The second speakers in this session at the AANZCA 2025 conference are Luke Heemsbergen and Fan Yang, whose focus is on disinformation as a vibe: there is increasing evidence that regulating and combatting disinformation by addressing their factuality is ineffective, since its central effect is to spread a general sense of distrust in government and other authoritative actors, and since disinformation spreaders tend to continue to share such content even in full knowledge that it is incorrect.
Australia still needs more critical disinformation research: this study in particular focusses on Chinese-speaking Australians who encountered disinformation on platforms such as WeChat and Rednote, as well as Chinese-language YouTube content in recent federal and state elections and referenda. Such content is sometimes translated from English into Chinese, and this and other patterns show that disinformation narratives are highly mobile across Chinese and Australian platforms.
For the 2025 federal election, the project has collected some 5,000 items of election-related content (organic as well as ads), and identified some 280 disinformation posts and 941 disinformation ads in this dataset. Key themes represented here include the election, immigration, Australia-US and Australia-China relations, healthcare and housing; the focus was especially on the Australian Labor Party, followed by the Liberal/National Coalition and the Greens. The major political leaders are central targets, too, along with a smaller number of Chinese-Australian politicians.
Key disinformation ingredients here are Angloness, whiteness, and masculinity; emotionality is high; the urgency of (dis)information is emphasised; and sweeping claims are made. Logic, evidence, sourcing, and consistency are largely absent from the claims made in disinformation content. Target users are encouraged to distrust Australian public services, governments, political processes, etc.
The existence of Chinese-language media in Australia and other migrant nations is not new; these media are both taken for granted and rarely receive much attention. It is assumed that such media translate content from English-language media. But the transformation and sensationalisation of English-language stories in that process is overlooked, although through this process factuality mutates towards a vibe of disinformation. This vibe is messy, incoherent, and establishes a local authenticity through the coordination and interplay of its elements.
