Basically, when somebody receives a new piece of information they need to decide whether to believe it. One way they can do this is check whether they trust the source; is the person giving me the information usually authentic? A threat actor can hijack someone’s credibility by accessing their social media accounts (for example by using stolen passwords), and posting as them.
ISD has identified a small network of 33 Twitter accounts that appear to have been hijacked and used to spread pro-CCP (Chinese Communist Party) narratives. The network includes the verified account of the French MP Bernard Reynès and the account of Liliana Pérez Pazo, a local politician in Spain.
The BBC found evidence that at least some of the Facebook pages and accounts originally belonged to users from Bangladesh before they were either hijacked or sold and repurposed to post in Chinese. These accounts had multiple personal pictures on their timelines, listed users predominantly from Bangladesh among their Facebook friends and sometimes even exchanged comments in Bengali on their timelines, before abruptly changing their language and identity overnight.
By Benjamin Strick, Olga Robinson and Shayan Sardarizadeh on 28 May 2020
Relevant Content from the Article Archives
Timestamp
Link
Title
Notes
Tagged By
Keep going?
Decide to Act
Research
Position
Produce
Publish
Amplify
Calibrate
Impact
Persona
Strategy
Type of Content
Source
Narrative Context
Type of Inauthentic Content Assessed
Produced Content Classification
Dissemination Platform
Amplification Method
Geography
Article Publish Date
Article Author
Aggressor
Disinformation Cycle Stage
Tactic Profile Tag
Core Fields Populated?
Any Tactics?
Content Type is Tweets?
How anti-vaxxers get around Instagram’s new hashtag controls
Adam
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Article
Coda Story
Anti-Vaccine
Instagram
Hashtag Hijacking, Obfuscated Post Content
2020-06-12
Isobel Cockerell, Sofiya Voznaya
Calibrate: Attack, Calibrate: Defend
Yes
No
No
As wildfires rage, false antifa rumors spur pleas from police
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
NBC News
2020 California Wildfires, Antifa, QAnon, Black Lives Matter, Proud Boys
Article, Text Post
Fabricated Content
Facebook, Twitter
Facebook Groups, Inauthentic Post Amplification, Public Figure / Celebrity
Facebook Groups, Inauthentic Post Amplification, Inauthentic Social Media Account
2020-05-29
Ben Collins, Brandy Zadrozny
Amazing Cures, Brighteon, Content farm, GMO Dangers, Mike Adams, Natural News, NewsTarget, North Macedonia, Philippines, The Health Ranger
Yes
No
No
Revealed: US-funded website spreading COVID misinformation in Armenia
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
openDemocracy
Anti-Vaccine, Coronavirus, Healthcare
Article
Fabricated Content
Alternative Media
Armenia
2020-05-28
Tatev Hovhannisyan
Yes
No
No
The online competition between pro- and anti-vaccination views
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Journal Article
Nature Research Journal
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Facebook
Facebook Groups
2020-05-13
Minzhang Zheng, Neil Johnson, Nicholas Gabriel, Nicholas Johnson Restrepo, Nicolas Velásquez, Pedro Manrique, Rhys Leahy, Sara El Oud, Stefan Wuchty, Yonatan Lupu
Yes
No
No
Viral Facebook post is wrong on deaths in first three months of 2020
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Full Fact
Coronavirus, Healthcare
Screenshot, Text post
Manipulated Content
Facebook
United Kingdom
2020-05-12
Leo Benedictus
Yes
No
No
Two police forces did not use the same photo to illustrate two different lockdown crimes
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Full Fact
Emergency Services
Image, Manipulated Image, Screenshot, Text post
Fabricated Content
Facebook, Twitter
United Kingdom
2020-05-11
Rachael Krishna
Yes
No
No
A scientific review did not conclude that there are no cases of children transmitting the new coronavirus
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Full Fact
Coronavirus, Government, Healthcare
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False Connection
Mainstream Media Reporting
Mainstream Media
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2020-05-07
Kate Lewis
Yes
No
No
Health Secretary uses Facebook poll to estimate coronavirus tracking app take-up
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Full Fact
Coronavirus, Government, Healthcare
Article, Oral Statement
Misleading Content
Government Website, Oral Statement
Government Figure
United Kingdom
2020-05-07
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Yes
No
No
The Control of Diseases Act was not changed in April to say you can be forcibly vaccinated
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Full Fact
Anti-Vaccine, Coronavirus
Text post, Video
False Connection
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
Facebook Groups, Public Figure / Celebrity
United Kingdom
2020-05-07
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Yes
No
No
This post about Covid-19 and blood clotting conditions contains inaccuracies
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United Kingdom
2020-05-07
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Yes
No
No
There’s no evidence immigrants caused a PPE shipment to be destroyed at Dover
Adam
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Fact Check
Full Fact
Coronavirus, Immigration
Image, Text post
Fabricated Content
Facebook
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2020-05-05
Joseph O'Leary
Yes
No
No
It's incorrect to say flu vaccines don't work
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Full Fact
Anti-Vaccine, Coronavirus, Healthcare
Image, Text post
Misleading Content
Facebook
2020-05-05
Kate Lewis
Yes
No
No
A Nobel Prize-winning immunologist has not said coronavirus is manmade, as claimed
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Fact Check
Full Fact
Coronavirus, Healthcare
Image, Screenshot, Text post
Fabricated Content
Facebook, Twitter
Government Figure, Public Figure / Celebrity
2020-04-30
Abbas Panjwani
Yes
No
No
The Maytrix Group receives no money from Captain Tom’s fundraiser
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Full Fact
Charity
Image, Screenshot, Text post
False Context
Facebook
United Kingdom
2020-04-30
Claire Milne
Yes
No
No
Hungary’s new coronavirus legislation could have journalists jailed
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Coda Story
Disinformation
Hungary
2020-04-30
Matej Voda
Own Government
Calibrate: Attack, Position: Attack
Yes
No
No
An image of a dog vaccine for a different coronavirus has gone viral
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Full Fact
Coronavirus
Image, Screenshot
False Connection
Facebook
2020-04-23
Grace Rahman
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No
No
Uncovering Operation NEPTUN, the Cold War’s Most Daring Disinformation Campaign
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Article
WIRED
Cold War, Operation NEPTUN
Inauthentic Documents
False Context
Mainstream Media Reporting
Mainstream Media
Germany
2020-04-15
Thomas Rid
Yes
No
No
If you need the police but can’t talk, dial 999 from a mobile, then 55 when prompted and don’t hang up
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I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
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Full Fact
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Text post
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Government Figure, Legitimate Business / Charity Organisation, Public Figure / Celebrity
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2020-04-14
Claire Milne, Grace Rahman
Yes
No
No
Meet the celebrities pushing 5G coronavirus conspiracies to millions of fans
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I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Coda Story
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Comments / Replies, Text post, Video
False Context
Instagram, Twitter
Public Figure / Celebrity
2020-04-14
Ashley Jung, Isobel Cockerell
Amplify: Attack
Yes
No
No
This viral voice message about ambulances shared on WhatsApp is inaccurate
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Full Fact
Coronavirus, Government, Healthcare
Voice Message
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Text Message, WhatsApp
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Yes
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I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Journal Article
Nature Research Journal
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2020-03-30
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Amplify: Attack, Amplify: Defend
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No
No
Disinformation about Qatar surges in wake of COVID-19
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I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Coda Story
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Amplify: Attack, Publish: Attack
Yes
No
No
With help from American activists, Ukrainian women are being misled about abortion
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Article
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2020-03-18
Tetiana Kozak
Yes
No
No
False coronavirus rumors surge in 'hidden viral' text messages
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Article
NBC News
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Text Message, WhatsApp
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2020-03-16
Ben Collins
Yes
No
No
Inside Italian public hospitals, I saw how a US-linked anti-abortion network is ‘humiliating’ women
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Article
openDemocracy
Abortion
Inauthentic Advertisement
Misleading Content
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2020-03-09
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Heartbeat International, Movimento per la Vita
Yes
No
No
This little girl has not vanished from your local area-
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I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Full Fact
Missing Persons
Inauthentic Website, Text post
Fabricated Content
Facebook
United Kingdom
2020-03-02
Rachael Krishna
Yes
No
No
How fake videos unravelled Pakistan’s war on polio
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I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
First Draft
Anti-Vaccine, Government, Healthcare
Video
False Context
Facebook, Twitter
Government Figure
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, Peshawar
2020-02-20
Lydia Morrish
Yes
No
No
First Draft case study: Exploring the controversy around Dengvaxia and vaccine misinformation in the Philippines
A woman inspired by QAnon conspiracy videos was arrested after live-streaming her trip to 'take out' Joe Biden
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Insider
2020 US Election, Clinton, Coronavirus, QAnon
Facebook
United States of America
2020-05-01
Margot Harris
Yes
No
No
A QAnon conspiracy theory about Oprah Winfrey went so viral that it provoked her to respond, showing the scope of coronavirus misinformation
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Insider
QAnon
Facebook, Twitter
Cross Platform Sharing, Coordinated user action, Twitter Algorithm
2020-03-18
Kat Tenbarge
Amplify: Attack, Publish: Attack
Yes
No
No
Alt-right conspiracy group Q'Anon won't stop believing in its Trump-related prophecies, even after they fail
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Insider
Clinton, George Soros, QAnon
*chan, Alternative Media
Public Figure / Celebrity
United States of America
2018-10-10
Michael Barkun
Research: Defend
Yes
No
No
These influencers and celebrities are spreading debunked coronavirus hoaxes on their massive platforms
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Insider
Coronavirus
Screenshot, Text post, Voice Message
Satire or Parody, Fabricated Content
Instagram, Twitter
Please Share Call to Action, Public Figure / Celebrity
United States of America
2020-03-17
Kat Tenbarge
Amplify: Attack
Yes
No
No
QAnon conspiracy theorists are telling people to drink bleach as a cure against the deadly Wuhan coronavirus
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Insider
Coronavirus, QAnon, Miracle Mineral Solution
Video
Personal Website, Twitter, YouTube
2020-01-29
Tom Porter
Amplify: Attack, Position: Attack
Yes
No
No
Unlicensed medical 'cures' are flourishing in closed Facebook groups, where cancer treatments — and even surgery — are sold beyond the reach of the law
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Insider
Healthcare, MMS
Inauthentic Social Media Accounts
Facebook, Personal Website, YouTube
Facebook Groups
2019-10-18
Tom Porter
Position: Attack, Publish: Attack
Yes
No
No
How conspiracy theorists who claim drinking 'MMS' bleach is a cure for autism reached millions of people on YouTube
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Business Insider
Anti-Vaccine, Disinformation, Healthcare, MMS
Video
Facebook, YouTube
Cross Platform Sharing, YouTube Algorithm
2019-05-21
Tom Porter
Amplify: Attack, Calibrate: Defend
Yes
No
No
British man arrested in Uganda after promoting 'MMS' bleach as a cure for HIV and malaria
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
Business Insider
Healthcare, MMS
YouTube
Uganda
2019-05-23
Tom Porter
Yes
No
No
How three conspiracy theorists took 'Q' and sparked Qanon
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
NBC News
Disinformation, QAnon
*chan, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube
Cross Platform Sharing
2018-08-14
Ben Collins, Brandy Zadrozny
Position: Attack
Yes
No
No
California Wildfire Suspect Posted About QAnon, Other Conspiracies
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
HUFFPOST
QAnon, 2018 California Wildfires
United States of America
2018-10-08
Sebastian Murdock
Yes
No
No
Twitter is bringing its ‘read before you retweet’ prompt to all users
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
The Verge
Twitter
2020-09-25
James Vincent
Amplify: Defend
Yes
No
No
‘Ghostwriter’ Influence Campaign: REPORT Unknown Actors Leverage Website Compromises and Fabricated Content to Push Narratives Aligned with Russian Security Interests
🚨URGENT: There’s a FAKE video with BBC branding doing the rounds about the Kramatorsk station attack, saying that Ukraine was responsible. THIS IS NOT A BBC VIDEO. IT IS A FAKE.
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Tweets
Alistair Coleman
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Video
Imposter Content
Twitter
Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom
2022-04-13
Alistair Coleman
Produce: Aggressor, Impact: Aggressor
Impersonate Existing News Organisation
Yes
No
Yes
Slipping Racism into the Mainstream: A Theory of Information Laundering
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Journal Article
Adam Klein
White Supremacy
Alternative Media, Facebook, Government Figure, Mainstream Media Reporting, YouTube
Fact Check-Image purporting to show TIME magazine cover claiming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky no longer uses ‘z’ and ‘v’ letters is digitally altered
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Reuters Fact Check
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Image
Imposter Content
Facebook, Twitter
Ukraine
2022-04-19
Unattributed
Produce: Aggressor
Impersonate Existing News Organisation
Yes
No
No
Fact Check-Fake BBC News social media post quoting President Macron saying Russian sanctions would lead to 60 million refugees in Europe
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Reuters Fact Check
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Immigration
Image, Manipulated Image, Screenshot
Imposter Content
Facebook, Twitter
France, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom
2022-04-18
Unattributed
Impersonate Existing News Organisation
Yes
No
No
Fact Check-Screenshot purporting to show CNN tweet claiming that child soldiers are fighting in eastern Ukraine is digitally altered
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Reuters Fact Check
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, War
Image, Manipulated Image, Screenshot
False Context, Imposter Content
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
Russia, Ukraine
2022-04-15
Unattributed
Produce: Aggressor
Impersonate Existing News Organisation, Media Shared with False Context
Yes
No
No
Fact Check-Image purporting to show Time magazine cover warning of an impending ice age is digitally altered
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
Reuters Fact Check
Climate Crisis
Image
Imposter Content
Facebook
2021-11-01
Unattributed
Produce: Aggressor
Impersonate Existing News Organisation
Yes
No
No
How Ukraine's 'Ghost of Kyiv' legendary pilot was born
Dylan
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Article
BBC News
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Image
Misleading Content, False Context
Telegram, Twitter
Government Figure
Russia, Ukraine
2022-05-01
Laurence Peter
Amplify: Aggressor, Impact: Aggressor
Amplification via Influencer, Media Shared with False Context
Yes
No
No
14/05/2022 18:57:56
Far-Right Online Radicalization: A Review of the Literature
This literature review examines cross-disciplinary work on radicalization to situate, historicize, frame, and better understand the present concerns around online radicalization and far-right extremist and fringe movements. We find that research on radicalization is inextricably linked to the post-9/11 context in which it emerged, and as a result is overly focused on studying the other. Applying this research to the spread of far-right ideas online does not account for the ways in which the far-right’s endorsement of white supremacy and racism holds historical, normative precedent in the United States. Further, radicalization research is rife with uncertainties, ranging from definitional ambiguity to an inability to identify any simplistic, causal models capable of fully explaining the conditions under which radicalization occurs. Instead, there are multiple possible pathways to radicalization, and while the internet does not cause individuals to adopt far-right extremist or fringe beliefs, some technological affordances may aid adoption of these beliefs through gradual processes of socialization. We conclude that the term “radicalization” does not serve as a useful analytical frame for studying the spread of far-right and fringe ideas online. Instead, potential analytical frameworks better suited to studying these phenomena include theories prominent in the study of online communities, conversion, mainstreaming, and sociotechnical theories of media effects.
