David A. Graham, June 7th 2019, The Atlantichttps://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/fake-news-republicans-democrats/591211/?utm_source=pocket-newtabc The rise of fake news in the American popular consciousness is one of the remarkable growth stories in recent years—a dizzying climb to make any Silicon Valley unicorn jealous. Just a few years ago, the phrase was meaningless. Today, according to a new Pew Research Center study, […]Read More

The Technology 202: New video editing technology raises disinformation worries Cat Zakrzewski, June 10th 2019, Washington Post A new algorithm developed by Stanford University engineers is putting the spotlight on advances in video editing that could make it more difficult to separate fact from fiction online. Americans think fake news is big problem, blame politicians […]Read More

The Making of a YouTube Radical Kevin Roose, June 8th 2019, New York Times Caleb Cain pulled a Glock pistol from his waistband, took out the magazine and casually tossed both onto the kitchen counter. Russian Disinformation on YouTube Draws Ads, Lacks Warning Labels-Researchers Reuters in the New York Times, June 7th 2019 Fourteen Russia-backed […]Read More

Our Take Political campaigns lack the necessary resources and expertise to defend against cyberattacks, ASD Director Laura Rosenberger said to the New York Times. The US-China “tech cold war” puts Europe in the middle, writes ASD Fellow for Emerging Technologies Lindsay Gorman in Defense One. Huawei’s PR push shows the CCP has more tools than […]Read More

Russia Unhappy With HBO’s ‘Chernobyl,’ Russia is Planning Its Own Series — Blaming The CIA | Kyle Swenson  | Washington Post Pro-Kremlin Media Capitalize on NATO Soldier’s Blunder | Digital Forensics Research Lab Fake: Ukrainians Voting at Gunpoint | Disinfo Portal  Russia’s Manipulation of Twitter Was Far Vaster Than Believed | Tim Starks, Laurens Cerulus, & Mark […]Read More

Chris Zappone, May 31st 2019, The Agehttps://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/facebook-groups-used-to-promote-china-s-belt-and-road-in-the-west-20190530-p51slm.html The groups publicise stories around China’s plan for global economic integration while criticising the Western rule-based order, sometimes using Russian-backed media. The group 21SilkRoad, which includes Australians, shares a mix of news and material linked to Russia’s global propaganda apparatus, to “build a virtual community of the major […]Read More

Bethany Allen-Ebrahiniam and Zach Dorfman, May 20th 2019, Defense One https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2019/05/china-has-been-running-global-influence-campaigns-years/157124/ Pro-China protests ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics were orchestrated by Chinese officials. The world thought they were a spontaneous showing of Chinese nationalism. In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, with the torch relay soon set to pass through San Francisco, […]Read More

Cade Metz and Scott Blumenthal, June 7th 2019, New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/07/technology/ai-text-disinformation.html In 2017, an online disinformation campaign spread against the “White Helmets,” claiming that the group of aid volunteers was serving as an arm of Western governments to sow unrest in Syria. This false information was convincing. But the Russian organization behind the campaign […]Read More

InfoAccessFund.Org is open for business.  Organizations interested in countering state-sponsored disinformation are invited to apply for access to the website www.infoaccessfund.org in order to see the current Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), which focuses on Russian disinformation. The Information Access Fund (IAF) web-portal supports delivery of efforts to recognize, understand, expose, and counter disinformation and […]Read More

Pew Research Center, June 5th 2019Amy Mitchell, Jeffrey Gottfried, Sophia Fedeli, Galen Stocking and Mason Walkerhttps://www.journalism.org/2019/06/05/many-americans-say-made-up-news-is-a-critical-problem-that-needs-to-be-fixed/ Politicians viewed as major creators of it, but journalists seen as the ones who should fix itRead More