From the social network to the support network: Cyber-resilience for journalists

Redes Cordiais, in partnership with the Institute of Technology and Society, developed a broad project in 2020 to enhance the cyber-resilience of journalists, a group that is permanently victimized by cyber harassment on the networks, for the municipal elections, when digital toxicity tends to intensify.

Courses, learning days, and a manual of good practices were offered to more than 2,000 journalists. Several topics were addressed, including fact checking, social network monitoring, creation of communities, bot detection, digital hygiene, privacy settings, case judicialization, investigation of disinformation networks, and emotional balance.

The project, which was supported by the Facebook Journalism Project, worked on three fronts to promote the better use of social networks, and reduce potential negative impacts that exposure on the Internet can cause. They are:

• Live and online courses that have enabled journalists to use social media to their advantage, to keep track of their personal data, and to learn about best practices in the use of social media by the press and techniques to ensure the protection of privacy on the Internet;
• Good practice manual for newsrooms, a material aimed at directors, managers, and editors that contains general guidelines on how to create a culture of cybersecurity in newsrooms, protocols, and clear reporting channels known to the entire team and ways of monitoring cases;
• Support network for journalists.