Adam
I'm done (Submit now!)
Radicalisation
Journal Article
The Bulletin of Technology & Public Life.
2022-05-10
Alice Marwick, Benjamin Clancy, Katherine Furl
Yes
Yes
No
15/05/2022 11:38:16
The Buffalo supermarket shooting suspect posted an apparent manifesto repeatedly citing 'Great Replacement' theory
A manifesto claiming to be written by the suspect in a mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket that killed 10 laid out specific plans to attack Black people and repeatedly cited the “Great Replacement" Theory, the false idea that a cabal is attempting to replace white Americans with non-white people through immigration, interracial marriage and eventually violence.
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Kinetic Impact - Inspire Terrorism
Extremist - White Supremacist
Radicalisation
Article
NBC News
White Supremacy
United States of America
2022-05-15
Ben Collins
Impact: Aggressor
Yes
Yes
No
15/05/2022 12:06:07
A few people are reporting a sudden influx of suspicious followers today, including
@abierkhatib. I crunched the numbers and yes, it's very anomalous, and very weird. Read on for some weird stats and possible explanations.
Reduce probability of further participation in online discource
Tweets
@marcowenjones
2022-04-29
Marc Owen Jones
Yes
Yes
Yes
16/05/2022 10:35:41
Twitter Accounts of European Politicians Hijacked to Spread CCP Propaganda
ISD has identified a small network of 33 Twitter accounts that appear to have been hijacked and used to spread pro-CCP (Chinese Communist Party) narratives. The network includes the verified account of the French MP Bernard Reynès and the account of Liliana Pérez Pazo, a local politician in Spain.
Our investigation found that this network, which has been parroting pro-CCP talking points about the United States, likely belongs to Spamouflage, a spam operation originally identified by Graphika in 2019.
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Monetary Incentive
Hacked Accounts (T0011), Hacked Accounts - Hack high profile account, Shell Accounts - Create Network around Hacked / Shelf Account
Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Twitter, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content
Amplify beneficial narratives
Information Laundering
Article
ISD - Institute for Strategic Dialogue
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Coronavirus, Elections, Government
Their mom died of COVID. They say conspiracy theories are what really killed her
One thing everyone agrees on is that Stephanie didn't have to die. Even months after it happened, her family is struggling to figure out why.
"There is no perfect puzzle piece," says Stephanie's daughter Laurie. "I literally go through this all the time."
Stephanie was 75 when she succumbed to COVID-19 this past December. But Laurie says it wasn't just COVID that killed her mother. In the years leading up to her death, Stephanie had become embroiled in conspiracy theories. Her belief in those far-out ideas caused her to avoid vaccination and led her to delay and even refuse some of the most effective treatments after she got sick.
"I don't believe she was supposed to die," Laurie says. "I blame the misinformation."
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Death of person who believed false information, Rift in Community - Family
How the right-wing turns an unpopular position into a cultural stronghold
First, start with a position that most people would disagree with and that they can't possibly defend in the public square, like "No one should be allowed to be openly gay."
Second, find a position that most people would agree with and that can't be easily argued against in the public square, like "Children should be protected from sexual predation."
Third, create a context in which they can conflate those two positions, however implausible it might be on its face... such as a series of laws that equate being openly gay (or acknowledging the existence of gay people) in schools as being akin to sexual predation in itself.
Then fourth, and on an ongoing basis... sometimes in small incremental ways and sometimes in large rhetorical leaps... work to shrink the distance between their abhorrent actual position and their feel-good cover position in the public eye.
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Narrative - Motte-and-bailey fallacy
Tweets
@AlexandraErin
Homophobia
United States of America
2022-04-22
Alexandra Erin
Produce: Aggressor
Yes
Yes
Yes
16/05/2022 12:25:49
Systematic review: YouTube recommendations and problematic content
There has been much concern that social media, in particular YouTube, may facilitate radicalisation and polarisation of online audiences. This systematic review aimed to determine whether the YouTube recommender system facilitates pathways to problematic content such as extremist or radicalising material. The review conducted a narrative synthesis of the papers in this area. It assessed the eligibility of 1,187 studies and excluded studies using the PRISMA process for systematic reviews, leaving a final sample of 23 studies. Overall, 14 studies implicated the YouTube recommender system in facilitating problematic content pathways, seven produced mixed results, and two did not implicate the recommender system. The review's findings indicate that the YouTube recommender system could lead users to problematic content. However, due to limited access and an incomplete understanding of the YouTube recommender system, the models built by researchers might not reflect the actual mechanisms underlying the YouTube recommender system and pathways to problematic content.
Trump supporters have waged a campaign of intimidation against the state and local officials who administer U.S. elections. This visual analysis explores hundreds of menacing messages - and explains why they’re difficult to counter. Reuters has documented more than 850 threatening and hostile messages aimed at election officials and staff related to the 2020 election. Virtually all expressed support for former President Donald Trump or echoed his debunked contention that the election was stolen. The messages spanned 30 jurisdictions in 16 states. They came via emails, voicemails, texts, letters and Internet posts.
Adam
Article
Reuters
2021-12-30
Peter Eisler, Jason Szep, Linda So, Sam Hart
Yes
No
No
16/01/2022 14:44:19
Architects of Networked Disinformation
Behind the scenes of Troll Accounts and Fake News Production in the Philippines
Adam
Journal Article
University of Leeds
2018-02-22
Jonathan Corpus Ong, Jason Vincent A. Cabañes
Yes
No
No
16/01/2022 14:45:40
Tek Fog: An App With BJP Footprints for Cyber Troops to Automate Hate, Manipulate Trends
The Wire investigates claims behind the use of ‘Tek Fog’, a highly sophisticated app used by online operatives to hijack major social media and encrypted messaging platforms and amplify right-wing propaganda to a domestic audience.
Adam
Article
The Wire
2022-01-06
Ayushman Kaul, Devesh Kumar
Yes
No
No
16/01/2022 14:46:03
Tek Fog: Morphing URLs to Make Real News Fake, 'Hijacking' WhatsApp to Drive BJP Propaganda
In the second part of its Tek Fog investigation, The Wire looks at the tech behind the secretive app that lets BJP-linked cyber troops hack WhatsApp accounts and conduct targeted campaigns using third-party automation tools.
Adam
Article
The Wire
2022-01-10
Ayushman Kaul, Devesh Kumar
Yes
No
No
16/01/2022 14:46:24
Tek Fog in Action: Targeting Women Journalists, Pushing Communal Narrative on COVID, Delhi Violence
In the third part of its exclusive investigation, The Wire analyses the activities of a 'Tek Fog' operator who used the app to automate abuse and engineer Twitter trends to communalise public conversations on the platform and subject women reporters to abuse.
Adam
Article
The Wire
2022-01-14
Ayushman Kaul, Devesh Kumar
Yes
No
No
16/01/2022 14:46:50
Digital literacy is associated with more discerning accuracy judgments but not sharing intentions
It has been widely argued that social media users with low digital literacy—who lack fluency with basic technological concepts related to the internet—are more likely to fall for online misinformation, but surprisingly little research has examined this association empirically. In a large survey experiment involving true and false news posts about politics and COVID-19, we found that digital literacy is indeed an important predictor of the ability to tell truth from falsehood when judging headline accuracy. However, digital literacy is not a robust predictor of users’ intentions to share true versus false headlines. This observation resonates with recent observations of a substantial disconnect between accuracy judgments and sharing intentions. Furthermore, our results suggest that lack of digital literacy may be useful for identifying people with inaccurate beliefs, but not for identifying those who are more likely to spread misinformation online.
Adam
Journal Article
Harvard Kennedy School, Misinformation Review
2021-12-06
Nathaniel Sirlin, Ziv Epstein, Antonio A. Arechar, David G. Rand
Yes
No
No
18/01/2022 13:04:09
After Alt News exposé, Google doc with trending instructions for #DemonetisationSuccess hashtag is deleted
“Trend Alert: #DemonetisationSuccess. Date: 31st August; Time: 4.30 PM“. The Google doc file proceeded to provide the list of tweets that the BJP social media army, MPs and ministers faithfully shared on Twitter starting 4.30 pm on August 31st. After the RBI report revealed that 99% of the demonetised currency notes had come back, BJP social media army was joined by ministers to create an artificial buzz around the hashtag, #DemonetisationSuccess. Alt News video exposé deconstructed this copy-paste tweeting and traced the Google doc file that provided instructions and template to tweet.
Adam
Article
Alt News
2017-12-03
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
18/01/2022 15:29:28
Fake news and hate speech thrive on regional language social media
An HT investigation has revealed that regional language social media platforms such as ShareChat, with 50 million registered users, and Helo, with at least 5 million estimated registered users, are rife with misinformation and political propaganda.(Getty Images/Picture for representation)
Adam
Article
Hindustan Times
2018-11-14
Samarth Bansal, Snigdha Poonam
Yes
No
No
18/01/2022 15:31:08
ShareChat takes the shovel to 54,000 accounts, half-a-million content items
ShareChat, a homegrown social media platform, has taken down nearly half a million pieces of content and removed 54,400 accounts since February for spreading fake news, hate speech, spam and misinformation.
Adam
Article
The Economic Times
2019-04-18
Megha Mandavia
Yes
No
No
18/01/2022 19:28:33
Escape from QAnon: How Jan. 6 changed one person’s path
Unlike so many fellow conspiracy theorists, Justin would ultimately crawl out of the dark place his own mind had taken him. His first steps began at the U.S. Capitol.
Adam
Article
NBC News
2022-01-18
Brandy Zadrozny
Yes
No
No
18/01/2022 19:42:25
I get abuse and threats online - why can't it be stopped?
I'm the BBC's first specialist disinformation reporter - and I receive abusive messages on social media daily. Most are too offensive to share unedited. The trigger? My coverage of the impact of online conspiracies and fake news. I expect to be challenged and criticised - but misogynistic hate directed at me has become a very regular occurrence.
Adam
Article
BBC News
2021-10-18
Marianna Spring
Yes
No
No
19/01/2022 14:10:51
Perverse Downstream Consequences of Debunking: Being Corrected by Another User for Posting False Political News Increases Subsequent Sharing of Low Quality, Partisan, and Toxic Content in a Twitter Field Experiment
A prominent approach to combating online misinformation is to debunk false content. Here we investigate downstream consequences of social corrections on users’ subsequent sharing of other content. Being corrected might make users more attentive to accuracy, thus improving their subsequent sharing. Alternatively, corrections might not improve subsequent sharing - or even backfire - by making users feel defensive, or by shifting their attention away from accuracy (e.g., towards various social factors). We identified N=2,000 users who shared false political news on Twitter, and replied to their false tweets with links to fact-checking websites. We find causal evidence that being corrected decreases the quality, and increases the partisan slant and language toxicity, of the users’ subsequent retweets (but has no significant effect on primary tweets). This suggests that being publicly corrected by another user shifts one's attention away from accuracy - presenting an important challenge for social correction approaches.
Adam
Journal Article
Association for Computing Machinery
2021-05-07
Mohsen Mosleh, Cameron Martel, Dean Eckles, David Rand
Yes
No
No
20/01/2022 17:57:49
Targeted ads aren’t just annoying, they can be harmful. Here’s how to fight back
Online targeted advertising divides and isolates us. It’s time to restore the role of consumers as active participants in regulating online advertising.
Adam
Article
Fast Company
2021-07-31
Silvia Milano
Yes
No
No
21/01/2022 12:36:09
Brand Twitter Grows Up; How corporate social media (mostly) moved past its awkward phase and connected with audiences.
Adam
Article
Vulture
2019-06-24
Nathan Allebach
Yes
No
No
21/01/2022 22:39:06
The psychology of misinformation
Adam
Tweets
@dg_rand
2022-01-21
David G. Rand
Yes
No
Yes
22/01/2022 12:25:59
Alex Jones' Infowars Store Made $165 Million Over 3 Years, Records Show
New court records first obtained by HuffPost illuminate how the conspiracy theorist has built an empire hawking supplements and survival gear.
Adam
Article
HUFFPOST
2022-01-07
Sebastian Murdock
Yes
No
No
22/01/2022 12:26:19
Disclose.tv: Conspiracy Forum Turned Disinformation Factory
Disclose.tv, a disinformation outlet based in Germany, is bringing fake news to a timeline near you. Although it now presents itself on social media as a reliable news source, Disclose.tv originated as a forum fixated on conspiracy narratives and UFOs. Its continued uncritical coverage of these topics reveals its links to fringe pseudoscience and conspiracy theories.
Adam
Article
Logically
2022-01-12
W. F. Thomas
Yes
No
No
22/01/2022 12:26:56
CHINESE INFLUENCE OPERATIONS; A MACHIAVELLIAN MOMENT
For a long time, it could be said that China, unlike Russia, sought to be loved rather than feared; that it wanted to seduce and project a positive image of itself in the world, or to inspire admiration. Today, Beijing has not renounced to seduce, nor its overall attractiveness and its ambition to shape international standards, and it is essential for the Chinese Communist Party not to lose face. And yet, Beijing is also increasingly comfortable with infiltration and coercion: its influence operations have become considerably tougher in recent years and its methods are resembling more closely the ones employed by Moscow. This is a “Machiavellian turn” inasmuch as the Party-State now seems to believe that “it is much safer to be feared than to be loved,” in the words of Machiavelli in The Prince. This is a clear Russification of Chinese influence operations.
