Glossary of additional terminology

ABCDE Framework (Actor, Behaviour, Content, Degree, Effect)is a framework created for describing and analysing information risks. It can be used to help diagnose which part of the terminology should be used; to structure analysis, reporting, and information requests to stakeholders; and to design responses. It is designed with approaches developed within governments, industry actors, and the research community.
API (Application programming interface) are set of functions and procedures within an operating system, application or other service that enables external applications to access that service’s features or data. APIs can be used to gather social media for monitoring, detection and analysis of information risks.
Clickbait is the practice of writing sensationalised, misleading, or false headlines in order to attract clicks on a piece of content and therefore encourage traffic.
Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour (or CIB) is a term coined by Meta to describe the use of an individual or multiple actors to engage in coordinated efforts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal (e.g. misrepresenting themselves through the creation of fake accounts or artificially boosting the popularity of content). It is increasingly used as an umbrella term to describe online misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.
Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is an assessment that identifies, evaluates and addresses the risks to personal data arising from a project, policy, program or other initiative.
Deepfake refers to a specific kind of digital media where a person in an image, video or audio is swapped with another person's likeness and/or the digital creation of realistic-looking and sounding images, videos and or audio of people that don’t exist.
Disinformation is false information that is disseminated intentionally to cause serious social harm.
Doxing (sometimes written as Doxxing) is the act of revealing identifying information about someone online, such as their real name, home address, workplace, phone, financial, or other private information. While both women and men experience doxxing, women, especially minority group women, are more likely to have their private information posted online.
Fact-checking is the process of verifying information to promote the veracity and correctness of reporting and statements.
Generative Artificial Intelligence: Generative artificial intelligence (generative AI, GenAI, or GAI) is machine learning artificial intelligence capable of generating text, images, videos, or other data using generative models, often in response to prompts. It can be used to generate deepfakes. Popular platforms include, ChatGPT, DALL-E and Bard.
Gendered Disinformation is a subset of misogynistic abuse and violence against women that uses false or misleading gender and sex-based narratives, often with some degree of coordination, to deter women from participating in the public sphere.
Hate speech is any kind of communication in speech, writing or behaviour, that attacks or uses pejorative or discriminatory language with reference to a person or a group on the basis of who they are, in other words, based on their religion, ethnicity, nationality, race, colour, descent, gender or other identity factor.
Information Integrity refers to the accuracy, consistency and reliability of information. It is threatened by disinformation, misinformation and hate speech.
Information Risks on Digital Platforms encompass a range of current, emergent and future digital threats to information integrity (such as misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.
Malinformation is information based on reality and used to inflict harm on a person, social group, organization or country.
Messaging App software application or platform that allows individuals to send and receive messages and media content in real-time (such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, etc…).
Misinformation the unintentional spread of inaccurate information shared in good faith by those unaware that they are passing on falsehoods.
Rumour is a piece unverified information that is transmitted from person to person. Rumours are neither inherently good nor bad. They can be true, partly true, or false.
Social Media are websites and applications that enable users to create profiles, share content or participate in social networking (e.g. Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, You Tube, TikTok, etc…).
Social Media Bot is an automated social media accounts. Some bots can be beneficial (such as weather, sporting updates, etc..) however, bots can also be sources of information risks, shift public opinion and generally accelerate the spread of true and false information.
Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV), is an act of violence perpetrated by one or more individuals that is committed, assisted, aggravated and amplified in part or fully by the use of information and communication technologies or digital media, against a person on the basis of their gender. This abuse is differentiated because women and girls are attacked for simply being online and for being girls/women. Technology facilitated gender-based violence also manifests similarly to real-world violence in that it tends to be enacted more on the most vulnerable and the disempowered.

For further relevant terms, please see the EU Disinfolab Glossary