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.
Hamilton Monthly Report: May 2022
This report highlights and analyzes key trends and takeaways from data collected by the Hamilton 2.0 Dashboard during the previous month. Unlike ASD’s weekly Hamilton reports, which analyze the main topics and themes promoted by monitored Russian an [...]
China and the Digital Information Stack in the Global South
Introduction The 21st Century started with the promise of how technologies can be used to bolster, not undermine, democracies, activism, and human rights. However, the maddening pace at which digital technologies have evolved in recent years means [...]
Yandex Dashboard Analysis: It’s the Economy, Stupid
Top Headlines in Russia This week, we examined the headlines on Yandex that feature Russia as the primary country mentioned. Four of the top six key phrases in these articles relate to the economy, dwarfing coverage of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine [...]
Hamilton Toplines: June 6–12, 2022
Russia Russian officials and state-funded media last week continued their efforts to shift blame for a global food shortage caused by Moscow’s decision to invade Ukraine. Russian propagandists argued that the crisis was sparked by Western sanctions [...]
Q&A with ASD Experts: How Have January 6th and the Big Lie Impacted U.S. Democracy?
More than a year and a half after the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol will hold its first public hearing this Thursday. The televised series of hearings will f [...]
Hamilton Toplines: May 30–June 5, 2022
Russia Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday threatened that Russia would hit targets in Ukraine “that we have not yet attacked” if Kyiv receives long-range missiles from the United States. The warning capped a week of propaganda meant to deter [...]
How Russia’s Leading Search Engine Spreads Kremlin Propaganda on Ukraine: Introducing ASD’s Yandex Dashboard
Russia’s information environment has become increasingly constricted. Legislation banning the characterization of Russia’s war in Ukraine as anything but a “special military operation” is just one indication of the censorship and cherry-picking that [...]
Hamilton Toplines: May 23–29, 2022
Russia Kremlin-linked accounts continued to argue that Western sanctions weren’t impacting Russia’s economy but were driving inflation in the West and prompting a global food shortage. President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian economy was “resi [...]
Wall Street Journal Exclusive: China Excels in Google Rankings on Xinjiang and Covid-19 Searches
On issues critical to Beijing, including human rights and the origins of Covid-19, Chinese sources dominate top search results on Western search engines and platforms, including Google, Bing, and YouTube. By securing first-page search results on pop [...]
Elen Aghekyan Explains How China Spreads Disinformation on Search Engines on Inside Sources with Boyd Matheson
While the US and social media companies have banned Russian state media and propaganda in light of the war in Ukraine, China is quietly spreading its own disinformation through search engines. And they've been surprisingly effective at it. Elen Ag [...]
Winning the Web: How Beijing Exploits Search Results to Shape Views of Xinjiang and COVID-19
Executive Summary As the war in Ukraine unfolds, Russian propaganda about the conflict has gotten a boost from a friendly source: government officials and state media out of Beijing. In multiple languages and regions around the world, China’s “wol [...]
Hamilton Toplines: May 16–22, 2022
Russia Russian officials and state media last week posted more than 800 tweets about Finland and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership, making “NATO” the most frequently used keyword by Kremlin-linked accounts. On May 16, President Vladimir Puti [...]