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
Introducing the 2021 German Elections Project
Germany’s federal election in September this year will mark a critical change not only for Germany but for Europe as a whole. Chancellor Angela Merkel has led Europe’s largest country and economic powerhouse since 2005, long before the specter of th [...]
Nad’a Kovalčíková on Building Societal Resilience with STRATPOL
Program Manager and Fellow Nad'a Kovalčíková joined StratPol (Strategic Policy Institute) for a panel titled “Civil Engagement and Participation in Defence.” Participants discussed why societal resilience is important for national security and defen [...]
Jessica Brandt and Bret Schafer: Using the Truth to Tell A Lie: Authoritarian Covid-19 Vaccine Mal-Information Strategies
Over the past year, the regimes in Russia, China, and Iran have used a combination of public diplomacy, propaganda, and overt and covert disinformation campaigns to portray their respective responses to the pandemic as superior to those of the West. [...]
Hamilton Toplines: April 26-May 2, 2021
In the wake of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency’s (Anvisa) decision not to authorize Sputnik V for import to Brazil, the Sputnik V Twitter account slammed the choice as the result of political pressure from the United States, criticized Anvisa [...]
China’s State-Backed Messengers See Opportunity in India’s Coronavirus Woes
Overview China's state-backed messengers are using India's health crisis to denigrate the United States and encourage India to step back from its deepening partnership with the United States and other democracies. According to data from the Johns Ho [...]
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 [...]