This report delves into this evolution, with the ambition to cover the whole specter of influence, from the most benign (public diplomacy) to the most malign methods, that is, interference (clandestine activities). To do that, the report is divided into four parts: successively laying out the main concepts; the actors implementing these operations, including the Base 311 of the People’s Liberation Army; the actions conducted by Beijing toward the diasporas, the media, diplomacy, economy, politics, education, think tanks, and in terms of information manipulations – some levers among others; then, several cases are studied (Taiwan, Singapore, Sweden, Canada, the operations that targeted Hong Kong protestors in 2019, and the one that branded the Covid-19 as an American fabrication in 2020). The conclusion returns to this “Russification”, which has three components: Beijing is inspired by Moscow in several ways, there are obviously differences between the two, and there is also a certain degree of cooperation. Finally, the report assesses the effectiveness of this new Chinese posture, which can boast some tactical successes, but constitutes a strategic failure.
Adam
Journal Article
Ministère des Armées
2021-10-01
Paul Charon, Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer
Yes
No
No
23/01/2022 21:36:11
UK’s propaganda leaflets inspired 1960s massacre of Indonesian communists
Shocking new details have emerged of Britain’s role in one of the most brutal massacres of the postwar 20th century.
Last year the Observer revealed how British officials secretly deployed black propaganda in the 1960s to incite prominent Indonesians to “cut out” the “communist cancer”.
It is estimated that at least 500,000 people linked to the Indonesia communist party (PKI) were eliminated between 1965 and 1966.
Documents newly released in the National Archives show how propaganda specialists from the Foreign Office sent hundreds of inflammatory pamphlets to leading anti-communists in Indonesia, inciting them to kill the foreign minister Dr Subandrio and claiming that ethnic Chinese Indonesians deserved the violence meted out to them.
Adam
Article
The Guardian
2022-01-23
Paul Lashmar, Nicholas Gilby, James Oliver
Yes
No
No
24/01/2022 08:01:41
How do you get people to listen to experts?
Non-experts often think they know best, but if you first ask them to privately write down how something works (“how does trade with China hurt the US?”) they realize they don’t really get it & become more willing to listen to experts.
Adam
Tweets
@emollick
2022-01-24
Ethan Mollick
Yes
No
Yes
24/01/2022 08:04:40
A comparison of prebunking and debunking interventions for implied versus explicit misinformation
Psychological research has offered valuable insights into how to combat misinformation. The studies conducted to date, however, have three limitations. First, pre-emptive (“prebunking”) and retroactive (“debunking”) interventions have mostly been examined in parallel, and thus it is unclear which of these two predominant approaches is more effective. Second, there has been a focus on misinformation that is explicitly false, but implied misinformation that uses literally true information to mislead is common in the real world. Finally, studies have relied mainly on questionnaire measures of reasoning, neglecting behavioural impacts of misinformation and interventions. To offer incremental progress towards addressing these three issues, we conducted an experiment (N = 735) involving misinformation on fair trade. We contrasted the effectiveness of prebunking versus debunking and the impacts of implied versus explicit misinformation, and incorporated novel measures assessing consumer behaviours (i.e., willingness-to-pay; information seeking; online misinformation promotion) in addition to standard questionnaire measures. In general, both prebunking and debunking reduced misinformation reliance. We also found that individuals tended to rely more on explicit than implied misinformation both with and without interventions.
Adam
Journal Article
The British Journal of Psychology
2021-12-29
Li Qian Tay ,Mark J. Hurlstone, Tim Kurz, Ullrich K. H. Ecker
Yes
No
No
24/01/2022 10:23:03
#KeepPrisonsSingleSex: How botnets pushed a hashtag to Westminster
A Logically investigation has uncovered evidence of a Twitter botnet promoting the hashtag #KeepPrisonsSingleSex.
Adam
Article
Logically
2022-01-24
Rachel Muller-Heyndyk, Joe Ondrak
Yes
No
No
24/01/2022 12:47:12
Fossil fuel firms among biggest spenders on Google ads that look like search results
People turn to Google to educate themselves - so fossil fuel companies are buying up ads on climate-related search terms to influence what they learn about the climate crisis.
Fossil fuel companies and firms that work closely with them are among the biggest spenders on ads designed to look like Google search results, in what campaigners say is an example of “endemic greenwashing”.
Adam
Article
The Guardian
2022-01-05
Niamh McIntyre
Yes
No
No
25/01/2022 11:55:17
Conspiracy Clickbait: This One Weird Trick Will Undermine Democracy
Historically, policymakers and investigators have tended to focus on state-linked disinformation operations and to largely overlook the role of commercially motivated networks. However, the rise of a global industry producing conspiracy clickbait for profit is likely to have significant implications, including supercharging existing problems of disinformation and polarization.
Adam
Article
ISD - Institute for Strategic Dialogue
2022-01-19
Elise Thomas
Yes
No
No
25/01/2022 17:25:54
Instagram’s link sticker feature is lining the pockets of some of the platform’s most prolific misinformers
Media Matters found dozens of examples of anti-vaccine advocates and right-wing agitators using the feature to monetize their misinformation
Adam
Article
Media Matters
2022-01-24
Camden Carter, Spencer Silva
Yes
No
No
25/01/2022 17:59:55
The Devil in D.C
All over America, believers cast Satan as literal, potent, and omnipresent, with his dark minions influencing every action in public and private life.
Adam
Article
The Sword and the Sandwich
2022-01-25
Talia Lavin
Yes
No
No
26/01/2022 16:35:18
Enlisting Useful Idiots: The Ties between Online Harassment and Disinformation
Online harassment has been a blind spot for major platforms for many years. The problem became mainstream with Gamergate in 2014, the first public reckoning with intimidation of women in the online gaming community. This problem is still plaguing social media, with progress being made in fits and starts after publicized incidents of bullying or silencing of minority voices. However, the problem has grown beyond these applications to new harms. Online harassment has created serious policy, technical, and structural vulnerabilities that have been exploited by malign actors and gone largely unnoticed—or unprioritized—by defenders. Trolling has become the vocabulary and testing ground of digital authoritarians. Understanding how online harassment works is integral to combatting State-based disinformation and efforts to undermine faith in both democracy and the internet.
Adam
Journal Article
Colorado Technology Law Journal
2021-01-29
Brittan Heller
Yes
No
No
26/01/2022 20:04:34
ECHO CHAMBERS EMBEDDED IN THE STRUCTURE OF NEWS MEDIA WEBSITES
Are political echo chambers baked into the structure of #news websites? In my latest blog post, I explore this question as well as whether these polarized filter bubbles promote the spread of conspiracy theories!
Adam
Article
The Margin of Error
2022-01-26
Hans W. A. Hanley
Yes
No
No
28/01/2022 09:11:43
The GRU’s galaxy of Russian-speaking websites
Since 2016, numerous studies have shown Russian intelligence services’ involvement in online information operations. Case studies on the Internet Research Agency (IRA), Secondary Infektion , and the Ghostwriter campaigns shed light on the methods allegedly employed by the Russian government to influence and discredit beyond its borders.
However, little research has focused on Russian Intelligence’s control over the domestic information space. OpenFacto discovered and mapped more than one thousand Russian-speaking websites linked to the GRU, Russian military intelligence, to reconstruct their strategy and objectives, in a landscape already saturated with media loyal to the Kremlin.
Adam
Article
OpenFacto
2022-01-27
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
28/01/2022 11:31:42
Why are beliefs in different conspiracy theories positively correlated across individuals? Testing monological network versus unidimensional factor model explanations
A substantial minority of the public express belief in conspiracy theories. A robust phenomenon in this area is that people who believe one conspiracy theory are more likely to believe in others. But the reason for this “positive manifold” of belief in conspiracy theories is unclear. One possibility is that a single underlying latent factor (e.g. “conspiracism”) causes variation in belief in specific conspiracy theories. Another possibility is that beliefs in various conspiracy theories support one another in a mutually reinforcing network of beliefs (the “monological belief system” theory). While the monological theory has been influential in the literature, the fact that it can be operationalised as a statistical network model has not previously been recognised. In this study, we therefore tested both the unidimensional factor model and a network model. Participants were 1553 American adults recruited via Prolific. Belief in conspiracies was measured using an adapted version of the Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory. The fit of the two competing models was evaluated both by using van Bork et al.’s (Psychometrika, 83, 2018, 443, Multivariate Behavioral Research, 56, 2019, 175) method for testing network versus unidimensional factor models, as well as by evaluating goodness of fit to the sample covariance matrix. In both cases, evaluation of fit according to our pre-registered inferential criteria favoured the network model.
Adam
Journal Article
The British Journal of Psychology
2022-01-27
Matt N. Williams, Mathew D. Marques, Stephen R. Hill, John R. Kerr, Mathew Ling
Yes
No
No
29/01/2022 09:19:25
The anatomy of a misinformation attack
Earlier this month, psychologist Jay Van Bavel, PhD, was the target of a coordinated misinformation attack . He received thousands of angry tweets, messages, and emails from conspiracy theorists who believed he was part of a massive coverup of the so-called truth about COVID-19.
Adam
Article
American Psychological Association
2022-05-01
Zara Abrams
Yes
No
No
29/01/2022 18:15:33
THE PROPHECIES OF Q
If you were an adherent, no one would be able to tell. You would look like any other American. You could be a mother, picking leftovers off your toddler’s plate. You could be the young man in headphones across the street. You could be a bookkeeper, a dentist, a grandmother icing cupcakes in her kitchen. You may well have an affiliation with an evangelical church. But you are hard to identify just from the way you look—which is good, because someday soon dark forces may try to track you down. You understand this sounds crazy, but you don’t care. You know that a small group of manipulators, operating in the shadows, pull the planet’s strings. You know that they are powerful enough to abuse children without fear of retribution. You know that the mainstream media are their handmaidens, in partnership with Hillary Clinton and the secretive denizens of the deep state. You know that only Donald Trump stands between you and a damned and ravaged world. You see plague and pestilence sweeping the planet, and understand that they are part of the plan. You know that a clash between good and evil cannot be avoided, and you yearn for the Great Awakening that is coming. And so you must be on guard at all times. You must shield your ears from the scorn of the ignorant. You must find those who are like you. And you must be prepared to fight.
You know all this because you believe in Q.
Adam
Article
The Atlantic
2020-06-06
Adrienne LaFrance, Arsh Raziuddin
Yes
No
No
30/01/2022 17:29:49
Partisan Polarization Is the Primary Psychological Motivation behind Political Fake News Sharing on Twitter
The rise of “fake news” is a major concern in contemporary Western democracies. Yet, research on the psychological motivations behind the spread of political fake news on social media is surprisingly limited. Are citizens who share fake news ignorant and lazy? Are they fueled by sinister motives, seeking to disrupt the social status quo? Or do they seek to attack partisan opponents in an increasingly polarized political environment? This article is the first to test these competing hypotheses based on a careful mapping of psychological profiles of over 2,300 American Twitter users linked to behavioral sharing data and sentiment analyses of more than 500,000 news story headlines. The findings contradict the ignorance perspective but provide some support for the disruption perspective and strong support for the partisan polarization perspective. Thus, individuals who report hating their political opponents are the most likely to share political fake news and selectively share content that is useful for derogating these opponents. Overall, our findings show that fake news sharing is fueled by the same psychological motivations that drive other forms of partisan behavior, including sharing partisan news from traditional and credible news sources.
Adam
Journal Article
Cambridge University Press
2021-04-06
Mathias Osmundsen, Alexander Bor, Peter Bjerregaard Vahlstrup, Anja Bechmann, Michael Bang Petersen
Yes
No
No
03/02/2022 09:45:17
Iran accused of sowing Israel discontent with fake Jewish Facebook group
A suspected Iranian disinformation unit ran an elaborate network on Facebook targeting nationalist and ultra-religious Jews in Israel in an attempt to stoke division and inflame tensions with Palestinians, according to research shared exclusively with the BBC.
Adam
Article
BBC News
2022-02-03
Tom Bateman
Yes
No
No
04/02/2022 10:06:58
U.S. accuses Russia of planning to film false attack as pretext for Ukraine invasion
Moscow is considering filming a fake attack against Russian territory or Russian-speaking people by Ukrainian forces as a pretext to invade its neighbor, the Biden administration said Thursday, warning that the resulting propaganda footage could include “graphic scenes of a staged false explosion with corpses.”
Adam
Article
The Washington Post
2022-02-03
Ellen Nakashima, Shane Harris, Ashley Parker, John Hudson, Paul Sonne
Yes
No
No
08/02/2022 18:22:20
Thinking more or thinking differently? Using drift-diffusion modeling to illuminate why accuracy prompts decrease misinformation sharing
Recent experiments have found that prompting people to think about accuracy reduces the sharing of misinformation. The cognitive mechanism that produces this effect, however, remains unclear. Do accuracy prompts cause people to "stop and think," increasing deliberation? Or do they change what people think about, drawing attention to accuracy? Since these two accounts predict the same behavioral outcomes (i.e., increased sharing discernment following a prompt), we used computational modeling of sharing decisions with response time data, as well as out-of-sample ratings of headline perceived accuracy, to test the accounts' divergent predictions across six studies (N = 5633). The results suggest that accuracy prompts do not increase the amount of deliberation people engage in. Instead, they increase the weight participants put on accuracy while deliberating. Our findings highlight the importance of understanding how social media distracts people from considering accuracy, and provide evidence for scalable interventions that redirect people's attention.
Adam
Journal Article
PsyArXiv
2022-02-03
Hause Lin, Gordon Pennycook, David Rand
Yes
No
No
11/02/2022 12:06:16
Joe Rogan’s Show May Be Dumb. But Is It Actually Deadly?
Nothing seems to move the needle on Americans’ vaccine convictions, no matter how beneficial or harmful.
Adam
Article
The Atlantic
2022-02-10
Daniel Engber
Yes
No
No
12/02/2022 02:33:19
As U.S. ‘trucker convoy’ picks up momentum, foreign meddling adds to fray
Facebook said Friday it removed trucker and convoy groups run by overseas actors. Many anti-vaccine and conspiracy-driven groups have moved to embrace convoy organizing.
Adam
Article
NBC News
2022-02-11
Ben Collins
Yes
No
No
14/02/2022 10:03:44
Ukraine crisis: How is Russia shaping the narrative?
As Russia continues its military build-up on Ukraine's border, it's also attempting to control the media narrative - but which parts are misleading?
We've looked at some examples of the methods used by pro-Kremlin outlets.
