Authoritarian regimes and their proxies use social media, other online information platforms, and traditional media to attempt to shape global and domestic narratives; to sow chaos and confusion in democracies; and to undermine democratic processes. Find ASD’s work on the many ways malign actors manipulate information to interfere in democracies, including by spreading disinformation, on this page.
Interference Matters
Catch Me If EU Can: How RT and Sputnik Evade EU Content Bans
Caught in the Spider’s Web: Military Bloggers Revealed Gaps in Russia’s Military and Information Defense
Ukraine’s operation, “Spider’s Web”, took the Kremlin by surprise and sent shockwaves from targeted military airfields to destinations far away from the frontline. Even though the final number of destroyed and damaged military planes decreased by ha [...]
Catch Me If EU Can: How RT and Sputnik Evade EU Content Bans
It has been well documented that Russian state media outlets have developed various ways to circumvent EU sanctions to continue reaching audiences in Europe. This often includes the use of mirror sites—identical copies of Russian state media website [...]
Taming the Rising Lion: Alignment of Iranian, Russian, and Chinese Narratives on the Israel-Iran Conflict
Dubbing it “Operation Rising Lion”, Israel has launched widespread airstrikes across Iran, hitting key nuclear facilities and killing several military commanders and intensifying decades of hostility between Tehran and Tel Aviv. Given Iran’s long-st [...]
Russia’s Messages in English and Spanish Differ on Los Angeles Protests, Krystyna Sikora and Peter Benzoni Tell Factchequeado (in Spanish)
ASD researchers Krystyna Sikora and Peter Benzoni told Factchequeado how Russian messaging differed depending on whether the Kremlin wrote in English or Spanish in response to protests in Los Angeles, California about US President Donald Trump's imm [...]
Europe’s Moment of Truth: A Democracy Shield for Today and Tomorrow
Executive Summary Democracy in Europe is under growing pressure. Authoritarian regimes like Russia and the People’s Republic of China are conducting increasingly sophisticated foreign interference campaigns that blend information manipulation, cyb [...]
Foreign Information Operations Targeting California and Other States
Following the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles this year, Russian state media leveraged the disaster to sow division and undermine trust in relief efforts. While it may be easy to dismiss foreign interference as a federal concern, foreign advers [...]
Digital Threats and Propaganda: How North Carolina and Other States are Targeted by Foreign Actors
The World Affairs Council of Charlotte held an exclusive lunch event on Thursday, May 29 featuring ASD experts who unpacked how countries like Russia, China, and Iran are actively shaping public discourse and influencing communities in North Carolin [...]
New Proxy, Same as the Old Proxy: Key Sites of Russia’s Covert Influence in Poland
Poland was one of the first countries to take steps to curb Russian propaganda in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Days after the invasion, Poland’s broadcasting regulator banned five Russian outlets—including RT and Sputnik—on c [...]
Venezuela Through the Sino-Russian Media Playbook
Russia and China’s information operations in Venezuela have been extensively discussed and documented. Their media strategy has involved forming partnerships with ideologically aligned national and regional outlets such as TeleSUR, promoting revisio [...]
The Invisible Battlefield
The EU must make information warfare a core defense priority. With high-level summits, new initiatives, and massive spending commitments dominating headlines, the EU appears poised for a collective Zeitenwende in defense. Its exact contours remain u [...]
Vassilis Ntousas Moderates GMF Discussion on EU Responses to Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference
Foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) is a growing threat to democracies worldwide, with social media platforms as prime battlegrounds. In Europe, domestic and foreign malign actors engage in information operations aimed at underm [...]
Searching for Geopolitical Direction: The Sources Russian and Romanian Speakers Encountered on Search Engines Prior to Moldova’s 2024 Votes
Since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Moldova has oscillated between East and West, or between closer ties with Russia or the EU. Last fall, the country faced this existential question once again. Moldovans went to the polls to selec [...]