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 Toplines: November 7-13, 2020
Last week’s U.S. election coverage from Russian state media continued to feature familiar themes, including claims of fraud, criticism of mainstream media coverage of the election, and condemnation of social media platforms for election-related issu [...]
Bret Schafer Discusses Information, Disinformation, and Distortion on ‘Cityforum Podcast’
Fake news, disinformation and distortion seem to be everywhere. Is this the end of civilization? How much does it all matter and what can we do about it? Listen to this podcast discussion involving: Carl Miller, Research Director at DEMOS and Author [...]
Hamilton Toplines: October 31-November 6, 2020
Last week, Russian state media devoted substantial coverage to the U.S. elections. During election week (prior to the presidential race being called for Biden), the outlets continued to showcase various themes characteristic of their coverage of the [...]
Bryce Barros and Brad Hanlon Discuss Russia, China, and Election Disinformation on ‘SpyCast’
Fact vs. Fake. Truth vs. Lies. Information vs. Disinformation. For voters trying to choose between competing parties and candidates the distinction between them would seem to be central. But is it still possible to tell which is which? In this week’ [...]
Hamilton Toplines: October 24-30, 2020
In the last full week of coverage prior to Election Day, Russian state media continued to advance several familiar themes, including promotion of Hunter Biden allegations, claims of media bias, criticism of the two-party system, and claims of improp [...]
Jessica Brandt Discusses Foreign Attempts to Sow Doubt in U.S. Vote Tally
On U.S. Election Day, our social media news feeds will likely be filled with stories about how foreign actors have worked to derail the U.S. election process. Some of those stories might be based in fact. Others will be unfounded rumors. Jessica Bra [...]
Laura Rosenberger in The New York Times: 7 Ways That You Can Save Our Democracy
Americans have heard a lot about threats to the 2020 election. But one of the greatest threats may be a loss of faith in our electoral system itself. The director of the F.B.I., Christopher Wray, told Congress in September that his greatest concern [...]
Laura Rosenberger Discusses Foreign Interventions in U.S. Campaigns on ‘The Lawfare Podcast’
Director Laura Rosenberger has been working on combating foreign interference in U.S. domestic politics since 2016, and she is the author of two recent significant articles—one in Foreign Affairs and one on Lawfare—both on the subject of foreign inf [...]
Linking Values and Strategy: How Democracies Can Offset Autocratic Advances
In mid-2020, the Alliance for Securing Democracy convened a task force of 30 leading American national security and foreign policy experts to devise a national strategy for the United States to offset autocratic advances in non-military domains of [...]
Zack Cooper in Real Clear World: How to Respond to China’s Information Warfare
Co-Director Zack Cooper and AEI Researcher Aine Tyrrell argue that reciprocity plays into the Chinese Communist Party’s hands in three key ways. Last week, the State Department designated six media entities operating in the United States as foreign [...]
Bret Schafer Discusses Online Election Disinformation on WLVT
Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer spoke to WLVT's about disinformation on social media ahead of the 2020 election. Last month, the FBI posted a warning on its website, stating that cybercriminals and foreign actors will use soci [...]
Jessica Brandt and Bret Schafer for Brookings: How China’s ‘Wolf Warrior’ Diplomats Use and Abuse Twitter
A little more than a year ago, China had almost no diplomatic presence on Twitter. A handful of accounts, many representing far-flung diplomatic outposts, operated without apparent coordination or direction from Beijing. Today, the work of Chinese d [...]