Exposing Disinformation Economies: Lessons from Asia and the Global South

Tuesday, 27 October 2026 | 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. | Room 280A, Second Floor, York Lanes, Keele Campus, York University & Virtually via Zoom

With Jonathan Corpus Ong (University of Massachusetts at Amherst)

Discussant: Yu-Chen Chen (York University)

This talk critiques the “mainstream” of disinformation studies and presents alternative visions of more globally minded and community-driven approaches to building healthier public spheres. Drawing on ethnographic research, policy advocacy, and media campaigns exposing shadow industries of online trolling in the Philippines, this lecture offers reflection on risky research, cancel culture, and the ethics of representing perpetrators.

Jonathan Corpus Ong is Professor and Founding Director of Global Technology for Social Justice Lab in the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, United States. His 2018 study “ Architects of Networked Disinformation ” applies a production studies approach in studying the social identities and moral justifications of clandestine digital operators in the Philippines. This study was ranked among “the most valuable” pieces of disinformation research in a Poynter poll of journalists around the world—(unfortunately) the only ethnographic and Global South-focused study in the list. He is an Andrew Carnegie Fellow and Co-editor of the International Journal of Cultural Studies .