow in volume and violence.”

Although there are advantages to being based in Sri Lanka, he says he would love to return one day to live in Aotearoa.