Adam
Article
BBC News
2022-02-23
Kayleen Devlin, Olga Robinson
Yes
No
No
15/02/2022 14:36:56
How to Combat Health Misinformation: A Psychological Approach
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become increasingly clear that misinformation presents a significant threat to public health.1,2 A much-cited example is that of COVID-19 vaccine uptake: belief in false or misleading statements about COVID-19 has been linked to reduced intentions to get vaccinated,3 to the point of potentially threatening herd immunity.4 More broadly, the spread of vaccine misinformation, such as the false belief that vaccines are linked to the development of autism in children, has contributed to some parents opting out of childhood vaccinations.5
Adam
Journal Article
American Journal of Health Promotion
2022-02-14
Jon Roozenbeek, Sander van der Linden
Yes
No
No
24/02/2022 17:18:50
Influencers played outsized role in pushing anti-vax conspiracies
A new report from a broad range of disinformation experts finds influencers across many topics — wellness, politics and religion — were largely responsible for spreading viral anti-vaccination content in the U.S. over the past two years.
Adam
Article
Axios
2022-02-24
Alison Snyder, Sara Fischer
Yes
No
No
26/02/2022 09:40:26
Scammy Instagram ‘war pages’ are capitalizing on Ukraine conflict
Just hours after the first explosions rocked Ukraine Wednesday night, massive Instagram meme pages began promoting an account purporting to be that of a journalist live-streaming from the ground.
Adam
Article
Input
2022-02-25
Taylor Lorenz
Yes
No
No
04/03/2022 21:54:10
When Do Sources Persuade? The Effect of Source Credibility on Opinion Change
Discussions around declining trust in the US media can be vague about its effects. One classic answer comes from the persuasion literature, in which source credibility plays a key role. However, existing research almost universally takes credibility as a given. To overcome the potentially severe confounding that can result from this, we create a hypothetical news outlet and manipulate to what extent it is portrayed as credible. We then randomly assign subjects to read op-eds attributed to the source. Our credibility treatments are strong, increasing trust in our mock source until up to 10 days later. We find some evidence that the resulting higher perceived credibility boosts the persuasiveness of arguments about more partisan topics (but not for a less politicized issue). Though our findings are mixed, we argue that this experimental approach can fruitfully enhance our understanding of the interplay between source trust and opinion change over sustained periods.
Adam
Journal Article
Cambridge University Press
2022-03-02
Bernhard Clemm von Hohenberg, Andrew M. Guess
Yes
No
No
05/03/2022 17:01:08
#Propaganda: Russia State-Controlled Media Flood TikTok With Ukraine Disinformation
In the lead up to and since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, there have been numerous news reports and coverage highlighting how TikTok has been used to spread misinformation related to events on the ground.
Adam
Article
ISD - Institute for Strategic Dialogue
2022-03-02
Ciarán O’Connor
Yes
No
No
07/03/2022 07:51:02
Ukrainians Find That Relatives in Russia Don’t Believe It’s a War
Many Ukrainians are encountering a confounding and frustrating backlash from family members in Russia who have bought into the official Kremlin messaging.
Adam
Article
New York Times
2022-03-06
Valerie Hopkins
Yes
No
No
08/03/2022 13:27:04
Gender-Based Disinformation: Advancing Our Understanding and Response
On June 10, the EU DisinfoLab co-hosted a Community Lab at RightsCon 2021 which focused on the intersection of disinformation and gender. This session emerged from the understanding that digital platforms represent an increasingly conflicted space where women, gender non-conforming people, and marginalised groups are disproportionately targeted and harassed. All too often these groups must either struggle to make their voices heard or fear for their safety when they do. The effect is that women and marginalised groups are leaving online spaces, forgoing their fundamental right to participate in civil and political life and the full enjoyment of their freedom of expression and opinion. Titled, “Gender and Disinformation: towards a gender-based approach for researchers, activists, and allies”, the session wished to give oxygen and validation to the emerging discussion on this topic and build a common position among the researchers, activists, journalists, and interested members of civil society. In a community dialogue format, we sought to better understand gendered disinformation, drawing on the diverse perspectives present to help account for the different aspects and geographies affected by the phenomenon.
Adam
Article
EU DisinfoLab
2021-10-20
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
12/03/2022 14:21:29
Russia’s disinformation machinery breaks down in wake of Ukraine invasion
Adam
Article
WIRED
2022-03-10
Tom Southern
Yes
No
No
14/03/2022 13:17:53
From QAnon to anti-vax: Can you cure a conspiracy theorist?
In a time of unfettered misinformation, psychology could be the remedy we need to help people who have been radicalised online.
Adam
Article
The New Statesman
2022-03-14
Sarah Dawood
Yes
No
No
15/03/2022 14:50:24
Russia’s new control tactic is the one Hannah Arendt warned us about 50 years ago
Fake fact-checks, designed to sow confusion, are Putin’s latest trick for undermining faith in media — and the truth
Adam
Article
The Washington Post
2022-03-11
Margaret Sullivan
Yes
No
No
18/03/2022 10:11:56
Artists are provoking Nintendo and Disney to sue bots that steal artwork
Adam
Article
Polygon
2019-12-05
Jeff Ramos
Yes
No
No
22/03/2022 13:36:47
Industrialized Disinformation: 2020 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation
The manipulation of public opinion over social media remains a critical threat to democracy. Over the past four years, we have monitored the global organization of social media manipulation by governments and political parties, and the various private companies and other organizations they work with to spread disinformation.
Our 2020 report highlights the recent trends of computational propaganda across 81 countries and the evolving tools, capacities, strategies, and resources used to manipulate public opinion around the globe. We identify three key trends in this year’s inventory of disinformation activity:
Cyber troop activity continues to increase around the world. This year, we found evidence of 81 countries using social media to spread computational propaganda and disinformation about politics. This has increased from last years’ report, in which we identified 70 countries with cyber troop activity.
Over the last year, social media firms have taken important steps to combat the misuse of their platforms by cyber troops. Public announcements by Facebook and Twitter between January 2019 and December 2020 reveal that more than 317,000 accounts and pages have been removed by the platforms. Nonetheless, almost US $10 million has still been spent on political advertisements by cyber troops operating around the world.
Private firms increasingly provide manipulation campaigns. Over the last year, we found forty- eight instances of private companies deploying computational propaganda on behalf of a political actor. Since 2018 there have been more than 65 firms offering computational propaganda as a service. In total, we have found almost US $60 million was spent on hiring these firms since 2009.
Adam
Journal Article
DemTech
2021-01-13
Samantha Bradshaw, Hannah Bailey, Philip N. Howard
Yes
No
No
22/03/2022 13:37:23
INSIDE THE SHADOWY WORLD OF DISINFORMATION FOR HIRE IN KENYA
This research examines how Kenyan journalists, judges, and other members of civil
society are facing coordinated disinformation and harassment campaigns on Twitter —
and that Twitter is doing very little to stop it. The research provides a grim window into
the booming and shadowy industry of Twitter influencers for political hire here in Kenya.
Adam
Journal Article
Mozilla Foundation
2021-09-02
Odanga Madung, Brian Obilo, Kevin Zawaki, Solana Larsen
Yes
No
No
24/03/2022 17:55:25
Ukraine: Watching the war on Russian TV - a whole different story
Never was there a better illustration of the alternative reality presented by Russian state media than at 17:00 GMT on Tuesday. As BBC World TV opened its bulletin with reports of a Russian attack on a TV tower in the capital Kyiv, Russian TV was announcing that Ukraine was responsible for strikes on its own cities.
So what are Russian TV viewers seeing of the war? What messages are they hearing over the airwaves? Below is a snapshot of what ordinary Russians would have picked up, on Tuesday 1 March, while channel-hopping across the country's key TV stations, which are controlled by the Kremlin and its corporate allies.
Adam
Article
BBC News
2022-03-02
Simona Kralova, Sandro Vetsko
Yes
No
No
26/03/2022 12:27:20
The power of storytelling in public relations: Introducing the 20 master plots
Provides a detailed overview of principles of narrative theory in public relations.
Identifies the “20 master plots” used by storytellers for millennia.
Reviews emplotment, narrative theory, and Burkean identification and form.
Provides examples of plot use in activist, for-profit, and nonprofit settings.
Includes a table summarizing the 20 master plots.
Adam
Journal Article
Science Direct
2015-11-01
Michael L. Kent
Yes
No
No
27/03/2022 10:58:32
Why you can't just ignore them
Recent events in the PHP community in the past few days have reminded me of an important point that bears repeating. Quite simply: There are always community standards, and if you are not upholding them then you are actively undermining them.
Adam
Article
@Crell
2018-01-05
Larry Garfield
Yes
No
No
27/03/2022 11:00:07
Community Interaction and Conflict on the Web
Users organize themselves into communities on web platforms.
These communities can interact with one another, often leading to
conflicts and toxic interactions. However, little is known about the
mechanisms of interactions between communities and how they impact users.
Here we study intercommunity interactions across 36,000 com-
munitiesonReddit,examiningcaseswhereusersofonecommun2i0ty
are mobilized by negative sentiment to comment in another commu-
nity. We show that such conflicts tend to be initiated by a handful
of communities—less than 1% of communities start 74% of conflic0ts.
While conflicts tend to be initiated by highly active community
members, they are carried out by significantly less active members.
We find that conflicts are marked by formation of echo chambers,
−20
where users primarily talk to other users from their own commu- nity. In the long-term, conflicts have adverse effects and reduce the overall activity of users in the targeted communities.
−40
Our analysis of user interactions also suggests strategies for mit-
igating the negative impact of conflicts—such as increasing direct
engagement between attackers and defenders. Further, we accu-
rately predict whether a conflict will occur by creating a novel LSTM model that combines graph embeddings, user, community, and text features. This model can be used to create early-warning systems
for community moderators to prevent conflicts. Altogether, this
work presents a data-driven view of community interactions and conflict, and paves the way towards healthier online communities.
Adam
Journal Article
The Web Conference
2018-03-09
Srijan Kumar, William L. Hamilton, Jure Leskovec, Dan Jurafsky
Yes
No
No
29/03/2022 11:52:29
Stop talking about fake news!
Since 2016, there has been an explosion of academic work that fixes its subject matter using the terms ‘fake news’ and ‘post-truth’. In this paper, I argue that this terminology is not up to scratch, and that academics and journalists ought to completely stop using the terms ‘fake news’ and ‘post-truth’. I set out three arguments for abandonment. First, that ‘fake news’ and ‘post-truth’ do not have stable public meanings, entailing that they are either nonsense, context-sensitive, or contested. Secondly, that these terms are unnecessary, because we already have a rich vocabulary for thinking about epistemic dysfunction. Thirdly, I observe that ‘fake news’ and ‘post-truth’ have propagandistic uses, meaning that using these terms legitimates anti-democratic propaganda, and risks smuggling bad ideology into conversations.
Adam
Journal Article
An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy
2018-07-05
Joshua Habgood-Coote
Yes
No
No
31/03/2022 16:12:52
FLAT EARTHERS ARGUE TREES DON'T EXIST. THEY'RE NOT WRONG.
LAST MONTH, A YOUTUBER FROM CRIMEA COMMENCED A CONSPIRACY WHEN THEY POSTED A VIDEO CALLED “THERE ARE NO FORESTS ON FLAT EARTH WAKE UP.” IN AN INSTANT, THE WORLDVIEW OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE FLIPPED UPSIDE DOWN.
Adam
Article
Inverse
2016-09-19
Jacqueline Ronson
Yes
No
No
06/04/2022 12:52:30
Matthew Coleman, The Dad Who Allegedly Killed Kids Over QAnon Theories, 'Deteriorated Rapidly': Friend
Adam
Article
People
2022-02-04
Steve Helling
Yes
No
No
06/04/2022 15:05:36
The big business of disinformation
In a world of user-generated content, the battle over public opinion is in the comment threads, not the front pages
Adam
Article
WIRED
2017-06-10
Carl Miller
Yes
No
No
06/04/2022 21:00:05
Fake News about our Fake News Study Spread Faster than its Truth… Just as We Predicted.
Adam
Journal Article
Sinan Aral
2022-04-06
Sinan Aral
Yes
No
No
15/04/2022 17:15:24
Russia’s QAnon Followers Can’t Make Up Their Minds About Ukraine
Hours after Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, what looked like a reassuring plea for peace was posted on a popular Russian Telegram channel.
Adam
Article
Bellingcat
2022-04-15
Aiganysh Aidarbekova
Yes
No
No
20/04/2022 13:48:12
Snap judgements: how audiences who lack trust in news navigate information on digital platforms
People around the world have access to a variety and volume of information like never before. Navigating this abundance of sources online poses real challenges, especially amid widespread fears of misinformation and outright disinformation. Some have clear, go-to news sources they generally trust to provide them with accurate information. For them, trust serves as an ‘institutional economiser’ of sorts, eliminating the need to independently verify information themselves (Coleman 2012; Rosanvallon 2008). But less is known about how those who lack trust in most news sources – a sizeable and possibly growing percentage of the population in many countries (Toff et al. 2021c) – form assessments around which sources to attend to and which to ignore. Moreover, crowded digital information environments where platforms, especially big platforms such as Facebook and Google, loom large, pose unique challenges for news organisations that seek to stand out and sustain trusting relationships with audiences.
In this report, we qualitatively examine how audiences who lack trust in most news organisations in their countries navigate the digital information environment, especially how they make sense of the news they encounter while using social media, messaging applications, or search engines. Drawing on a sample of 100 individuals in four countries – Brazil, India, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US) – we centre on how they use Facebook, WhatsApp, and Google, based on a unique interviewing approach anchored in their concrete everyday experiences. Participants were asked to describe and respond to what they actually saw on their screens as they navigated these platforms in real time while speaking to members of our research team.
This research is focused on individuals with minimal trust in most news sources and below- average interest in politics – a population often neglected in audience research since these individuals tend to be least likely to consume news. However, for that same reason, understanding the way they encounter and engage with information online is of particular importance. Indeed, in line with prior survey-based research (Toff et al. 2021c), we found these individuals tended to be indifferent towards, or even opposed to, the idea of receiving news through platforms, which they said they primarily used for other purposes.
