The app's main draw is its hands-off content moderation approach. Experts worry that can lead to harmful false information spreads on other platforms. Parler, the social media platform marketed as a “free speech social network” with a hands-off appro [...]
Last week’s U.S. election coverage from Russian state media continued to feature familiar themes, including claims of fraud, criticism of mainstream media coverage of the election, and condemnation of social media platforms for election-related issu [...]
Fake news, disinformation and distortion seem to be everywhere. Is this the end of civilization? How much does it all matter and what can we do about it? Listen to this podcast discussion involving: Carl Miller, Research Director at DEMOS and Author [...]
Last week, Russian state media devoted substantial coverage to the U.S. elections. During election week (prior to the presidential race being called for Biden), the outlets continued to showcase various themes characteristic of their coverage of the [...]
In the last full week of coverage prior to Election Day, Russian state media continued to advance several familiar themes, including promotion of Hunter Biden allegations, claims of media bias, criticism of the two-party system, and claims of improp [...]
Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer spoke to WLVT's about disinformation on social media ahead of the 2020 election. Last month, the FBI posted a warning on its website, stating that cybercriminals and foreign actors will use soci [...]
A little more than a year ago, China had almost no diplomatic presence on Twitter. A handful of accounts, many representing far-flung diplomatic outposts, operated without apparent coordination or direction from Beijing. Today, the work of Chinese d [...]
As an election official, you’ve likely spent the past four years upgrading systems, patching vulnerabilities, and implementing new security features and procedures to safeguard the 2020 elections. But now, with tens of millions of ballots already ca [...]
The final U.S. presidential debate provided significant fodder for Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state media to criticize the current state of U.S. democracy. Russian state media provided the most extensive coverage of the debate, with the majority [...]
Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer spoke to WPTV about malign foreign actors' attempts to use local news outlets to spread disinformation ahead of elections. Schafer told Contact 5 one technique foreign actors use is to tag legit [...]
Social media's attempt to stop false information around a New York Post story on Joe Biden and his son has left them open to censorship allegations. "Content moderation didn't work here, even if if you look at it as the only go goal is to stop the s [...]
The New York Post’s publication of salacious and unverified personal materials from a laptop allegedly owned by Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, was covered extensively by Russian state media, which focused both on the “explosive” contents of the story, as [...]
Partisanship has made it more difficult for social media platforms to react to hacked and leaked materials, Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer argues in New York Daily News. Baked into Russia’s hybrid warfare strategy is the ide [...]
ASD Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer spoke with WFLA Tampa's Mahsa Saeidi on how to stop the spread of disinformation and misinformation during the 2020 Election season. [...]
Last week, Russian and Iranian diplomatic and state media accounts and outlets primarily focused on regional issues, while Chinese accounts and outlets concentrated on U.S.-China disputes as well as President Trump’s coronavirus recovery. Russian st [...]
Overview On September 29, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden sparred in the first of three (now two) presidential debates. The event, which was labelled a “debacle” and a “total disaster” by the U.S. news media, unsurprisingl [...]
President Trump’s positive coronavirus diagnosis was covered extensively by the Russian, Iranian, and Chinese networks monitored on Hamilton 2.0, with most of the content covering factual updates or well-wishes from diplomats and world leaders. Russ [...]
Last week, Russian state media coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy largely mirrored domestic U.S. media coverage, emphasizing the contentiousness of the nomination process ahead of the November election. A small amount of content suggested th [...]
Overview On September 18, 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that new restrictions would be placed on WeChat and TikTok, two social media apps owned by Chinese companies, effectively banning the apps from being downloaded from U.S. app [...]
Last week, Russian state media and diplomats continued to emphasize the safety of and demand for the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, as well as developments around a competing Russian vaccine created by the Vektor State Research Center of Virology and Bi [...]
Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government and state media accounts and outlets covered well-trodden ground last week, with each country returning to familiar topics or themes. For the third straight week, Russian government officials and state media [...]
As with most major dates in World War II, Russian diplomatic and government accounts last week put out a spate of messaging marking the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 and, more significantly, the recently changed date Russia recognizes [...]
Overview On August 9, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko declared a landslide victory in an election widely regarded to be neither free nor fair, sparking widespread protests across the country. Since that time, Russian, Chinese, and Iranian [...]
The major through-line in messaging from Russia, China, and Iran last week was a focus on police brutality, racial justice protests, and violence and unrest in the United States, following a pattern established earlier this year in their respective [...]
ASD Director Zack Cooper and Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer joined Girma Parris of Case Western Reserve University on a panel at The City Club of Cleveland to discuss the United States' disinformation and election security prep [...]
Major news events covered last week by the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian networks monitored on the Hamilton dashboard included the Democratic National Convention, past and present geopolitical developments in the Middle East, the alleged poisoning o [...]
ASD Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer and Elections Integrity Fellow David Levine authored a piece on the intersection of disinformation and safe voting during the coronavirus pandemic as part of the National Urban League's annual [...]
Heavy coverage of the explosion in Beirut was substantial enough to break through the coronavirus news cycle, reflected in the fact that #Beirut was the third most-used hashtag by Russian, Iranian, and Chinese state media and government accounts las [...]
Overview President Trump’s executive order last week outlining plans to effectively ban Chinese short-form video app TikTok from the U.S. market triggered a predictable backlash from China’s state media and government officials, who accused the U.S. [...]
Russian, Chinese, and Iranian state media and government accounts once again took aim at the United States last week, with the most pointed commentary coming from China and Iran. On July 31, a series of tweets from the Supreme Leader of Iran’s many [...]
The Russian, Chinese, and Iranian networks monitored on Hamilton showed little topical overlap last week, save for the ever-present coverage of the coronavirus. Russian state-backed media and government officials pushed back on the U.K. Russia repor [...]
Overview Coronavirus coverage was again the primary through line in messaging from Russia, Iran, and China last week, with Russian state media and diplomats touting an alleged breakthrough in the country’s development of a vaccine (a claim boosted b [...]
Overview The United States and its allies were, once again, the primary targets of negative messaging from Russia, China, and Iran’s diplomats and state media last week. Kremlin-funded media hammered the Baltic states for a second straight week afte [...]
Overview Besides the ubiquitous coverage of the coronavirus, Russia, China, and Iran’s state media and government messengers last week hit on familiar themes for each of their respective countries. For Russia, that meant elevating claims of “Russoph [...]
Digital Media and Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer explained that for the first time with the George Floyd protests, we’ve seen China aggressively messaging on an issue that doesn’t directly relate to its own interests. China has been trying to pa [...]
Overview Besides ongoing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, there was little narrative overlap in messaging from Russian, Chinese, and Iranian government officials and state media, besides the ever-present strain of anti-Americanism. For most of [...]
Elections Integrity Fellow David Levine and Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer discuss social media and foreign interference in the upcoming 2020 election in an online discussion with the Secure Elections Network. [...]
Overview For the first time since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, coverage of racism, police brutality, and related protests did not feature among the top ten hashtags or key phrases (in aggregate) used by Russian, Chinese, and Iranian d [...]
Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer spoke to Julie Mason about the online threats to the U.S. election, including disinformation, "cheapfakes," and information leaks. [...]
Overview As with the past four months, the coronavirus was yet again the primary topic discussed by Russian, Chinese, and Iranian messengers, though the specific narratives differed depending on the country. China’s diplomats and state media, for ex [...]