Charities share £1m government funding to tackle online disinformation and abuse

Charities are among 17 organisations handed £1m to help vulnerable people be on their guard against online disinformation and abuse.

Those supporting older and disabled people are among charities to benefit from the funding, which has been handed out by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).

The finding aims to improve their media literacy skills among groups at risk of online abuse or being deceived by false information. This includes Covid vaccine disinformation, deepfake videos or propaganda “by hostile states”, states the government.

The money is being handed out through two funding schemes.

This includes the Media Literacy Taskforce Fund to invest in media literacy skills community projects. Among four organisations to share this funding strand is Internet Matters, which will provide media literacy raining to care workers and young people with experience of care in the Greater Manchester area.

“Our new programme is all about improving media literacy support for care leavers, said Internet Matters policy analyst Simone Vibert.

“We are really excited to be working with Greater Manchester Combined Authority to trial new, innovative methods of delivering this support to care leavers across the region, focusing on co-production with care leavers themselves and the professionals who work with them.”

Another is Leeds Older People’s Forum, which is improving access to digital media skills training online and in community centres.

The other funding scheme is the Media Literacy Programme Fund, which focuses on delivering digital training and mentoring schemes for vulnerable internet users.

Among charities benefitting from this funding is online safety charity Glitch, which will deliver training to vulnerable and marginalised women to support their media literacy and tackle online abuse.

“With the rise of online disinformation, teaching people to identify fact from fiction has never been more important to public safety,” said Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan.

“As well as bringing forward new laws to tackle the root causes of these problems, we are funding organisations to give people the skills to stay safe online so everyone can benefit from all the internet has to offer.”