Present Realities and Emerging Trendsby Michael Mazarr, Abigail Casey, Alyssa Demus, Scott Harold, Luke Matthews, Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga, James Saddenhttps://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2713.html The role of information warfare in global strategic competition has become much more apparent in recent years. Today’s practitioners of what this report’s authors term hostile social manipulation employ targeted social media campaigns, sophisticated forgeries, cyberbullying and harassment […]Read More

Our TakeChinese information operations are a significant, growing threat to Western democracies, as well as social media platforms that remain vulnerable to manipulation by foreign actors seeking to interfere in democratic debate, argued Co-Directors Zack Cooper and Laura Rosenberger in the Washington Post. It is very likely that narratives promoted by Russia Today are seeping into the Australian information […]Read More

A Newsletter of Political Warfare, Influence, and Information Campaigns from the Pell Center at Salve Regina University China Beijing’s Computational Propaganda Goes Global: The Significance of China’s Debut as a Disinformation Actor | Nick Monaco | Medium   US Backs Taiwan Against Beijing’s Fake News War | KG Chan | Asia Times  Russia Kremlin Disinformation Campaigns Could Target Canada’s Federal […]Read More

A Newsletter of Political Warfare, Influence, and Information Campaignsfrom the Pell Center at Salve Regina University DeepFakes Cyber Criminals Have Defrauded Companies with Deepfakes | Ryan Duffy | Morning Brew An Artificial-Intelligence First: Voice-Mimicking Software Reportedly Used In A Major Theft | Drew Harwell | The Washington Post 2020 Election Disinformation & The 2020 Election | Paul M. Barrett | NYU Stern – […]Read More

From the Alliance for Securing Democracy https://securingdemocracy.gmfus.org/hamilton-dashboard/ New interactive tool tracks official Russian messaging and information manipulation The Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States launched Hamilton 2.0, a new dashboard tracking Russian government-backed information operations online and on state-sponsored broadcast television. The interactive, publicly accessible dashboard captures content from more than […]Read More

Jon Porter, The Verge, September 2nd 2019https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/2/20844338/zao-deepfake-app-movie-tv-show-face-replace-privacy-policy-concerns Insert your face into TV shows or movies with just a single photograph Zao, a free deepfake face-swapping app that’s able to to place your likeness into scenes from hundreds of movies and TV shows after uploading just a single photograph, has gone viral in China. Bloomberg reports that the app was […]Read More

Pete Norman, August 31st 2019, Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-31/u-s-unleashes-military-to-fight-fake-news-disinformation Fake news and social media posts are such a threat to U.S. security that the Defense Department is launching a project to repel “large-scale, automated disinformation attacks,” as the top Republican in Congress blocks efforts to protect the integrity of elections. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants custom software that can […]Read More

China and Hong Kong Inside Beijing’s Toolbox to Crush Hong Kong | Brendon Hong | The Daily Beast China’s Playbook in Hong Kong Is Also Working in the Asia-Pacific | Chris Horton | The Atlantic  Election Integrity As FEC Nears Shutdown, Priorities such as Stopping Election Interference On Hold | Brian Naylor | NPR US Officials Fear Even More Devastating Election […]Read More

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 | 3:00PM-4:00PM  The Stimson Center, 1211 Connecticut Ave, NW, 8th Floor, Washington DC, 20036 The Stimson Center’s East Asia Program is launching a new annual series, Taiwan Security Brief. In the inaugural volume, three emerging researchers examine the impact of several nontraditional security challenges in Taiwan: online disinformation, cybersecurity in the digital economy, and […]Read More

Dana Priest, Rain Aljas and Scott Gelman, August 28th 2019, Washington Posthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/28/maryland-was-never-play-russians-targeted-it-anyway/ BALTIMORE — Russia’s Twitter campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election in Maryland began in June 2015, 17 months before Election Day, when the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency opened an account it called @BaltimoreOnline and began tweeting about local news events. Its third […]Read More