A technology company using advertisements to divert people from viewing online extremism is trialling the same technique to combat anti-vaccination conspiracy theories.
London-based social enterprise Moonshot CVE invented the “Redirect Method”, which targets Google and social media users searching for certain extremism-linked keywords by showing them a range of advertisements countering the narrative. The advertisements are provided by trusted figures, citizen journalists and defectors from the searched group on YouTube playlists and other sites.
Moonshot’s latest initiative is part of a global fightback against anti-vaccination activists using social media to spread harmful untruths.
So-called “anti-vaxxers” have drawn false links to vaccines, which prevent diseases such as measles, and autism.
In the United States and the European Union, access to vaccines is widespread, however, the number of measles cases reported has surged in the past year.
The measles virus in the US was declared eliminated in 2000 but since the beginning of 2018, more than 1,120 cases were reported in the worst outbreak since 1992, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Health experts have blamed the rise of the highly-infectious disease on parents of school-age children, who declined to give them the measles mumps rubella vaccine.
While in Europe, measles is also on the rise. The number of people infected with the virus in 2018 was the highest this decade, with three times the total reported in 2017, according to data from the World Health Organisation.
The WHO has described the anti-vaccination movement as one of the biggest global health threats of 2019.
The UAE is bucking the trend, however, with a significant reduction in measles cases reported in the first three months in 2019 in comparison with the same period last year.
At the moment Moonshot is still at the information-gathering stage, which is internally funded, but the firm is feeling confident. Once it has finished its development phase, the social enterprise will sell its service to governments, charities and social media companies globally, as it did with its counter-extremism software.
"We've been using the Redirect Method since 2016 to deliver alternative, positive content to individuals searching for violent extremist material online. Now we're adapting the methodology to focus on other potentially destructive online communities," Clark Hogan-Taylor, manager at Moonshot CVE, told The National.
“Anti-vax is an entirely different social problem - we're not conflating it with violent extremism in any way - but that doesn't mean our underlying methodology can't be re-purposed to help those at-risk of, in this case, believing in a conspiracy theory that poses a serious threat to life.”
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
