Craig Timberg and Tony Romm, May 16th 2019, Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/05/16/facebook-shuts-down-israel-based-disinformation-campaigns-election-manipulation-increasingly-goes-global/ Facebook said it shut down 265 fake accounts run by an Israeli social media company on Thursday for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” as it sought to affect politics in African, Latin American and Southeast Asian nations. The move, while underscoring the increasingly global nature of […]Read More

How the Style and Language of News Presentation Is Changing in the Digital Age Jennifer Kavanagh, William Marcellino, Jonathan S. Blake, Shawn Smith, Steven Davenport, and Mahlet G. Tebeka RAND Corporation, May 2019 Over the past 30 years, the ways that Americans consume and share information have changed dramatically. No longer do people wait for […]Read More

Report: Iran-linked disinformation effort had personal touch Raphael Satter, Associated Press in the Washington Post, May 14th 2019 When an attractive young Middle Eastern woman contacted Saudi dissident Ali AlAhmed over Twitter last November, he was immediately suspicious. Deepfakes are coming. We’re not ready. Brian Klaas, Opinion, Washington Post, May 14th 2019 If 2016 was the […]Read More

New Report Shows How a Pro-Iran Group Spread Fake News Online Scott Shane and Ronen Bergman, May 14th 2019, New York Times Ali Al-Ahmed is a veteran critic of the Saudi government, so late last year he was not surprised to receive a Twitter message purporting to be from an Egyptian woman living in London […]Read More

Stan Sundel, Associate Editor for Terrorism and CounterterrorismGeorgetown Security Studies ReviewMay 12th 2019http://georgetownsecuritystudiesreview.org/2019/05/12/protecting-the-polls-from-russian-trolls-why-america-must-hack-back/ Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported that the United States military conducted a cyberattack against an infamous Russian “troll factory,” designed to thwart their nefarious cyber activities during the 2018 midterm elections.[i] U.S. Cyber Command took down internet access of the […]Read More

Charlotte Graham-McLay and Adam SatarianoMay 12th 2019, New York Timeshttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/12/technology/ardern-macron-social-media-extremism.html WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand will attempt this week to use the terrorist attack that killed 51 Muslim worshipers in Christchurch mosques in March to demand that the biggest internet platforms do more to stamp out violent and extremist […]Read More

Our Take Internet Research Agency (IRA) operatives attempt to hijack American social movements: ASD Social Media Analyst Bret Schafer’s essay on the IRA’s imitation of African-American activists online, featured in the National Urban League’s State of Black America 2019 report, was cited by the New York Times and CBS News. Both reports highlight Schafer’s argument […]Read More

William Broad, May 12th 2019, New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/12/science/5g-phone-safety-health-russia.html The cellphones known as 5G, or fifth generation, represent the vanguard of a wireless era rich in interconnected cars, factories and cities. Whichever nation dominates the new technology will gain a competitive edge for much of this century, according to many analysts. But a television network […]Read More

Eriq Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, May 7th 2019 https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/justice-department-wins-lawsuit-demanding-radio-station-register-as-russian-agent-1208400 A first-of-its-kind decision from a Florida federal judge rejects reasoning from RM Broadcasting on why it shouldn’t have to register. The United States Justice Department has prevailed in a lawsuit against RM Broadcasting, the owner of a Washington, D.C.-based radio station that is broadcasting Sputnik International. […]Read More

Facebook & Other Online Disinformation Facebook Auto-Generates Videos Celebrating Extremist Images | Desmond Butler & Barbara Ortutay | Associated Press Instagram Will Begin Blocking Hashtags That Return Anti Vaccination Misinformation | Casey Newton | The Verge Whistleblower Says Facebook Generating Terror Content | Glenn Chapman | Yahoo News Facebook Will Open Its Data Up To […]Read More