What we found is that when they did encounter news on platforms and sought to assess how credible the information might be, they often relied on cues for making quick, in-the-moment judgements, which were particularly important since many of these users rarely clicked through to the original sources of news. The mental shortcuts people discussed, summarised in Figure 1, involved (1) pre-existing ideas they held about news in general or specific news brands (where the information was coming from), but also several other factors: (2) social cues from family and friends (who shared or engaged with the news), (3) the tone and wording of headlines (whether or not it was perceived as clickbait), (4) the use of visuals (which they often saw as important evidence for what could or could not be trusted), and (5) the presence of advertising (whether or not information appeared to be sponsored). Additional (6) platform-specific cues also played a role in shaping judgements about what to trust. These involved design decisions around how information appears on platforms (e.g. what labels appear, what is given most prominence), which in turn affect many of these other cues.
These platform-specific cues varied considerably depending on each platform’s unique features. For example, given how participants used Facebook and WhatsApp, they often relied on additional kinds of social cues (e.g. number of likes or comments) or labels, which in turn were absent when it came to Google, where the platform’s ranking of search results played a more significant orienting role. We also found that many said they depended on Google as a verification tool to validate or investigate information encountered on other platforms in cases when it was deemed interesting or important enough. This practice gave many added confidence in their own abilities to suss out what is true and what is false, despite distrusting most professional sources of news.
Although our focus in this report is on a large minority who lack trust in most news in their country – the least trusting 25% as defined in Toff et al. (2021c) – these findings highlight considerations that we believe are much more widely shared. The snap judgements we observed people making when evaluating information on platforms will likely resonate with many readers, even those who access news much more regularly. What is particularly important about these considerations is that they are quite distinct and even upstream from the trust-building strategies publishers often focus on – strategies that often require a level of attention to news organisations’ journalistic practices that can be expected of only the most engaged news consumers. These ways of navigating news and information often presuppose levels of knowledge and skill when navigating platforms that are unevenly distributed among users. While some of the cues that platform users rely on may be beyond the scope of what news organisations have influence over – putting the onus on platforms themselves – other indicators are very much within the scope of publishers’ control but require them to be more attuned to the way their content is exhibited in these digital spaces.
Adam
Journal Article
Reuters
2022-04-04
Dr Amy Ross Arguedas, Dr Sumitra Badrinathan, Dr Camila Mont'Alverne, Dr Benjamin Toff, Dr Richard Fletcher, Prof. Rasmus Kleis Nielsen
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 10:53:38
‘Ghostwriter’ Looks Like a Purely Russian Op—Except It's Not
Adam
Article
WIRED
2021-11-16
Lily Hay Newman
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 10:54:09
War without blood
The alternative truth about Germany is generated by a man who lives in Crimea. This truth maintains that Germany has weapons of mass destruction, that almost all refugees are criminal, and that Angela Merkel instigates fights. With this truth, this man wants to impact the next Bundestag election from Crimea. His chances for success aren’t that bad.
Adam
Article
Zeit
2017-02-26
Patrick Beuth, Marc Brost, Peter Dausend, Steffen Dobbert, Götz Hamann
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 10:55:12
INFLUENCE FOR SALE: Bot Shopping on the Darknet
How vendors are selling social media influence and reach for profit on the Darknet
Adam
Article
DFRLab
2017-06-19
Donara Barojan
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 10:56:46
Shifting Stories on the “Spanish Donbas”
How Russian media shifted narrative as the prospect of Catalan independence declined
Adam
Article
DFRLab
2017-11-10
Donara Barojan
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 10:57:10
SOUTH FRONT – RUSSIA HIDING BEING RUSSIAN
The website Southfront.org is focusing on news on security issues, foreign policy, military analysis and reports on military hardware. According to the Mission Statement, the site is produced by a “team of experts and volunteers from the four corners of the Earth“. The site attacks the “Mainstream Media” for hiding the “truth behind the causes that provoke the various conflicts facing the world today“. The site is professionally designed and registered in Moscow, at the Domain Name Registrar Reg.ru.
South Front is frequently featured in our database of cases of disinformation. In the summer of 2018, the site claimed Ukraine was planning a massacre on a EU delegation, visiting an area, close to separatist-held territories. Anything published on the South Front is carefully following the Kremlin Talking Points; for instance sharing verbatim the statement of the Russian MFA Spokesperson Mariya Zakharova on the fifth anniversary of the illegal annexation of Crimea.
Adam
Article
EUvsDisinfo
2022-04-08
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 10:57:37
How a Global Hard-Right Christian Group Helped Cancel a Sex Education Play
“We should absolutely be concerned about the infiltration of ultra-conservative networks into British politics,” counter-extremism experts told VICE World News.
Adam
Article
Vice News
2022-04-28
Sophia Smith Galer
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:00:27
Meet the woman behind Libs of TikTok, secretly fueling the right’s outrage machine
Libs of TikTok reposts a steady stream of TikTok videos and social media posts, primarily from LGBTQ+ people, often including incendiary framing designed to generate outrage. Videos shared from the account quickly find their way to the most influential names in right-wing media. The account has emerged as a powerful force on the Internet, shaping right-wing media, impacting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and influencing millions by posting viral videos aimed at inciting outrage among the right.
Adam
Article
The Washington Post
2022-04-19
Taylor Lorenz
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:08:50
How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear to Conquer Cable
Adam
Article
New York Times
2022-04-30
Nicholas Confessore
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:09:05
How Tucker Carlson Reshaped Fox News — and Became Trump’s Heir
Adam
Article
New York Times
2022-04-30
Nicholas Confessore
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:10:08
Tucker Carlson season 3
Adam
Article
New York Times
2022-04-30
Nicholas Confessore
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:10:58
Online Information Laundering: The Role of Social Media
Russia’s ability to successfully conduct hybrid warfare is predicated on the creation of a fog of ambiguity between the Kremlin’s actions and the Kremlin itself. By conducting operations through an ad hoc network of proxies, carve-outs, and cutouts — whose connection to the Kremlin is difficult to definitively establish — the Russian government is able to maintain plausible deniability and thus lower the diplomatic and military costs of its actions. It is a strategy with deep roots: maskirovka — a Soviet-era military doctrine that translates as “mask” or “masquerade” — established operational deceit as a core tenet of both conventional and irregular warfare. While modern maskirovka is most commonly associated with the use of “little green men” to occupy Crimea, it is a tactic that is also deeply ingrained in the Kremlin’s ongoing disinformation campaign against the United States and Europe. This presents an obvious challenge: How can the West respond to an adversary who denies even being present on the battlefield?
Adam
Article
Alliance for Securing Democracy
2018-01-09
Kirill Meleshevich, Bret Schafer
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:11:41
To Make Your Conspiracy Theory Legit, Just Find an 'Expert'
"MIT PROFESSOR EXPOSES ‘Egregious Error’ & Evidence Tampering in US Report on Syria Sarin Incident." Pretty good headline, right? You've got a qualified expert from a prestigious university, discussing verifiable facts; even if you're a born skeptic, you're going to head into that news story with at least a crumb of trust in its accuracy. Maybe, you think, this expert knows something everybody else missed about April's chemical-weapons attack in a rebel-held part of Syria—the one many nations accused Syrian president Bashar al-Assad of having ordered. But in this case, at least, that trust would be misplaced.
Adam
Article
WIRED
2017-05-31
Emma Grey Ellis
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:12:13
Russia’s strategy for influence through public diplomacy and active measures: the Swedish case
Russia, as many contemporary states, takes public diplomacy seriously. Since the inception of its English language TV network Russia Today in 2005 (now ‘RT’), the Russian government has broadened its operations to include Sputnik news websites in several languages and social media activities. Moscow, however, has also been accused of engaging in covert influence activities – behaviour historically referred to as ‘active measures’ in the Soviet KGB lexicon on political warfare. In this paper, we provide empirical evidence on how Russia since 2014 has moved towards a preference for active measures towards Sweden, a small country in a geopolitically important European region. We analyse the blurring of boundaries between public diplomacy and active measures; document phenomena such as forgeries, disinformation, military threats and agents of influence and define Russian foreign policy strategy. In summary, we conclude that the overarching goal of Russian policy towards Sweden and the wider Baltic Sea is to preserve the geostrategic status quo, which is identified with a security order minimising NATO presence in the region.
Adam
Journal Article
Journal of Strategic Studies
2017-01-05
Martin Kragh, Sebastian Åsberg
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:12:35
Cloaked science: the Yan reports
This paper describes a 2020 disinformation campaign promoting the unsubstantiated claim that the novel coronavirus is the product of a Chinese bioweapons program. Exploiting a vulnerability in open-access scientific publishing, the campaign was based on papers posted to an online preprint repository designed to accelerate the diffusion of scientific knowledge. This provided the campaign with an air of scientific legitimacy, helped it reach millions of Americans, and muddied public discourse over the origins of SARS-CoV-2. This case study offers insights into the tactics and practices of media manipulation, the contested nature of modern epistemic systems, the interplay of technical and social systems, and the vulnerability of open systems to manipulation.
Adam
Journal Article
Information, Communication & Society
2022-04-27
Jennifer Nilsen, Joan Donovan, Rob Faris
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:12:58
A short review of the infosphere-based information and psychological operations targeting relations between Poland and Ukraine
In this report, we present a short review of the infosphere-based information and psychological operations targeting relations between Poland and Ukraine. This report and the presentation contain the expert view of the Info Ops Polska Foundation, which may not constitute the official view of the Polish government.
To manipulate and influence relations between Poland and Ukraine and between our nations, Russians target all areas of the infosphere: virtual area (cyberspace), physical area (physical actions and events) and cognitive area (the way we interpret events and make decisions based on these interpretations). In this report, we review the main characteristics of their activities, we share our data on the messaging dynamics and we share examples of messaging and activities in the virtual and physical spheres. We also describe one of the advanced information distribution and replication model, which we believe Russia uses to saturate the virtual sphere with manipulative messaging and to influence the cognitive sphere of Poles in relation to their view of Ukraine and Ukrainians.
Adam
Article
Info Ops Polska
2019-07-17
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:13:42
LIE, MANIPULATE, SPREAD, CHANGE, SPREAD AGAIN
Penetration of the information space by pro-Kremlin actors goes far beyond using state-funded media or a troll factory. As shown in the new report by Info Ops Polska, disinformation messages can be spread by multiple actors using a variety of tools – so that at the end of the day, its recipients cannot see its original source or its fake ventilation. Authors of the report take a look at one of the hot-button issues in Poland, frequently exploited by disinformation campaigns: namely, Ukrainian-Polish history and relations. It traces the road that pro-Kremlin narratives travel across cyberspace.
Adam
Article
EUvsDisinfo
2019-07-29
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:16:44
Russia's Footprint in the Nordic-Baltic Information Environment 2019/2020
Adam
Journal Article
Nato StratCom
2020-10-12
Ivo Juurvee, Belén Carrasco Rodríguez, Māris Cepurītis, Austris Keišs, Diana Marnot, Scott Ruston
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:16:58
FROM INFORMATION LAUNDERING TO INFLUENCE ACTIVITIES: RUSSIA’S FOOTPRINTS IN NORDIC-BALTIC COUNTRIES
Adam
Article
EUvsDisinfo
2020-12-01
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:17:15
DISINFORMATION TO CONCEAL WAR CRIMES: RUSSIA IS LYING ABOUT ATROCITIES IN BUCHA
Adam
Article, Audio / Podcast
EUvsDisinfo
2022-04-07
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:17:41
PRO-KREMLIN DISINFORMATION OUTLETS REFERENCED BY HUNDREDS OF WIKIPEDIA ARTICLES
Adam
Article, Audio / Podcast
EUvsDisinfo
2022-04-19
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:19:13
Research exposes long-term failure of Russian propaganda in Ukraine’s Donbas region
A study of the Russian propaganda that flooded Donbas for years reveals a failure to build pro-Russian “in-group” identities in region, despite Putin’s claims of support.
Adam
Journal Article
Cambridge University Press
2022-05-03
Jon Roozenbeek
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:19:33
How high-profile scientists felt tricked by group denying climate change
Adam
Article
BBC News
2022-04-26
Marco Silva, Merlyn Thomas
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:20:03
How high-profile scientists felt tricked by group denying climate change
VIDEO VERSION OF THE REPORT
Adam
Video
BBC News
2022-04-27
Marco Silva, Merlyn Thomas
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:20:24
Ukrainians Find That Relatives in Russia Don’t Believe It’s a War
Adam
Article
New York Times
2022-03-06
Valerie Hopkins
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:21:12
The rise of “trafficking” language in ballot collection narratives
Adam
Journal Article
Center for an Informed Public
2022-04-30
Mike Caulfield, Kayla Duskin, Stephen Prochaska, Scott Philips Johnson, Annie Denton, Zarine Kharazian, Kate Starbird
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:21:26
THE BUCHA MASSACRE: HOW TO DEFLECT ATTENTION IN POLAND
Adam
Article, Audio / Podcast
EUvsDisinfo
2022-04-12
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
12/05/2022 11:21:40
Researchers: Nearly Half Of Accounts Tweeting About Coronavirus Are Likely Bots
Adam
Article
npr
2020-05-20
Bobby Allyn
Yes
No
No
14/05/2022 15:18:23
This Video Will Make You Angry
"What Makes Online Content Viral?" By Jonah A. Berger & Katherine L. Milkman
Adam
Video
CGP Grey
2015-03-10
CGP Grey
Yes
No
No
14/05/2022 15:59:44
Internet communities are battling over pixels
Coordinated Co ordinated co-ordinated user action. Wapo paywall
Adam
Article
The Washington Post
2022-04-04
Taylor Lorenz
Yes
No
No
14/05/2022 16:19:19
‘Ghostwriter’ Influence Campaign: Unknown Actors Leverage Website Compromises and Fabricated Content to Push Narratives Aligned with Russian Security Interests
Mandiant Threat Intelligence has tied together several information
operations that we assess with moderate confidence comprise part of a
broader influence campaign, ongoing since at least March 2017, aligned
with Russian security interests. The operations have primarily targeted
audiences in Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland with anti-North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) narratives, often leveraging website compromises or
spoofed email accounts to disseminate fabricated content, including falsified
correspondence from military officials.
• We have dubbed this campaign “Ghostwriter,” based on its use of inauthentic
personas posing as locals, journalists, and analysts within the target countries
to post articles and op-eds referencing the fabrications as source material to
a core set of third-party websites that publish user-generated content.
• In this report we outline the key tactics, techniques, and procedures we have
observed used in the Ghostwriter campaign and summarize incidents and
personas that we believe are part of the larger activity set. We continue to
investigate multiple other suspected Ghostwriter operations and personas
that are not detailed here.
