Kevin Collier, CNN, July 11th, 2019 https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/11/politics/states-election-disinformation-education/index.html New York (CNN)As the 2020 presidential campaign heats up, individual states are ramping up education efforts to counter the threat posed by foreign disinformation campaigns to US elections. A lack of action at the federal level has prompted many states to craft their own programs designed to counter foreign efforts […]Read More

https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=1910d96deaf6aa4310ebceabd39da011&tab=core&_cview=0 The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office (STO) is hosting a “STO Industry Day” event on August 7 – 8, 2019, in the DARPA Conference Center, Arlington, Virginia. The purpose of the event is to (1) familiarize attendees with STO’s vision, problem spaces, program managers (PMs), and technology interests; and (2) […]Read More

News and Commentary Joint Staff report urges whole-of-government response to Russian malign influence: The United States still does not understand the scope of the Russian government’s aggression, including its use of disinformation, political influence, economic coercion, cyberattacks, and similar “gray zone” tools, according to a report released by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. As Jason Werchan of the U.S. […]Read More

Patrick Berlinquette, Opinion in the New York Times, July 7th 2019https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/07/opinion/google-ads.html Ad campaigns that manipulate searchers’ behavior are frighteningly easy for anyone to run. Kevin Hines had one thought as he plummeted toward the Pacific Ocean: I can change anything in my life except the fact that I just jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge. “One […]Read More

Irina Ivanova, July 1st 2019, CBS Newshttps://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-details-efforts-to-prepare-for-2020-census-disinformation-elections-disruption/ Facebook plans to ban misinformation about the 2020 Census as well as a range of disruptive information about the elections. The company is also making a public, searchable database of all jobs and credit ads listed on its platform. The announcements come as part of a civil rights […]Read More

Russia Russian Strategic Intentions | United States Department of Defense  U.S. Escalates Online Attacks on Russia’s Power Grid | David E. Sanger & Nicole Perlroth | New York Times Libya Uncovers Alleged Russian Plot to Meddle in African Votes | Samer Al-Atrush, Ilya Arkhipov, & Henry Meyer | Bloomberg The West Fears Russia’s Hybrid Warfare. They’re Missing the Bigger Picture | Nicole […]Read More

Matt Apuzzo, New York Times, July 6th 2019https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/06/world/europe/europe-russian-disinformation-propaganda-elections.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage BRUSSELS — The European Union launched an ambitious effort earlier this year to combat election interference: an early-warning system that would sound alarms about Russian propaganda. Despite high expectations, however, records show that the system has become a repository for a mishmash of information, produced no alerts […]Read More

Bryan Bender, June 30th 2019, Politicohttps://www.politico.eu/article/russia-outgunning-us-in-race-for-global-influence-pentagon-study/ The U.S. is ill-equipped to counter the increasingly brazen political warfare Russia is waging to undermine democracies, the Pentagon and independent strategists warn in a detailed assessment that happens to echo much bipartisan criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach to Moscow. The more than 150-page white paper, prepared for […]Read More

Our Take Europe needs a continent-wide buy-in on a new strategic approach to tackling authoritarian interference, ASD argues in a comprehensive report that details European efforts to defend against such threats and identifies specific, actionable recommendations to strengthen deterrence and build resilience to this long-term challenge.  Europe should not be lulled into a false sense of security now that the […]Read More

An app that algorithmically ‘undressed’ images of women was taken down by its creator, citing server overload and potential harms. Samantha Cole, June 27th 2019, Vice’s Motherboardhttps://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qv7agw/deepnude-app-that-undresses-photos-of-women-takes-it-offline The creator of DeepNude, an app that used a machine learning algorithm to “undress” images of clothed women announced Thursday that he’s killing the software, after viral backlash for […]Read More