Our pioneering WhatsApp course is leading the way in training journalists and citizens to spot misinformation and disinformation in Sudan - a country targeted by those attempting to destabilise it using hostile digital tactics.
In the first month of launch, 10,000 people had signed up for the easy-to access smartphone-based course including those in the difficult to reach conflict areas of Darfur, Kordofan and the East.
Misinformation and disinformation are rife in Sudan; a fragile state with a fractured media sector able to do little to counter it. Public trust in the media is low following years of press censorship, self-censorship, and media house closures. As a result, social media plays a key role in the dissemination of news and information, with much of it unverified and some designed to fuel tensions.
In recent years, Sudan has been targeted by foreign organisations aiming to destabilise the country. Public knowledge of mis and disinformation and internet safety is fairly low, and false information continues to reach many people across Sudan.
Sudan has been targeted by people or organisations who want to destabilise the country.
Derek Ivens, a Thomson Foundation trainer with nine years' experience training in Sudan. Sudan has been targeted by people or organisations who want to destabilise the country. Despite some efforts by internet and social media companies, false information does get through - so its important that journalists and society at large know the truth about whats happening, says Derek Ivens, a Thomson Foundation trainer with nine years' experience training in Sudan.
The media training challenge in Sudan doesn't stop there. Power cuts are frequent and downloading large amounts of data is expensive and inaccessible for most, especially as few people have access to conventional laptops. Poor travel networks make delivering face-to-face training and building capacity outside Khartoum difficult.
How we're helping to counter disinformation Thomson Foundation has been working in Sudan constantly since 2012, so we are well-placed to understand the challenges and opportunities. From this starting point, we launched a course in August 2022 in partnership with the British Council and funded by UKAid, aiming to show the damaging impact of disinformation and false news, and to offer practical solutions to help spot and counter false information. The self-paced free course is aimed at both media and civil society, and is easily accessible with no expensive data downloads.
The course is designed for mobile using the messaging platform WhatsApp, comprising of text and imagery only, with no large video downloads.
It was promoted through Thomson Foundation, The British Council and the British Embassy's channels across social media and civil society. The launch created a buzz with many posting their results on social media, which helped the course to reach far and wide. As well as those living in the conflict areas, the 10,000 enrolments included the normally equally difficult to reach people living in camps for the internally displaced.
Disinformation affects almost every person in Sudan - so It makes sense to use a platform which is accessible to as many people as possible.
Derek Ivens Using data to build knowledge The digital nature of the course and the interactions of the users creates a record of how each participant answered every question. This means we can identify the questions and topics the participants find most difficult. For example, based on user responses, we can conclude that the majority of participants struggled most with the topics of chapter three Spotting Suspicious Websites and Social Media Accounts'.
The analytics confirmed what we knew anecdotally - that the base level of knowledge on misinformation/disinformation and internet safety is quite low in Sudan. Those who did answer incorrectly were given an explanation and information so there was learning at every stage of the course, and those who completed the course were tested again before receiving their certificate
After the training, I don't believe everything posted on social media before checking the available sources.
Course participant in response to post-course survey. The feedback The high levels of engagement with the course, the follow-up survey, and the high completion rates show an appetite for training via WhatsApp, and signs of positive behaviour change.
Heres what some of the participants had to say in response to the post-course survey:
The training changed my approach to trending news and I started to doubt any news that is not sourced. In addition to that it introduced me to the tools that help me verify pictures including the reverse search and how to find the actual date and differentiate between true pictures and modified ones.
After the training, I don't believe everything posted on social media before checking the available sources. If I didn't find any sources then I wouldn't share. Also I can recognise questionable information which aims to affect the public opinion.
Read the full case study about this course
The training changed my approach to trending news and I started to doubt any news that is not sourced.
Course participant in response to post-course survey. How to take the course The course is available in Arabic and English.
To register for the Arabic language course follow these instructions:
1) Open the WhatsApp app and send the word Sudan in a message to the number 1 903-459-6893.
2) Or click on the following link from your phone https://wa.me/ 19034596893/?text=SUDAN and send the word Sudan in the conversation that appears.
To register for the English language version follow these instructions:
1) Open the WhatsApp app and send the word MISINF to the number 1 903-459-68
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Our pioneering WhatsApp course is leading the way in training journalists and citizens to spot misinformation and disinformation in Sudan - a country targeted by those attempting to destabilise it using hostile digital tactics. 
