Disinformation in New Zealand

There could be no better name for the prime herald of disinformation than New Zealand's Disinformation Project (DP). Directed by Kate Hannah with research director Sanjana Hattotuwa, DP have taken an extreme political viewpoint and then proceeded to name everything else as disinformation (misinformation with intent) promoted by the far right while representing themselves to be a balanced and neutral party.

In my opinion nothing could be further than the truth. DP has been a malicious scaremongering festering sore of an organisation misrepresenting both the left and the right for personal and political gain and exacerbating the tensions in New Zealand. They are, in my view, exactly the sort of organised disinformation they purport to be fighting against.

So why have they come to mind? Well, I just realised that I hadn't heard from them for a while. In fact since the election of the new government. So, I checked their website and there was a statement about the rise of disinformation and hatred against LBGTQ with the example being given of the cancellation of some drag story time events.

Which made me think. Just how long ago did the Cass Review come out? According to Wikipedia it was April 10, 2024 and there has been not a peep from the DP. The report reveals things such as there being little evidence for the use a puberty blockers in the young or, to put it another way, the hundreds of New Zealand children sterilized by the prescription of puberty blockers did so on no evidential basis. 

But why would the DP be interested in that you might ask. Well, according to Dr Hilary Cass there has been a huge spike in disinformation about the report and in New Zealand there have been announcements by organisations such as the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA) which would clearly, at this point, come under the disinformation heading with lines copied from their Australian counterparts that it lacks relevance in a New Zealand context. 

It will be very interesting to see if the DP releases a report outlining it's concerns on the disinformation being floated around the trans community especially since it's failure to counter that disinformation would lead to more children being placed at risk.

It will also be interesting to see if the DP fields an apology and a retraction of their past work Transgressive transitions - Transphobia, community building, bridging, and bonding within Aotearoa New Zealand’s disinformation ecologies March-April 2023 since much of it includes children in its results in ways that it is impossible to untangle the hate speech from the now valid concern. 

Using the reports own definitions of information;

• Misinformation: “false information that people didn’t create with the intent to hurt others”
• Disinformation: “false information created with the intention of harming a person, group, or organisation, or even a company”
• Malinformation: “true information used with ill intent”

Then the report might once have been favorably considered Misinformation but with the new information it can be considered Disinformation and if it isn't retracted will reveal itself as Malinformation.

Let's see just how neutral the DP actually is shall we, or whether it lives up to its literal name.