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
Inflaming Divides: Russian Narratives on the California Wildfires
Rachael Dean Wilson and David Salvo in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Don’t Be Fooled, Our Elections Are Safe
“One of the biggest threats to our elections and to democracy in general is misinformation and disinformation. Whether intentional or unintentional, both reduce voters’ confidence in the electoral process, and in turn, discourage participation,” act [...]
Hamilton Toplines: July 18–24, 2022
Russia Monitored Russian accounts tweeted 15,939 times last week, pulling in 165,609 retweets and 506,058 likes. Russian propagandists last week focused on Vladimir Putin’s trip to Tehran and the agreements he reached with the leaders of Iran and Tu [...]
Hamilton Toplines: July 11–17, 2022
Russia Monitored Russian government and state media accounts tweeted 15,282 times last week, generating 170,562 retweets and 523,930 likes. Kremlin linked outlets used US President Joe Biden’s Middle East trip to paint him as inconsistent, submissiv [...]
Hamilton Monthly Report: June 2022
Top Takeaways The downward spiral of Russian state media on Twitter and Facebook continued in June. Monitored Russian accounts on Twitter saw a 17 percent decline in retweets and an 18 percent decline in likes compared to May, while state media Page [...]
Hamilton Toplines: July 4–10, 2022
Russia Monitored Russian accounts tweeted 16,236 times last week, generating 191,388 retweets and 584,066 likes. Kremlin-linked accounts took aim at UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson after he announced his resignation, making “Johnson” the second most [...]
Yandex Dashboard Analysis: On NATO and Neo-Nazis
Top Headlines in Russia Key Phrase: NATO At the NATO Summit in Madrid, NATO allies adopted a new Strategic Concept that labels Russia the main threat to transatlantic security. The top headlines on Yandex’s news aggregator portray the summit relativ [...]
David Levine Explains How to Run Safe and Smart Elections on the Conduit Street Podcast
On the latest episode of the Conduit Street Podcast, renowned elections expert David Levine joins Kevin Kinnally and Michael Sanderson to discuss election integrity and efficiency. Topics include strategies to deter and defend against misinformati [...]
Hamilton Toplines: June 27 – July 3
Russia Russian state media and diplomats last week tweeted 17,313 times, generating 196,139 retweets and 614,738 likes. Russian propagandists last week posted more than 1,000 tweets mentioning NATO, bringing in more than 19,000 retweets and 56,000 l [...]
Pro-Chaos: Russian and Chinese Messaging on the Overturning of Roe v. Wade
Overview On June 24, the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion, sparking an outpouring of protests and national media coverage. Russian and Chinese propagandists also weighed in, though their messaging strategies on th [...]
Laura Thornton in The Hill: There’s Something More Dangerous Than the ‘Big Lie’
In a recent Jan. 6 hearing, Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling revealed the most important insight into our current democratic challenges. He was describing how he painstakingly went through each false election claim put forward by one of hi [...]
Hamilton Toplines: June 20 – 26, 2022
Russia Monitored Russian accounts tweeted 17,875 times last week, pulling in 200,445 retweets and 613,214 likes. Russian propagandists reacted to Ukraine and Moldova earning EU candidate status by arguing that the bloc was building a war-like coalit [...]
Brussels Forum Day 2 // Rebuilding Trust in Elections
It takes more than superb election officials and secure processes to build trust in elections – it is truly a whole of society effort. Democracies need engaged leadership from government, the private sector, the media, and civil society to push back [...]