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.
How to Structure a Foreign Malign Influence Center
On Monday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) confirmed to Politico that it is working to establish a Foreign Malign Influence Center. The center, which was first authorized as part of the 2020 Defense Authorization bill, wil [...]
Bret Schafer Talks the World Wide Web of Coronavirus Conspiracies on ‘EPIDEMIC’
“Disinformation is a deliberate falsehood put out to mislead an audience. But what we see more of are true bits of information where necessary context has been removed or manipulated in a way that makes it technically true but wildly misleading.” - [...]
Hamilton Toplines: April 19-25, 2021
Russia’s coronavirus vaccine coverage last week featured, as per usual, positive news about Sputnik V—such as Argentina starting local production of Sputnik V, the arrival of Sputnik in Venezuela, and reports of the vaccine’s overall efficacy—and ne [...]
Enhancing the Alliance for Healthy Infosphere: How to Build Transnational Resilience Against Information Manipulation
The infodemic that accompanied the spread of the coronavirus looms large, complicating efforts to contain the virus. Civil society, tech companies, media organizations, and governments must tackle it with the same deliberateness that they bring to c [...]
Hamilton Toplines: April 12-18, 2021
Russian state media and diplomats predictably denounced last week’s new U.S. sanctions on the country, which the Russian Foreign Ministry characterized as an “attack.” They also criticized the rationale behind the sanctions, blamed the United States [...]
Lindsay Gorman in Financial Times: Do China’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ Diplomats Really Have Any Bite?
The country’s social media offensive over Xinjiang is in overdrive — and backfiring in the West. As tensions grow between China and the world’s major democracies over human rights abuses in Xinjiang province, Beijing’s “wolf warrior” diplomats have [...]
Hamilton Toplines: April 5-11, 2021
Amid heightened tensions in eastern Ukraine, Russian state media and diplomats last week reupped their usual narratives about the conflict: blaming Ukraine for the situation, suggesting that Russia poses no threat (but hinting that Russia could inte [...]
Nad’a Kovalčíková Discusses NATO’s Shifting Strategic Concept at Atlantic Forum
Program Manager and Fellow Nad’a Kovalčíková joined the Atlantic Forum's Spring Conference for a panel entitled "An Alliance Bound to Lead: Converging Towards 2030." Kovalčíková, Benedetta Berti, Professor Sven Biscop, and moderator Shary Mitidiery [...]
Jessica Brandt Discusses Russia, China, and Iran’s Information Strategies in the Vaccine Contest with NDN
Head of Policy and Research Jessica Brandt joined NDN to discuss the great power race between the United States/the West and authoritarian countries to vaccinate the world and be the ones to defeat the coronavirus. Related Reading: Influence-enza: [...]
Hamilton Toplines: March 29-April 4, 2021
Last week, Russian state media—and in one instance the Russian Foreign Ministry—continued to hammer the United States over the migrant crisis at the southern border, characterizing the situation as a humanitarian disaster and highlighting reports of [...]
Brad Hanlon in The Hill: Congressional CEO Grillings Can’t Solve Disinformation. We Need A Public Interest Regulator
Last Thursday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held yet another hearing to grill social media CEOs about the mis- and disinformation on their platforms. While much of the hearing consisted of members soliciting soundbites from the executives [...]
Hamilton Toplines: March 22-28, 2021
Russian state media last week hammered the United States over its response to the migrant crisis at the southern border, suggesting that the Biden administration is intentionally downplaying and concealing the poor conditions. State media amplified [...]