100% Digital Leeds has launched a new project that will see the coproduction of a bank of resources that organisations can use to teach online safety and media literacy, including tackling misinformation and disinformation.
Financed by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), Connecting and Protecting Communities aims to give organisations the tools they need to support people and communities to develop the transferable skills needed to spot and be critical of misinformation and disinformation in all contexts, including:
- Minority beliefs: disinformation created with the intent to cause harm or to stir up hatred against a person or group.
- Misinformation and disinformation in health: misleading health advice on topics such as vaccines, reproductive health, and disease outbreaks.
- Scams: examples include charity donation fraud, romance scams, tech support scams, prize scams, and WhatsApp impersonation.
The development of a toolkit builds upon learning and best practice from 100% Digital Leeds’s work on the Be Online Stay Safe project led by Leeds Older People’s Forum, and Multiply, delivered in partnership with Leeds City Council’s Employment and Skills service. The Connecting and Protecting Communities toolkit will focus on the principles of tailoring learning for improved online safety, media literacy, and tackling misinformation and disinformation to meet the needs of different communities. The toolkit will be a guide for organisations, increasing their confidence to discuss misinformation and disinformation with their service users in a way that is meaningful and effective.
Coproduction with local third sector partners
100% Digital Leeds has partnered with five community organisations to understand how they tailor media literacy messaging and learning delivery to resonate with, and be accessible and engaging for, particular communities.
- Afrikindness
- Connect In The North
- Cross Gates and District Good Neighbours Scheme
- Damasq
- Leeds Irish Health and Homes
Each of the chosen partner organisations support different communities of interest, including low-income families, people with learning disabilities, older people, and migrants.
Each partner organisation has designed a bespoke course to be delivered to 10 of their service users. 100% Digital Leeds is observing course delivery to gather learning and insights to feed into the development of a toolkit. The courses are already seeing people develop awareness of misinformation and disinformation, and the skills and confidence to be more critical.
“I’m a very impatient person, life is crazy as a busy mum, we see things, we act quick because time is of the essence in life generally. My brain tells me something is true or I have an impulse to share it immediately with someone, I struggle to stop and think before I act. This course has taught me to stop, pause, think, check with someone else, slow down, not act quick and be more patient”.
Learner at Afrikindness
Project background
100% Digital Leeds reports to the Leeds City Council Infrastructure, Investment and Inclusive Growth Scrutiny Board on an annual basis to update on the progress of the digital inclusion programme. In the previous meeting the chair of the board asked the team to return with an enhanced focus on the role of online misinformation and disinformation in light of the riots of 2024 and the increased polarisation and radicalisation of elements of society via online platforms and tools.
Ofcom’s 2024 report Understanding misinformation: an exploration of UK adults’ behaviour and attitudes provides evidence of how UK adults think and feel about “false or misleading” information: where they see it, why they think it’s false or misleading, and what they do and feel as a consequence.
- 49% of social media users have seen a deliberately misleading news story in the last 12 months.
- 45% of UK adults felt confident judging the truthfulness of online sources.
- 33% of UK adults are not confident judging whether an image, audio or video has been created by AI.
- 90% of those who encounter misinformation say they are concerned about its societal impact.
100% Digital Leeds has received feedback from partner organisations working in communities across the city that financial scams and romance scams, for instance, are more prevalent and sophisticated. Many people lack the digital skills and confidence to recognise such scams, with some falling victim to them. As well as negatively impacting on the individuals, this impacts on partner organisations who then have to support people through crises, often requiring intensive work to redress the situation.
Next steps
Delivery is underway, with 100% Digital Leeds in attendance to gather learning and insights to feed into the development of a toolkit. 100% Digital Leeds will continue to share blog updates as the project progresses. The finished toolkit is expected to be published by early summer 2026.