Adam
Journal Article
FireEye
2020-07-29
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
03/05/2022 16:20:55
I've examined the #DurhamPartyGate hashtag, wanting to know more about how it started to trend, and whats being said. I found quite a few interesting things... 🧵
Adam
Tweets
@cshoggard
2022-04-28
Dr. Christian Hoggard
Inauthentic Trend
Yes
No
Yes
03/05/2022 16:21:48
The rise of “trafficking” language in ballot collection narratives
Adam
Information Laundering
Article
Centre for an Informed Public
2022-04-30
Mike Caulfield, Kayla Duskin, Stephen Prochaska, Scott Philips Johnson, Annie Denton, Zarine Kharazian, Kate Starbird
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
03/05/2022 16:23:10
Let's break down the Kremlin propaganda piece published today by @guardian. It's authored by an ex-PR advisor to the Kremlin, Angus Roxburgh. And it's quite indicative of how the "export" variant of Russian propaganda works.
Pro russia article re ukraine in guardian
Adam
Information Laundering
Tweets
@DMokryk
Danylo Mokryk
2022-04-27
Danylo Mokryk
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
Yes
03/05/2022 16:25:32
How a Global Hard-Right Christian Group Helped Cancel a Sex Education Play
How a (US) Global Hard-Right Christian Group Helped Cancel a (British) Sex Education Play
Adam
Information Laundering
Article
Vice News
2022-04-28
Sophia Smith Galer
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
03/05/2022 16:27:02
Unbelievable! Check out this #climatedenial masquerading as historical science from The Telegraph, 18th April. Paraphrased - "we dealt with some #climatechange in the past, so perhaps we can deal with human-caused climate change now" (1/3)
Climate denial masquerading as historical science
Adam
Information Laundering
Tweets
@stopfundingheat
2022-04-28
StopFundingHeat
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
Yes
03/05/2022 16:30:30
I worked at @NPR headquarters years ago and I was always struck by this problem. In an effort to maintain "balanced" reporting, stories would often present a fact from one side the debate & a falsehood from the other. Truth needs to take precedence over "hearing all sides."
I was always struck by this problem. In an effort to maintain balanced" reporting, stories would often present a fact from one side the debate & a falsehood from the other. Truth needs to take precedence over "hearing all sides.""
Adam
Narrative - False Equivalence
Tweets
@mishacollins
2022-03-13
Misha Collins
Yes
Yes
Yes
04/05/2022 11:50:11
libsoftiktok pushing traffic to north macedonian content farms
libsoftiktok pushing traffic to north macedonian content farms with source cited
Adam
Information Laundering
Tweets
@maxzzze
2022-04-19
Max
Amplification via Influencer, Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
Yes
04/05/2022 12:22:49
Contra Chrome
Website accessibly detailing how Chrome tracks you, and how that data can be used against you.
Adam
Gather User Data To Identify Influence Targets
Article
Contra Chrome
2022-02-01
Leah Elliott
Yes
Yes
No
04/05/2022 12:27:11
Internet ‘algospeak’ is changing our language in real time, from ‘nip nops’ to ‘le dollar bean’
Basically changing the way you speak to avoid algorithms.
"Internet ‘algospeak’ is changing our language in real time, from ‘nip nops’ to ‘le dollar bean’"
Adam
Use “Algospeak” to avoid automated content moderation
Article
The Washington Post
2022-04-08
Taylor Lorenz
Yes
Yes
No
04/05/2022 12:30:08
Singal and the Noise
Info Laundering w/ trans narrative + other links to studies maybe
Adam
Information Laundering
Article
Protean
2022-04-22
M.K. Anderson
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
04/05/2022 12:30:48
Pro-kremlin Disinformation Outlets Referenced by Hundreds of Wikipedia Articles
Infolaund Wikipedia cites loads of pro kremlin websites
Adam
Information Laundering
Article
EUvsDisinfo
2022-04-19
Unattributed
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
04/05/2022 12:32:54
If people are told a story MIGHT or COULD become true in the future, they find it less unethical to share in the present
"If people are told a story MIGHT or COULD become true in the future, they find it less unethical to share in the present!"
Understanding research into why people are OK posting bullshit online could be useful.
Adam
Tweets
@Sander_vdLinden
2022-04-27
Sander van der Linden
Yes
No
Yes
04/05/2022 12:36:02
How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens
How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens - The inside story of the world’s most notorious commercial spyware and the big tech companies waging war against it.
Adam
Gather User Data To Identify Influence Targets
Domestic Government (targeting Domestic Citizens)
Article
The New Yorker
2022-04-18
Ronan Farrow
Yes
Yes
No
04/05/2022 14:40:14
Our new research on how people come to view potentially harmful YouTube channels
This article might actually be contrary to "It's the algorithm's fault"
Algorithms as a Weapon Against Women: How YouTube Lures Boys and Young Men into the ‘Manosphere’
This research documents how YouTube’s algorithms contribute to promoting misogynistic, anti-feminist and other extremist content to Australian boys and young men. Using experimental accounts, this research tracks the content that YouTube, and their new ‘YouTube Shorts’ feature, routinely recommends to boys and young men.
In the crosshairs of Azerbaijan’s patriotic trolls
Harassment via Hashtag Hijacking - "Attendees of a recent conference in Warsaw experienced this first-hand. The OSCE’s Human Rights Dimension Meeting was held from 19 to 30 September, and Azerbaijan was one of several countries under discussion. Some 35 Azerbaijani trolls hijacked the official #HDIM2016 hashtag, sharing graphic war photographs of decapitated children and raped women to distract from the topic at hand. The trolls demanded western recognition of Armenia’s illegal occupation of Azerbaijani territory and the status of internally displaced people from Karabakh."
Adam
Harassment
Article
openDemocracy
Hashtag Hijacking
2016-11-22
Arzu Geybulla
Harassment
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 12:17:58
Iran accused of sowing Israel discontent with fake Jewish Facebook group
Iran accused of sowing Israel discontent with fake Jewish Facebook group
Adam
Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Community
Article
BBC News
2022-02-03
Tom Bateman
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 12:20:16
Tracking Exposed: Demanding That the Gods Explain Themselves
“Algospeak” is a new English dialect that emerged from the desperate attempts of social media users to “please the algorithm”: that is, to avoid words and phrases that cause social media platforms’ algorithms to suppress or block their communication.
Adam
Use “Algospeak” to avoid automated content moderation
Article
EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundation
2022-05-02
Cory Doctorow
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 12:25:05
TikTok is letting payday lenders prey on financially vulnerable users
Inauthentic advertising manipulating financially vulnerable people on TikTok using targeted advertising
Adam
Gather User Data To Identify Influence Targets
Article
Media Matters
2022-05-04
Olivia Little
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 12:25:47
Data Broker Is Selling Location Data of People Who Visit Abortion Clinics
Data Broker Is Selling Location Data of People Who Visit Abortion Clinics
Adam
Gather User Data To Identify Influence Targets
Article
Vice News
2022-04-03
Joseph Cox
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 12:27:10
I stumbled across a Libs of TikTok copycat account called “Pro-Aborts of Tiktok." It appears the account was created by anti-choice group Live Action. The acct was 1st followed by Live Action, its founder & former Project Veritas crony Lila Rose, & its dir. of government affairs
Someone on Twitter essentially finding a group being created which mimics Libs of TT's success and doesn't reveal who's behind it.
Adam
Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Community
Tweets
@justinhorowitz_
2022-05-03
Justin Horowitz
Yes
Yes
Yes
05/05/2022 13:40:59
Crowdsourced Twitter study reveals shocking scale of online abuse against women
Crowdsourced Twitter study reveals shocking scale of online abuse against women
Adam
Harassment
Article
Amnesty International
2018-12-18
Unattributed
Harassment
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 13:43:30
The Time I Told Twitter About a Threatening Post Against Me
Harassment Impact - People pulling out of online discussion
Adam
Harassment
Article
New York Times
2022-04-01
Charles Blow
Harassment
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 14:34:28
Ukraine war: Investigation finds hundreds of fake charity websites
Deplorable scam emails fake fundraising for Ukraine
Deplorable scam emails fake fundraising for Ukraine
Adam
Monetary Incentive
Article
BBC News
2022-03-23
Shiona McCallum
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 14:36:57
Ukraine war: Fraudsters exploit crisis to steal money
Ukraine war: Fraudsters exploit crisis to steal money
Adam
Monetary Incentive
Pretend to be a Legitimate Organisation, Pretend to be a Legitimate Organisation - Charity
Article
BBC News
2022-03-18
Kevin Peachey
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 14:39:03
How Russian Disinformation Goes From the Kremlin to QAnon to Fox News
How Russian Disinformation Goes From the Kremlin to QAnon to Fox News
Adam
Information Laundering
Article
The Daily Beast
2022-03-21
Jared Holt
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 14:41:37
How Alex Jones’ Conspiracy Empire Has Kept Itself Going Even While Being Banned From Social Media
How Alex Jones’ Conspiracy Empire Has Kept Itself Going Even While Being Banned From Social Media
Adam
Article
The Daily Beast
2022-04-29
Jared Holt
Calibrate: Aggressor
Information Laundering
Yes
No
No
05/05/2022 14:49:53
Meet @gabby_ucm, a Twitter account with a GAN-generated profile pic that has gained over 20 thousand followers since being created in September 2021. (GAN = "generative adversarial network", the technique used by https://thispersondoesnotexist.com to produce fake faces) #FridayShenaniGANs
Cool OSINT explanation w/ AI face. Successful Shelf Account found.
Adam
Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona - Use Follow Trains to Build Audience, Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona - Use AI Generated Images for Profile Pictures
Tweets
@conspirator0
2022-01-29
Conspirador Norteño
Yes
Yes
Yes
05/05/2022 14:51:10
We've done a decent amount of research on the use of GAN-generated images over the last two years, mostly fake face "photos" such as those produced by thispersondoesnotexist(dot)com. Here are all of our related threads in one place.
LOADS of Twitter threads on AI Generated PFPs on Twitter with different narratives.
Adam
Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona - Use AI Generated Images for Profile Pictures
Tweets
@conspirator0
2020-11-01
Conspirador Norteño
Yes
Yes
Yes
05/05/2022 14:51:54
Follow trains are used by a variety of Twitter users to grow their reach. Some trains connect users from a given country or who share a political agenda, while others aim to maximize follower gains regardless of who the followers are.
Detailed explanation of follow trains w/ potential attribution
Adam
Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona - Use Follow Trains to Build Audience
Tweets
@conspirator0
2022-01-22
Conspirador Norteño
Yes
Yes
Yes
05/05/2022 14:53:35
Conspiracy Clickbait: This One Weird Trick Will Undermine Democracy
This report series explores three case studies of how networks linked to individuals in Vietnam are using QAnon conspiracy theories and US political disinformation to generate revenue. These case studies illustrate that although the motive may be commercial, the effect of such networks is to deepen political division and amplify conspiracy theories and disinformation.
While each individual network may only have a small impact, the cumulative impact of many such networks around the world may be profound. This growing industry is disproportionately targeted at the US, and therefore should be of particular concern for US policymakers and practitioners.
Adam
Monetary Incentive
Clickbait
Article
ISD - Institute for Strategic Dialogue
2022-01-19
Elise Thomas
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 15:11:58
How Russia and Right-Wing Americans Converged on War in Ukraine
How Russia and Right-Wing Americans Converged on War in Ukraine - Some conservatives have echoed the Kremlin’s misleading claims about the war and vice versa, giving each other’s assertions a sheen of credibility.
Adam
Information Laundering
Article
New York Times
2022-03-23
Sheera Frenkel, Stuart Thompson
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 15:41:23
Irony Poisoning - How a generation has lost the ability for sincerity, and how to clamber back out.
Irony Poisoning
How a generation has lost the ability for sincerity, and how to clamber back out.
Adam
Article
Allen Forstel
2020-10-05
Allen Forstel
Irony Poisoning
Yes
No
No
05/05/2022 15:42:22
Should We All Be Taking ‘Irony Poisoning’ More Seriously?
Should We All Be Taking ‘Irony Poisoning’ More Seriously?
Adam
Article
New York Times
2018-07-23
Max Fisher, Amanda Taub
Irony Poisoning
Yes
No
No
05/05/2022 15:43:01
Irony Poisoning - Lame jokes won’t save us from the existential void
Irony Poisoning
Lame jokes won’t save us from the existential void
Adam
Article
Kit Wilson
2022-01-14
Kit Wilson
Irony Poisoning
Yes
No
No
05/05/2022 15:45:38
Deadly serious': Ex neo-Nazi and Iron March user speaks out on de-radicalization
Deadly serious': Ex neo-Nazi and Iron March user speaks out on de-radicalization
Adam
Article
CTV News
2019-12-04
Christy Somos
Irony Poisoning
Yes
No
No
05/05/2022 15:46:23
On being diagnosed with irony poisoning
On being diagnosed with irony poisoning
Adam
Article
diggit magazine
2019-03-14
Piia Varis
Irony Poisoning
Yes
No
No
05/05/2022 15:47:05
Two days after a close associate of theirs was arrested at the Coutts blockade and gear featuring their logo was seized, members of the Diagolon network are on the defensive, with some claiming the movement is nothing more than a joke. Good time for a 🧵 on irony poisoning!
Twitter thread on Irony Poisoning
Adam
Tweets
@quintal_etienne
2022-02-16
Étienne Quintal
Irony Poisoning
Yes
No
Yes
05/05/2022 15:48:00
Anatomy of a death threat
Anatomy of a death threat
Adam
Harassment
Article, Infographic
Reuters
2021-12-30
Peter Eisler, Jason Szep, Linda So, Sam Hart
Harassment
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 15:54:44
The Murky Origin Story of #IstandwithRussia
To skew public debate, fake accounts & media outlets circumvented moderation, flying under the radar for 7 years before achieving prominence in the first days of the Russian invasion.
Adam
Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona
Article
ISD - Institute for Strategic Dialogue
2022-05-05
Unattributed
Inauthentic Trend
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 15:59:36
Enlisting Useful Idiots: The Ties between Online Harassment and Disinformation
Enlisting Useful Idiots: The Ties between Online Harassment and Disinformation
Adam
Harassment
Journal Article
Colorado Technology Law Journal
2021-01-29
Brittan Heller
Harassment
Yes
Yes
No
05/05/2022 16:02:55
A classic example of a misleading headline in Rus state media on #Ukraine: “Brits compared Russian and NATO armies and decided not to defend Ukraine”.
