Hamilton Weekly Reports

ASD researchers analyze Hamilton 2.0 data to understand the narratives and topics the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian governments and state-funded media are promoting on Twitter, YouTube, broadcast television, and state-sponsored news websites. This reporting provides insight into state-backed narratives from the previous week and provides journalists, researchers, and citizens with information to better shape how they view Russia, China, and Iran’s messaging aimed at the West.

Influence-enza: How Russia, China, and Iran Have Shaped and Manipulated Coronavirus Vaccine Narratives

Introduction When Vladimir Putin announced last August that Russia had granted regulatory approval for Sputnik V, the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, it signaled—albeit perhaps prematurely—not only a potential turning point in the fight to end th [...]

2021-03-08T14:32:42-05:00March 6, 2021|By Bret Schafer, Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: February 22-28, 2021

Last week, Russian state media seized on a story involving “leaked” U.K. Foreign Office documents that allegedly revealed the “UK government's covert operations aimed at tarnishing Russia's image.” The outlets used the story to accuse both the U.K. [...]

2021-03-03T15:18:41-05:00March 2, 2021|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: February 15-21, 2021

The weather disaster in Texas last week provided ample fodder for Russian state media, which pointed to the disaster as evidence that the United States is incapable of protecting its citizens or highlighted viral politically polarized responses to T [...]

2021-03-03T15:21:43-05:00February 23, 2021|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: February 8-14, 2021

Last week, Russian state media and diplomats highlighted various instances of alleged censorship by social media companies—a recurring theme in Russia’s external messaging. State media cited Twitter’s ban of Project Veritas as an example of politica [...]

2021-02-16T16:18:31-05:00February 16, 2021|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: February 1-7, 2021

In last week’s coronavirus vaccine developments, U.K. medical journal The Lancet published the results of a peer-reviewed study that placed Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine’s efficacy at a level comparable to that of leading Western vaccines. Russian stat [...]

2021-02-09T13:58:19-05:00February 9, 2021|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

‘Wolf Warriors’ Go After U.K.’s Immigration Scheme for Hong Kong

Overview On January 31, 2021, a new immigration route for British National (Overseas) (BNO) passport holders came into force in the United Kingdom. The BNO was a document created for Hong Kong citizens who wanted to maintain ties with the U.K. after [...]

2021-02-05T12:15:52-05:00February 5, 2021|By Bryce Barros and Etienne Soula|

Iran’s Supreme Tweeter

Was Ayatollah Khamenei behind a now-banned Twitter account that threatened to assassinate former President Trump? Recently, Twitter permanently suspended an account—@Khamenei_site–following a tweet that was widely interpreted as a thinly veiled thr [...]

2021-02-03T12:43:42-05:00February 2, 2021|By Nathan Kohlenberg and Bret Schafer|

Hamilton Toplines: January 23-31, 2021

The Russian embassy in Mexico’s Twitter account received uncharacteristically high engagement last week after a January 25 phone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, during which they discu [...]

2021-02-02T12:17:31-05:00February 2, 2021|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: January 16-22, 2021

While the weekend’s protests against the detention of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny upon his return to Russia fell outside of the week monitored, his arrest was accompanied by official statements characterizing Navalny as a criminal, crit [...]

2021-01-26T13:30:16-05:00January 26, 2021|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Censorship and the Capitol Riot: How Big Tech Became the Target of Russian, Chinese, and Iranian Messaging

Overview Since the riot at the U.S. capitol on January 6, there has been a clear element of schadenfreude in Iranian, Russian, and Chinese state media coverage of political and social disunion in the United States. That adversarial state media outle [...]

2024-03-05T11:49:02-05:00January 22, 2021|By Bret Schafer|

Hamilton Toplines: January 9-15, 2021

In response to tech platforms’ more aggressive content moderation in the wake of the capitol riots (including Facebook and Twitter banning President Trump), RT has drilled down on the narrative of censorship, with isolated examples from other Russia [...]

2021-01-19T14:55:14-05:00January 19, 2021|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: January 2, 2021-January 8, 2021

Russian state media provided substantial breaking news coverage of the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. One prominent theme in coverage of the aftermath included the idea that the United States is no longer, or never was, a global model for [...]

2021-01-12T16:11:11-05:00January 12, 2021|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: December 26, 2020-January 1, 2021

Last week, Russian state media and diplomats continued to champion the Sputnik V vaccine, with the announcement of a deal for Venezuela to buy 10 million doses of the Russian vaccine receiving particular attention. Four of the top ten most-retweeted [...]

2021-01-05T12:11:29-05:00January 5, 2021|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: December 12-18, 2020

Russian state media and diplomats sought to characterize the attribution of the SolarWinds hack that affected multiple U.S. government agencies and private sectors companies to Russia as part of the tradition of the United States blaming Russia for [...]

2020-12-22T12:51:38-05:00December 22, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: December 5-11, 2020

Continuing a pattern seen in recent weeks, Russian state media covered various issues and concerns related to Western coronavirus vaccines and lamented the alleged anti-Russia bias in Western media coverage of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. Meanwhile, [...]

