This Is How Russian Propaganda Actually Works In The 21st Century Buzzfeed News, Holger Roonemaa and Inga Springe August 29, 2018 The Russian government discreetly funded a group of seemingly independent news websites in Eastern Europe to pump out stories dictated to them by the Kremlin.  Russian state media created secret companies in order to […]Read More

Countering Disinformation: Interdisciplinary Lessons for Policymakers Monday, September 10, 2018 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Register With the growth of social media, disinformation has become an increasingly potent political tool. State and non-state actors from various countries, among them Russia and China, have become adept at manufacturing and […]Read More

RAND Corporation’s Katherine Costello put forth, Russia’s Use of Media and Information Operations in Turkey, Implications for the United States Russian media have sought to undermine Turkey’s political and security cooperation with the United States and Europe by exacerbating mutual skepticism and highlighting policy differences. In Turkey, Russian media have also contributed to anti-American discourse […]Read More

Tech Companies Are Gathering For A Secret Meeting To Prepare A 2018 Election Strategy Kevin Collier, BuzzFeed News Reporter Posted on August 23, 2018, at 10:35 p.m. ET Representatives from a host of the biggest US tech companies, including Facebook and Twitter, scheduled a private meeting last Friday to share their tactics in preparation for […]Read More

Alliance for Securing Democracy, German Marshall Fund Securing Democracy Dispath August 27, 2018 Microsoft and social media companies uncover influence campaigns from Iran, Russia: Last week, Microsoft announced it dismantled a phishing campaign by the Russian state-sponsored hacking group Fancy Bear (also known as APT28 or Strontium, and linked to Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU) […]Read More

Microsoft says it has found a Russian operation targeting U.S. political institutions Washington Post, August 21, 2018, by Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg A group affiliated with the Russian government created phony versions of six websites — including some related to public policy and to the U.S. Senate — with the apparent goal of hacking […]Read More

From Hayley Tsukayama in the August 15th, 2018, Washington Post Facebook turns to artificial intelligence to fight hate and misinformation in Myanmar https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/08/16/facebook-turns-artificial-intelligence-fight-hate-misinformation-myanmar/?utm_term=.22b634e6caeeRead More

Alliance for Securing Democracy – Weekly Dispatch U.S. officials and lawmakers take steps to secure elections, counter interference:  On August 7, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis stated that the military is taking steps to protect the 2018 midterm elections from foreign interference. Measures include protecting troops from foreign information campaigns, and working alongside DHS “in order to […]Read More

Challenging Truth and Trust:  A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation By Samantha Bradshaw and Philip Howard Computational Propaganda Research Project, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford July, 2018  Read More

Today, the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s Director Laura Rosenberger testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on: Foreign Influence Operations and their use of Social Media Platforms  (transcript) Other witnesses included Renee DiResta, director of research at New Knowledge, John Kelly, founder and CEO of Graphika, Todd Helmus, senior behavioral scientist at the RAND […]Read More