But who are these “Brits”? Turns out these are commenters underneath a Daily Express article…
Comments under UK news articles are reported on as evidence of UK attitudes. This is obviously unreliable data.
Adam
Comments on News Articles, Narrative - Narrative Built on Statistical Fallacy
Tweets
@O_Rob1nson
Comments on News Articles
2022-02-02
Olga Robinson
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
Yes
05/05/2022 16:04:25
Thinking more or thinking differently? Using drift-diffusion modeling to illuminate why accuracy prompts decrease misinformation sharing
MITIGATION - Recent experiments have found that prompting people to think about accuracy reduces the sharing of misinformation. The cognitive mechanism that produces this effect, however, remains unclear. Do accuracy prompts cause people to "stop and think," increasing deliberation? Or do they change what people think about, drawing attention to accuracy?
Adam
Journal Article
PsyArXiv
2022-03-07
Hause Lin, Gordon Pennycook, David Rand
Calibrate: Defender
Yes
No
No
05/05/2022 16:11:09
[Thread] a short story about pandemic misinformation & biased reporting
A very good thread showing the fallout of statistical bullshit being reported in lots of different media outlets
Adam
Narrative - Narrative Built on Statistical Fallacy
Tweets
@orla_hegarty
2022-02-12
Orla Hegarty
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
Yes
09/05/2022 09:50:47
This whole "the NYT ruined Wordle!" thing is a great case study in confirmation bias. It also gives us some insight into human nature that helps explain how conspiracy theories work.
Confirmation Bias with regards to WORDLE
---
1) What feels true is not always what's actually true.
2) We tend to give too much weight to recent experience, which can lead us to wrong conclusions.
3) Recognizing and accounting for our preconceived biases is essential to the process of finding truth.
Adam
Tweets
@mjshally
2022-02-20
Matthew Shallenberger
Yes
No
Yes
09/05/2022 10:02:01
Metadata shows pro-Russian separatists filmed evacuation video days earlier
Metadata shows pro-Russian separatists filmed evacuation video days earlier
Adam
Article
Axios
Fabricated Content
2022-02-18
Zachary Basu
Yes
No
No
09/05/2022 10:02:40
The Internet Is Debunking Russian War Propaganda in Real Time
The Internet Is Debunking Russian War Propaganda in Real Time
Adam
Article
Vice News
Fabricated Content
2022-02-22
Matthew Gault
Yes
No
No
09/05/2022 10:04:01
Autopsied bodies and false flags: How pro-Russian disinformation spreads chaos in Ukraine
Autopsied bodies and false flags: How pro-Russian disinformation spreads chaos in Ukraine
Adam
Comments on News Articles
Article
Grid
Comments on News Articles
2022-02-23
Anya van Wagtendonk, Jason Paladino
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 09:01:52
Ukraine war: The stolen faces used to promote Vladimir Putin
Ukraine war: The stolen faces used to promote Vladimir Putin
Adam
Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona - Use Stolen Images for Profile Pictures
Legitimate users who agree with the message shared, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Automate Amplification with Bots
Article
BBC News
2022-05-10
Juliana Gragnani, Medhavi Arora, Seraj Ali
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 09:10:51
OZY CEO Carlos Watson today tweeted out a very positive article, published by http://techbullion.com, about OZY's planned redesign, and its efforts related to ethics and transparency. The story is credited to writer "Hugh Grant," who uses a free stock image as his author photo.
Basically this guy has a really good tweet thread about how some news website is just letting people pay to put whatever they want on there and pass it off as news.
I guess this would cover:
- DECIDE TO ACT: - ??? POSITION: We don't learn how TechBull created its subscriber base. But we do see the threat actor paying someone who's built an audience to do whatever.
- Position - Pay for Access to Existing Audience - News Website
- PRODUCE:
- PUBLISH:
Adam
Pay for Access to Existing Audience - News Website
Tweets
@CraigSilverman
2022-02-09
Craig Silverman
Yes
Yes
Yes
10/05/2022 09:11:22
it appears that the going rate for a post on techbullion can be anywhere from $120 a post to $2000 for a year of publishing privileges
Pay for Access to Existing Audience - News Website
Tweets
@parismartineau
2022-02-09
Paris Martineau
Yes
Yes
Yes
10/05/2022 09:15:16
[P]olitical discussions draw in status-hungry individuals who actually like to offend, online & off, but are more visible online.
Political discussions draw in status-hungry individuals who actually like to offend, online & off, but are more visible online.
Adam
Personality Trait
Tweets
@emollick
2022-02-19
Ethan Mollick
Yes
Yes
Yes
10/05/2022 09:24:10
OK, so we need to talk about Kevin (well, Steve Kevin)! Stand aside #TinderSwindler, meet the pro-Putin #TwitterSwindler. This is a thread about the wild crossover of romance scams & pro-Kremlin soc media propaganda
Great takedown of an RU shelf account
Adam
Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona
Tweets
@marcowenjones
2022-03-04
Marc Owen Jones
Yes
Yes
Yes
10/05/2022 09:29:23
Hope you're ready for an epic thread! It begins with a canal project in Afghanistan and a cafe worker called Sophia, but ends by explaining how 91% of likes on UAE Crown Prince @MohamedBinZayed's tweets are created by at least 11,000 bots/fake accounts #disinformation #UAE
The hackers targeted journalists, military personnel and local public officials in Ukraine, using compromised email accounts and passwords to log into their Facebook profiles. The hacked accounts would then post a video of what they said was a Ukrainian waving a white flag of surrender.
Adam
Hacked Accounts (T0011), Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona - Use Stolen Images for Profile Pictures
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Article
NBC News
2022-02-28
Ben Collins, Jo Ling Kent
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 10:06:46
Facebook removes Russian propaganda outlet in Ukraine
On April 30, as part of a larger takedown, Facebook removed 140 assets connected to Russian propaganda outlets News Front and South Front, of which the DFRLab had access to a subset of 69 assets.
Adam
Pretend to Be a Legitimate Organisation, Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona, Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona - Use Stolen Images for Profile Pictures, Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Community
Narrative - False Equivalence
Position a Backup Account (in case primary account is banned)
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Information Laundering
Article
DFRLab
Fabricated Content
2020-05-05
Kanishk Karan, Roman Osadchuk, Givi Gigitashvili, Esteban Ponce de León, Jean Le Roux
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 10:09:56
The eagle eyed among you will notice Dr_Adhira's picture is flipped on the vertical access. This is a common tactic in influence operations as it makes reverse image searches more difficult. Remember the old addage, only the guilty flip their images!
6/ The eagle eyed among you will notice Dr_Adhira's picture is flipped on the vertical access. This is a common tactic in influence operations as it makes reverse image searches more difficult. Remember the old addage, only the guilty flip their images!
Adam
Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona - Use AI Generated Images for Profile Pictures
Tweets
@marcowenjones
2022-03-06
Marc Owen Jones
Yes
Yes
Yes
10/05/2022 15:34:20
Cloaked science: the Yan reports
This paper describes a 2020 disinformation campaign promoting the unsubstantiated claim that the novel coronavirus is the product of a Chinese bioweapons program. Exploiting a vulnerability in open-access scientific publishing, the campaign was based on papers posted to an online preprint repository designed to accelerate the diffusion of scientific knowledge. This provided the campaign with an air of scientific legitimacy, helped it reach millions of Americans, and muddied public discourse over the origins of SARS-CoV-2. This case study offers insights into the tactics and practices of media manipulation, the contested nature of modern epistemic systems, the interplay of technical and social systems, and the vulnerability of open systems to manipulation.
Adam
Information Laundering
Journal Article
Information, Communication & Society
2021-10-01
Jennifer Nilsen, Joan Donovan, Rob Faris
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 15:35:03
Reddit: US-UK NHS ‘Sale’ Docs Leaked by Russia
Reddit: US-UK NHS ‘Sale’ Docs Leaked by Russia
Adam
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Information Laundering
Article
Infosecurity Magazine
2019-12-09
Phil Muncaster
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 15:37:09
2019 Global Inventory of Organised
Social Media Manipulation
Around the world,
government
actors are using
social media to
manufacture
consensus,
automate
suppression,
and undermine
trust in the liberal
international order.
Adam
Domestic Government (targeting Domestic Citizens), Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Journal Article
DemTech
2019-09-25
Samantha Bradshaw, Philip N. Howard
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 15:51:15
The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model
The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model (COOL!!)
Adam
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Firehose of Falsehood
Article
RAND
2016-01-01
Christopher Paul, Miriam Matthews
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 15:54:50
The role of psychological warfare in the battle for Ukraine
American Psychological Association - LINKS TO LOTS OF GOOD RESEARCH!!!!!!!!!
The role of psychological warfare in the battle for Ukraine
Social media disinformation and manipulation are causing confusion, fueling hostilities, and amplifying atrocities around the world
Adam
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Article
APA - American Psychological Association
2022-04-11
Zara Abrams
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 15:55:16
Systematic review: YouTube recommendations and problematic content
Systematic review: YouTube recommendations and problematic content
Key Russian tactic, especially from diplomatic accounts, is to exploit the simple logic is that it’s easier to create a lie on social media than expose a lie. Tie down fact checkers, then pirouette away to the grotesque falsehood before anyone notices the last.
Tweet: Key Russian tactic, especially from diplomatic accounts, is to exploit the simple logic is that it’s easier to create a lie on social media than expose a lie. Tie down fact checkers, then pirouette away to the grotesque falsehood before anyone notices the last.
Adam
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Firehose of Falsehood
Tweets
@carljackmiller
2022-03-10
Carl Miller
Yes
Yes
Yes
10/05/2022 16:00:46
Millions of Leftists Are Reposting Kremlin Misinformation by Mistake
Millions of Leftists Are Reposting Kremlin Misinformation by Mistake
news site is actually russian front
Adam
Pretend to be a Legitimate Organisation
Narrative - Whataboutism
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Information Laundering
Article
Vice News
2022-03-04
David Gilbert
Whataboutism
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 16:01:08
The rise of 'whataboutism' in Russian media after Ferguson
The rise of 'whataboutism' in Russian media after Ferguson
Adam
Narrative - Whataboutism
Article
Russia Direct
2014-08-22
Anastasia Borik
Whataboutism
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 16:17:17
Datasets Have Worldviews
Basically a very good way to explain why "Datasets have Worldviews" / BIAS / AI
Adam
Narrative - Narrative Built on Statistical Fallacy
Infographic, Article
PAIR
2022-01-01
Dylan Baker
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 16:20:27
Quick thread: I spent the last week figuring how the American far-right became obsessed with "Ukranian biolabs."
Tweet thread that really, really well tracks the "Biolabs in Ukraine" narrative along its laundry journey
Adam
Narrative - Trial Balloons
Information Laundering
Tweets
@oneunderscore__
2022-03-14
Ben Collins
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
Yes
10/05/2022 16:21:03
Russian propaganda on Ukraine's non-existent 'biolabs' boosted by U.S. far right
Russian propaganda on Ukraine's non-existent 'biolabs' boosted by U.S. far right
Adam
Information Laundering
Article
NBC News
2022-03-14
Ben Collins, Kevin Collier
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 16:25:32
Explainer: The Kremlin's "Polish invasion" narrative
Explainer: The Kremlin's "Polish invasion" narrative
Adam
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Article
Centre for Information Resilience
2022-05-06
Elise Thomas
Yes
Yes
No
10/05/2022 16:32:47
They Know How Journalism Works! They’re Just Against It!
This new right fundamentally doesn’t want "newsgathering" to happen. They want a chaotic information stream of unverifiable bullshit and context collapse and propaganda. Their backers, the people behind the whole project, are philosophically and materially opposed to the idea that true things should be uncovered and verified and disseminated publicly about, well, them, and their projects.
The mission is mainly to prevent, stigmatize, and delegitimize the discovery and confirmation and dissemination of information about how a few people got their money, where they keep it, and what they do with it—like spending it on subsidizing bigotry about trans people and getting gay teachers fired.
Adam
Make it Harder to Find Out the Truth (in general)
Article
Alex Pareene
2022-04-20
Alex Pareene
Yes
Yes
No
11/05/2022 13:55:05
Unprompted and Unwarranted: YouTube’s Algorithm is Putting Young Men at Risk in Australia
Unprompted and Unwarranted: YouTube’s Algorithm is Putting Young Men at Risk in Australia
Very disturbing reporting. The Guardian giving a lot of credence to the Israeli side of events in their subheading while accusing the killing of Al Jazeera journalist as an accusation from "Al Jazeera". Even the BBC didn't go this far #ShireenAbuAkleh
BOTH SIDES!!
Very disturbing reporting. The Guardian giving a lot of credence to the Israeli side of events in their subheading while accusing the killing of Al Jazeera journalist as an accusation from "Al Jazeera". Even the BBC didn't go this far #ShireenAbuAkleh
Adam
Mainstream Media - Uncritically paraphrase false narrative
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Tweets
@marcowenjones
2022-05-11
Marc Owen Jones
Yes
Yes
Yes
12/05/2022 10:04:33
The Kremlin’s Amplifiers in Germany
Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken of the danger of “social bots,” automated accounts which masquerade as humans to distort discussions on social media. The head of German domestic intelligence has warned of potential Russian hacking and disinformation.
The analysis shows that the most active amplifiers of these outlets do, indeed, include apparent bots, but they are not the most important factor. The signals are significantly boosted by pro-Kremlin activists, far-right users, and anti-migrant users, who have been known to work together to harass critics.
One reason for this is that some of the Kremlin’s most active amplifiers appear to be political bots or cyborgs, which are automated or semi-automated to post at a rapid rate with little to no human intervention. The purpose of such bots is typically to amplify a message or make an account look more popular than it really is.
Adam
Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Automate Amplification with Bots, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Twitter, Legitimate users who agree with the message shared
Article
ISD - Institute for Strategic Dialogue
2017-06-22
Ben Nimmo
Yes
Yes
No
12/05/2022 10:56:18
KEY FINDINGS: Iranian Propaganda Network Goes Down
Laundering propaganda
The pages often shared articles from websites which reproduced, verbatim, content from Iranian state or state-allied outlets, such as PressTV. They functioned as a virtual laundromat for Iranian propaganda, stripping it of its attribution and passing it on to unsuspecting readers as an independent product.