2020-12-15T13:42:29-05:00December 15, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: November 28-December 4, 2020

As with previous weeks, Russian state media and official government accounts promoted positive messaging related to Russia’s coronavirus vaccines, while highlighting controversies and problems related to Western vaccines. While some of this content [...]

2020-12-08T14:30:41-05:00December 8, 2020|By Bryce Barros, Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Analysis: Chinese State Propaganda Apparatus Tests Boundaries in Australia

Overview On November 30, 2020, local time, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Department Deputy Director General and spokesperson Zhao Lijian tweeted a doctored photo of an Australian Defence Force Special Forces (ADF) soldier slitting [...]

2020-12-08T14:29:39-05:00December 7, 2020|By Bryce Barros and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: November 21-27, 2020

Last week, Russian diplomatic accounts and state media continued to tout Russia’s coronavirus vaccines, including the announcement that Sputnik V “will cost less than its Western rivals.” At the same time, state media highlighted various issues surr [...]

2020-12-01T13:14:21-05:00December 1, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Analysis: China Uses New Trade Pact for Geopolitical Signaling

Overview On Sunday, November 15, 15 Asia-Pacific nations signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) via video conference. Comprising China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, Japan, South Korea, Aust [...]

2020-11-30T17:14:04-05:00November 30, 2020|By Bryce Barros and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: November 14-20, 2020

In last week’s post-U.S. election coverage from Russian state media, two major topics were the pro-Trump demonstrations in DC the weekend of November 14, in which accounts of violence directed at pro-Trump demonstrators and the size of the rally wer [...]

2020-11-24T14:06:28-05:00November 24, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Foreign Amplification of Voter Fraud Narratives: How Russian, Iranian, and Chinese Messengers Have Leveraged Post-Election Unrest in the United States

Overview The aftermath of the U.S. presidential election has seen a tidal wave of false and misleading information about the validity of the election results as well as the legitimacy and security of the voting process. Narratives related to ballot [...]

2021-02-16T10:07:47-05:00November 24, 2020|By Bret Schafer|

Hamilton Toplines: November 7-13, 2020

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 [...]

2020-11-17T13:10:13-05:00November 17, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: October 31-November 6, 2020

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 [...]

2020-11-12T11:31:42-05:00November 10, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: October 24-30, 2020

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 [...]

2020-11-03T13:06:08-05:00November 3, 2020|By Bryce Barros, Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg and Bret Schafer|

Hamilton Toplines: October 17-23, 2020

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 [...]

2020-10-27T14:08:39-04:00October 27, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: October 10-16, 2020

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 [...]

2020-10-20T13:17:01-04:00October 20, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: October 3-9, 2020

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 [...]

2020-10-13T14:30:19-04:00October 13, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Debating the Debates: How Russian, Chinese, and Iranian State-Backed Media Covered the U.S. First Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates

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 [...]

2020-10-13T15:10:58-04:00October 13, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: September 26-October 2, 2020

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 [...]

2020-10-06T15:08:05-04:00October 6, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: September 19-25, 2020

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 [...]

2020-10-01T09:51:06-04:00September 29, 2020|By Bryce Barros, Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Analysis: Chinese State Media Reaction to TikTok-Oracle Deal Suggests Strong Opposition from Beijing

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 [...]

2021-09-07T14:14:43-04:00September 29, 2020|By Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: September 12-18, 2020

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 [...]

2020-09-22T13:12:48-04:00September 22, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Analysis: All Talk, No Walk: Beijing Alienates Europeans

Overview On September 17, 2020, the assistant secretary of European and Eurasian affairs at the State Department told the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs that “Europe has emerged as arguably the central front in the Chinese Communist Party’s eff [...]

2020-09-22T12:15:40-04:00September 22, 2020|By Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: September 5-11, 2020

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 [...]

2020-09-15T11:32:00-04:00September 15, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: August 29-September 4, 2020

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 [...]

2020-09-08T15:28:30-04:00September 8, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Analysis: A Tale of Two Protest Movements: Russian, Iranian, and Chinese Coverage of Protests in Belarus vs. the United States

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 [...]

2020-09-09T14:00:01-04:00September 8, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: August 21-27, 2020

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 [...]

2020-09-01T17:01:24-04:00September 1, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: August 15-21, 2020

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 [...]

2020-08-25T13:55:13-04:00August 25, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Nathan Kohlenberg, Bret Schafer and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Toplines: August 8-14, 2020

Iranian, Russian, and Chinese state media and government accounts focused on an array of major developments last week. Iranian accounts continued to cover the aftermath of the Beirut explosion—including continued accusations of U.S. and Israeli invo [...]

2020-08-18T12:14:12-04:00August 18, 2020|By Amber Frankland, Bradley Hanlon, Nathan Kohlenberg and Etienne Soula|

Hamilton Analysis: The Vaccine Race: Russia’s Coverage of the Sputnik V Announcement

Overview On August 11, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had approved the world’s first coronavirus vaccine, which it dubbed Sputnik V in reference to the Soviet Union’s famous orbital satellite—the world’s first in 1957. [...]

2020-08-19T10:20:49-04:00August 18, 2020|By Amber Frankland|