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.
Media Vassalage: How Venezuela’s TeleSUR Acts as Russia and China’s Information-Laundering Front
After a contested July presidential election in which Nicolás Maduro claimed victory with 51% of the vote—amid allegations of irregularities, limited oversight, and too few international observers—Venezuela was thrown into turmoil. The Carter Center [...]
No Bahn on RT: How RT Deutsch Stays on Track Despite Content Bans
This is part two of a two-part series on how RT Deutsch content is evading domain bans and sanctions published in partnership with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Find part one here. Germans head to the polls on Sunday not only to decide who [...]
The State(s) of Foreign Information Operations: A State-by-State Look at Foreign Information Manipulation in the United States
Introduction It is easy to dismiss foreign information operations as playing out at the national level, designed to influence federal policymakers and Beltway insiders. But these threats transcend the “Beltway Bubble”. Increasingly, foreign nation [...]
What is TV BRICS? The Sanctions-Linked, Russia-Backed Influence Broker
TV BRICS, a Russian-registered media outlet dedicated to covering the founding BRICS+ countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), as well as BRICS+ candidate states, has largely flown under the radar of Russian media analysts. TV BRI [...]
US Democracy: Confronting a New Information Age
Just before their 2024 presidential election, 58% of American voters said that the US political system needs a major overhaul. Another survey revealed that only 4% described the system as working “very well” or “extremely well”, and fewer than a qua [...]
Inflaming Divides: Russian Narratives on the California Wildfires
Last week, devastating wildfires ignited across Los Angeles County in what is one of the most destructive natural disasters in US history. But as firefighters continue to battle the flames, false and misleading information about the disaster has spr [...]
Bret Schafer Joins NBC News to Discuss Meta’s Fact-Checking Policy Changes
Senior Fellow Bret Schafer joined NBC News to react to Meta's decision to change its fact-checking policy in the United States. watch here The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the author alone. [...]
Keep the US Government Focused on Combating Foreign Interference Operations
The US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) detailed charges against Iranian operatives involved in the plot to assassinate Donald Trump during the recent presidential campaign should dispel any skepticism about US national security threats emanating from [...]
Interference Interrupted: The US Government’s Strides In Defending Against Foreign Threats to the 2024 Election
This year’s US election cycle was marked by increasingly brazen attempts by foreign actors to interfere and influence voters. Iran orchestrated a murder-for-hire plot to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump and successfully accessed documents fr [...]
The Moldovan Testing Ground? What the United States Can Learn from Russian Interference in Moldova
The Kremlin is known for testing disinformation strategies in its “backyard” before applying them globally. Last week in Moldova, the presidential election and constitutional referendum on EU membership presented Russia with such an opportunity. Rus [...]
Bret Schafer Interviewed on CNN about the Evolving Information Space Around the US Election
Senior Fellow Bret Schafer joined CNN to discuss the evolving information space around the 2024 US election, including false, manipulated videos of alleged election irregularities which have been traced back to Russian threat actors. watch here [...]
RT’s End Around: RT’s Content Launderers Persist Despite Increased Attention and Restrictions
In May, ASD, along with our partners at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) and the University of Amsterdam (UvA), published a report documenting roughly 400 domains that had published identical or nearly identical copies of articles original [...]