Adam
Information Laundering
Article
ISD - Institute for Strategic Dialogue
2019-03-26
Ben Nimmo, Nika Aleksejeva, Kanishk Karan, Daniel Weimert
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
No
13/05/2022 13:55:42
Shireen Abu Akleh and Israel's disinformation playbook
Shireen Abu Akleh and Israel's disinformation playbook
Adam
Make it Harder to Find Out the Truth (in general)
Have narratives prepared for immediate publication after significant event
Narrative - False Equivalence, Narrative - Create false parity / equal probability between two explanations for events
Mainstream Media - Uncritically paraphrase false narrative
Call for (inauthentic) investigation
Article
The New Arab
2022-05-12
Marc Owen Jones
Yes
Yes
No
14/05/2022 15:15:37
Artful paltering: The risks and rewards of using truthful statements to mislead others
Paltering is the active use of truthful statements to convey a misleading impression. Across 2 pilot studies and 6 experiments, we identify paltering as a distinct form of deception. Paltering differs from lying by omission (the passive omission of relevant information) and lying by commission (the active use of false statements). Our findings reveal that paltering is common in negotiations and that many negotiators prefer to palter than to lie by commission. Paltering, however, may promote conflict fueled by self-serving interpretations; palterers focus on the veracity of their statements ("I told the truth"), whereas targets focus on the misleading impression palters convey ("I was misled"). We also find that targets perceive palters to be especially unethical when palters are used in response to direct questions as opposed to when they are unprompted. Taken together, we show that paltering is a common, but risky, negotiation tactic. Compared with negotiators who tell the truth, negotiators who palter are likely to claim additional value, but increase the likelihood of impasse and harm to their reputations. (PsycINFO Database Record
Adam
Narrative - Paltering
Journal Article
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
2017-01-01
Todd Rogers, Richard Zeckhauser, Francesca Gino, Michael Norton, Maurice Schweitzer
Yes
Yes
No
14/05/2022 15:17:40
How to hijack online discourse
1. Create a simple narrative, an objectionable meme, keep it topical. If you can piss people off, it’ll spread quicker.
2. Have a few people share it or hire bots. It doesn’t matter which, you just need impressions.
(1/5)
Adam
Information Laundering
Tweets
@JordanWildon
2022-03-03
Jordan Wildon
Information Laundering
Yes
Yes
Yes
14/05/2022 15:38:38
Societal Engineering: Propaganda Through Redefinition of Words
Adam
Narrative - Redefine / Appropriate meaning of words
Article
Societal Engineering
2019-06-13
Desmond Donovan
Yes
Yes
No
14/05/2022 15:39:21
In the age of online factions (🌐🌹🚲🐝🐸etc), redefinition of words to suit a group—affirm worldview, delineate enemies, take/hold power—happens astonishingly fast. An old propaganda strategy at internet speed, a rhetorical battle to claim moral high ground and activate crowds.
Adam
Narrative - Redefine / Appropriate meaning of words
Tweets
@noUpside
2022-02-06
Renee DiResta
Yes
Yes
Yes
14/05/2022 15:39:53
What is so striking is how eager Russian propagandists have been to appropriate western vocabulary: - Disinformation disguised as fact checks - Harassment disguised as investigations - Exploiting group think under the banner of independent research - Control as self discovery
Adam
Narrative - Redefine / Appropriate meaning of words
Tweets
@carljackmiller
2022-03-09
Carl Miller
Yes
Yes
Yes
14/05/2022 15:40:39
Russian Telegram channel embraces fact-checking tropes to spread disinformation
On February 23, 2022, the Telegram channel Война с фейками (“War on Fakes”) first appeared online, ending its first day with a modest 161 subscribers. It quickly skyrocketed; within two weeks, War on Fakes grew to over 625,000 subscribers and is now one of the top Telegram channels in Russia, with a reach of more than 30 million daily views. The channel, which presents itself as debunking the “information war against Russia,” spreads disinformation and propaganda under the façade of a fact-checking service. Its staggering growth since its inception indicates it may be gaining traction more broadly, including through the publishing of an English-language website.
Adam
Narrative - Redefine / Appropriate meaning of words
Article
DFRLab
2022-03-07
Ingrid Dickinson
Yes
Yes
No
14/05/2022 15:49:33
#IstandwithRussia – Anatomy of a Pro-Kremlin Influence Operation
The #IstandwishRussia and #IstandwithPutin hashtags have the hallmarks of an influence operation masquerading as a grassroots social movement.
We ask: In the coming days, how can we detect the next operation?
Adam
Narrative - Trial Balloons, Position -
Shelf Accounts
Legitimate users who agree with the message shared, Mainstream Media - Uncritically repeat false narrative, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Automate Amplification with Bots, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Twitter
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Article
ISD - Institute for Strategic Dialogue
2022-03-08
Carl Miller, Jeremy Reffin
Amplification via Influencer
Yes
Yes
No
14/05/2022 15:52:16
thread is about pro-Russian propaganda in the Greek Twittersphere inspired by my colleague @marcowenjones research on disinformation war currently unleashed on Twitter. The hashtags analyzed are "Με_τον_Πούτιν" "Με_την_Ρωσία"
Adam
Shell Accounts
Coordinate with Other Users to Inauthentically Boost Online Content, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Twitter
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Tweets
@gmikros
2022-03-06
George Mikros
Yes
Yes
Yes
14/05/2022 16:07:59
1/ Big #China thread drop! I've identified a network of 2-7000 (& probably more) fake accounts spreading pro-China propaganda in Chinese & English. Many of them are presenting the general argument that the US caused the #Ukraine conflict for its own benefit.
Adam
Hacked Accounts (T0011), Shelf Accounts, Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona, Shelf Accounts - Develop Inauthentic Online Persona - Use Stolen Images for Profile Pictures, Shell Accounts
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Tweets
@marcowenjones
2022-04-08
Marc Owen Jones
Yes
Yes
Yes
14/05/2022 16:14:35
Predictably, the Russian government is going with the "don't believe your lying eyes" line on the Bucha massacre in Ukraine. This is Russia's go-to propaganda line when they've done something visible and inexcusable: it was all staged by and for the Western media.
Adam
Narrative - Inauthentically claim true events are a hoax
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
Tweets
@oneunderscore__
2022-04-03
Ben Collins
Yes
Yes
Yes
14/05/2022 16:23:56
Hiding in Plain Sight: PAC-Connected Activists Set Up ‘Local News’ Outlets
Star News Digital Media, Inc. may look like a media company that produces local news, but a Snopes investigation reveals deep, undisclosed connections to political activism.
Adam
Pretend to be a Legitimate Organisation - Local News
Article
Snopes
2019-03-04
Alex Kasprak, Bethania Palma, Chris Reilly, Vinny Green
Yes
Yes
No
14/05/2022 16:24:25
‘Fake newspapers’ promoting local candidates reported on social media across the UK
The Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives have been accused of distributing 'fake' newspapers in 13 constituencies.
Adam
Pretend to be a Legitimate Organisation - Local News
Domestic Government (targeting Domestic Citizens)
Article
First Draft
2019-11-21
Ali Abbas Ahmadi
Yes
Yes
No
14/05/2022 17:07:00
TRADING UP THE CHAIN
Trading up the chain is the process of getting a story from a small, local, or niche platform or media outlet to a more popular, national news service.1 If an article or post gains enough traction on the small, local, or niche platform, it may be reported on by a larger site—either to be promoted or debunked.2 Regardless, the additional coverage spreads the original story to a new and larger audience. If successful, a line from a blog post or tweet can become national news.
Adam
Trading up the chain
Article
The Media Manipulation Casebook
2020-05-05
Unattributed
Yes
Yes
No
14/05/2022 17:08:55
Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis
Coordinate with Other Users to Inauthentically Boost Online Content, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Automate Amplification with Bots
Rift in Community - Family, impact morale of Ukrainian society
Foreign Government (targeting Foreign Citizens)
unspecified social media
Bleeping Computer
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, War
Inauthentic Social Media Accounts
unspecified social media
Bot Account, Inauthentic Post Amplification, Inauthentic Account
Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Automate Amplification with Bots, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Twitter
Pretend to be a Legitimate Organisation - Human Rights
Narrative - Exploit existing rift in community, Narrative - Inauthentically align new MAE with desired narrative, Re-use previously published inauthentic content
Narrative amplified by Influencer
Article
Logically
Text post
Twitter
India, Pakistan
2022-06-02
Ishaana Aiyanna, Ravie Lakshmanan
Position: Aggressor, Amplify: Aggressor
Yes
Yes
No
15/06/2022 14:43:46
Pakistani Disinfo Networks Exploit General Rawat Helicopter Crash
The helicopter crash on December 8, 2021 that killed Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife, and 12 other military personnel near Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, shocked the nation. Within hours of the crash confirmation by official sources, conspiracy theories and narratives started gaining traction online, claiming that this crash was not an accident and that there was a plot to kill India’s top-ranking military official.
Adam
Pretend to be a Legitimate Organisation - Think Tank
Narrative - Exploit existing rift in community, Narrative - Inauthentically align new MAE with desired narrative
Mainstream Media - Uncritically paraphrase false narrative, Narrative amplified by Influencer, Use Inauthentic Accounts to Boost Online Content - Automate Amplification with Bots, Amplified by account which has previously contributed to information disorder
How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled
But it's not valuable, and it never has been. And what's more, the makers of plastic — the nation's largest oil and gas companies — have known this all along, even as they spent millions of dollars telling the American public the opposite.
Dylan
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Monetary Incentive
Start campaign to lead discussion
Ad campaigns, TV commercials, adoption of recycling logo on plastic products to mislead consumer
Published offline, pre-Internet days, print and TV media
Mislead public through (dis)information campaigns, public does the rest
Obfuscate origin of campaigns, lead the conversation
Joe Rogan: Four claims from his Spotify podcast fact-checked
Joe Rogan has been criticised for helping spread misinformation on his podcast.
Spotify reportedly paid $100m (£75m) in 2020 for rights to The Joe Rogan Experience, which is the streaming service's top podcast. It is reportedly downloaded almost 200 million times a month.
On the show, the US broadcaster hosts a wide variety of guests who discuss their views on a range of topics - but some episodes have featured false and misleading claims.
Here are four of them fact-checked.
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Fact Check
BBC News, BBC Reality Check
Anti-Vaccine, Coronavirus, Healthcare
Public Figure / Celebrity
2022-01-31
Unattributed
Yes
No
No
04/09/2022 10:33:47
Anti-trans stalkers at Kiwi Farms are chasing one victim around the world. Their list of targets is growing.
Kiwi Farms is an internet message board known for being an epicenter of vicious, anti-trans harassment campaigns. It has operated for nearly a decade with the backing of some tech companies that refuse to drop services for it. But now, as the site’s users launch a wave of anti-trans attacks, a trans Twitch streamer targeted by Kiwi Farms is spearheading an unprecedented campaign to take down the fringe website.
Adam
I'm going all the way (Continue to Stage 2)
Harass People Based on Identities
Archive sensitive information on targets of harassment, Prevent removal of harmful content using CDN providers
Direct online community to participate in Harassment
Suicide of Target
Article
NBC News
Anti-Trans
2022-09-02
Ben Collins, Kat Tenbarge
Yes
Yes
No
Anti-vax groups use carrot emojis to hide Facebook posts
Facebook groups are using the carrot emoji to hide anti-vax content from automated moderation tools.
Adam
Harass People Based on Identities
Use “Algospeak” to avoid automated content moderation
Article
BBC News
Anti-Vaccine, White Supremacy
Facebook
2022-09-16
Zoe Kleinman
Yes
Yes
No
19/10/2022 12:46:34
MITRE ATT&CK; Compromise Accounts
Adversaries may compromise accounts with services that can be used during targeting. For operations incorporating social engineering, the utilization of an online persona may be important. Rather than creating and cultivating accounts (i.e. Establish Accounts), adversaries may compromise existing accounts. Utilizing an existing persona may engender a level of trust in a potential victim if they have a relationship, or knowledge of, the compromised persona.
Adam
Hacked Accounts (T0011)
Article
MITRE
Compromised Account
Compromised Account
2021-10-16
Unattributed
Yes
Yes
No
19/10/2022 12:52:23
Major US Twitter accounts hacked in Bitcoin scam
Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates are among many prominent US figures targeted by hackers on Twitter in an apparent Bitcoin scam.
The official accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Kanye West also requested donations in the cryptocurrency.
"Everyone is asking me to give back," a tweet from Mr Gates' account said. "You send $1,000, I send you back $2,000."
Adam
Monetary Incentive
Hacked Accounts (T0011)
Article
BBC News
2020-05-16
Joe Tidy
Yes
Yes
No
20/10/2022 10:22:50
Coronavirus: Inside the pro-China network targeting the US, Hong Kong and an exiled tycoon
Hundreds of fake or hijacked social media accounts have been pushing pro-Chinese government messages about the coronavirus pandemic on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, a BBC investigation has found.
Adam
Hacked Accounts (T0011)
Article
BBC News
Coronavirus
2020-05-28
Benjamin Strick, Olga Robinson, Shayan Sardarizadeh
Yes
Yes
No
20/10/2022 20:50:48
AI’s coming home: How Artificial Intelligence Can Help Tackle Racist Emoji in Football
While Twitter and Instagram’s algorithms claim to detect hateful and abusive content, there appears to be a large emoji-shaped hole in their defences. Despite users repeatedly flagging racist use of the monkey ([🐒]), banana ([🍌]) and watermelon emoji ([🍉]), abuse expressed in emoji form was not flagged by Instagram or Twitter’s content moderation algorithms.
Adam
Harass People Based on Identities
Harassment
Use “Algospeak” to avoid automated content moderation
Extremist - White Supremacist
Article
Oxford Internet Institute
White Supremacy
2021-07-16
Hannah Rose Kirk
Yes
Yes
No
20/10/2022 20:52:02
Emoji Help Anti-Vaccine Posts Avoid Moderation on Facebook
Anti-vaccine groups are increasing their use of code words to avoid the prying eyes of moderators at Facebook.
Anti-vaxxers, whose activity is limited on many platforms, have started using elaborate quotes and phrases to spread cloaked misinformation about the drugs that help fight Covid-19. In Facebook groups and pages with names like “Died Suddenly,” users congregate and claim to be mourning friends and family members who have “eaten the cake,” which is code for taking vaccines.
Adam
Use “Algospeak” to avoid automated content moderation