Every few years gives rise to a novel social media app that takes smartphone users by storm. Clubhouse, the invite-only, audio-based app that feels like TED Talks meets 1980s radio call-in show, has rapidly grown in recent months, offering a platfor [...]
Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer joined Josh Hamilton on The Jist. Bret and Josh first spoke three to discuss the weaponization of information and the threat to democracy. Now, three years later, things have unfortunately not gott [...]
A change in administration in the United States has given a brief reprieve to TikTok and WeChat, two Chinese apps targeted in a series of Executive Orders by former President Trump, but questions about the national security, privacy, and censorship [...]
Overview Since the riot at the U.S. capitol on January 6, there has been a clear element of schadenfreude in Iranian, Russian, and Chinese state media coverage of political and social disunion in the United States. That adversarial state media outle [...]
This paper is the first in a series on technology policy through the lens of national security, published in partnership with the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School. Introduction Open societies have [...]
The United States Congress passed the William M. Thornberry Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021, an annual bill (generally known as the NDAA) that designates funding for the Department of Defense, on a bipartisan basis. Priorities outline [...]
As the votes were counted in the 2020 U.S. election, blacklisted China-registered technology company Huawei positioned itself on Twitter as a steadfast vendor in European markets regardless of the election results. The common narrative within these [...]
Introduction Europe is on the cusp of a crucial technological and political transformation. This year, most EU member states will need to finalize plans for building 5G networks, which will overhaul the way their economies function. Only a handful [...]
The unfolding saga over TikTok and WeChat will have lasting impact far beyond the availability of dance videos and lip syncs. Reporters, tech watchers, First Amendment scholars and social media influencers alike are anxiously watching each twist in [...]
Fellow for Emerging Technologies Lindsay Gorman joined Jocelyn Aqua of PwG and Kenneth Popp of Georgetown Law to discuss digital privacy and security and recommendations for the next administration in a panel discussion at the Center for the Study o [...]
In this episode of Intelligence Matters, host Michael Morell interviews former FBI Special Agent Clint Watts, current Distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Non-Resident Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democra [...]
Executive Summary Democracies and Authoritarian Regimes in Competition for the Future Internet The United States and its democratic allies are engaged in a contest for the soul of the Future Internet. Conceived as a beacon of free expression with [...]
Geopolitics over the next several decades will be defined by competition between democracies and autocracies. This contest is already playing out across the military, economic and diplomatic domains—and in the information arena as well. As former Pr [...]
ASD Fellow for Malign Finance Josh Rudolph joined Levi Gundert and Jesse Spiro in a panel discussion on the role of cryptocurrency in election interference at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). [...]
Fellow for Emerging Technologies Lindsay Gorman joined Adam Segal of the Council of Foreign Relations and Clete Williams of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in an online panel discussion at the National Press Foundation to discuss the dangers [...]
ASD Fellow for Emerging Technologies Lindsay Gorman moderated a GMF Face Off Debate between Rep. Mike Gallagher (Wisconsin's 8th District) and Member of the European Parliament Miriam Lexmann (Slovakia) on the question of whether Chinese diplomats s [...]
On Thursday, August 6, the Trump administration announced two executive orders that would bar any transactions with Chinese social media networks TikTok and WeChat by any person or involving any property in subject to the jurisdiction of the United [...]
Overview President Trump’s executive order last week outlining plans to effectively ban Chinese short-form video app TikTok from the U.S. market triggered a predictable backlash from China’s state media and government officials, who accused the U.S. [...]
Director Laura Rosenberger appeared on the "Diplomates Podcast" to discuss the escalating threat of foreign interference, whether social media giants are doing enough to prevent misinformation, if Tiktok should be banned, what democracies must do to [...]
Introduction One morning in 2016, staffers from the National Security Council and the Office of the U.S. Chief Technology Officer boarded a black van outside the West Wing. They were on a field trip to the State Department led by U.S. CTO Megan Sm [...]
To counter authoritarian information manipulation and control, the United States needs to support free expression and harness innovation through organizations like the Open Tech Fund, Emerging Technologies Fellow Lindsay Gorman and Karen Kornbluh, d [...]
Emerging Technologies Fellow Lindsay Gorman spoke to Newsy's Sasha Ingber about U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's assertion that users' private information from the video-sharing app could be turned over to the Chinese government. [...]
ASD Emerging Technologies Fellow Lindsay Gorman, Harvard's Hugo Yen, and Virginia Tech's David Simpson provide a brief overview of 5G technology and related policy considerations for Harvard Belfer Center's Technology Factsheet Series. Introducti [...]
American companies like Zoom need to support our values of openness and freedom of information at home and abroad, Emerging Technologies Fellow Lindsay Gorman argues in Newsweek. Americans are increasingly relying on video conferencing software fo [...]
Emerging Technologies Fellow Lindsay Gorman joined a group of experts to discuss Zoom's recent episode where it blocked accounts at Beijing's request and whether or not it's possible for foreign companies with a presence in China to maintain their s [...]
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security warn that China is targeting U.S. drug companies, universities, and researchers. China denies it. Emerging Technologies Fellow Lindsay Gorman joins Newsy to discuss the implications. In the coronavirus er [...]
Instead of restricting Chinese students from U.S. academic and scientific research, U.S. concerns and policy responses should focus on how to counter the tactics and mechanisms that China’s party-state exploits for tech transfer, Emerging Technologi [...]
As governments ramp up contact tracing apps to contain the coronavirus, concerns have arisen about how to do this safely and in a way that protects civil liberties in the ongoing struggle between democracy and authoritarianism. Emerging Technologies [...]
The global coronavirus pandemic has also spawned an epidemic of online disinformation, ranging from false home remedies to state-sponsored influence campaigns. In the confusing environment, false medical theories have even found accidental legitimiz [...]
Technology companies' response to coronavirus "shows what aggressively confronting a disinformation challenge actually looks like and what our big tech platforms can do when there is a strong will to act,” Emerging Technologies Fellow Lindsay Gorman [...]
Huawei should not be allowed to participate in democratic networks around the world, Emerging Technologies Fellow Lindsay Gorman asserted on CBC's "Power & Politics." She explained that the phase one U.S.-China trade deal is "essentially a cease [...]
The transition to 5G in 2020 may mark the point when Beijing's interests diverge irreconcilably from those of the United States, European Union, and their democratic peers, Emerging Technologies Fellow Lindsay Gorman argues in The Atlantic. [...]
Because of its parent company's relationship with the Chinese Communist Party, TikTok has the potential to be a powerful tool for the CCP to censor information and manipulate discourse outside China, China Analyst Matt Schrader argues in Nikkei Asia [...]
Research Assistant Etienne Soula discusses the PRC and Hong Kong governments’ use of high tech surveillance tools to counter the outbreak of pro-democracy protests in the increasingly-besieged city-state. [...]
ASD Head of Research and Policy Jessica Brandt gives Axios readers a rundown on the latest Facebook, Twitter, and Google takedowns of accounts associated with coordinated inauthentic behavior on the part of the PRC government. [...]
ASD China Analyst Matt Schrader joined ABC’s David Sparks to discuss Twitter and Facebook’s takedown of a Chinese state-backed disinformation campaign targeting the Hong Kong protest movement. [...]
ASD Fellow for Emerging Technology Lindsay Gorman wrote in Fifth Domain on the challenge of securing critical data from foreign adversaries in the face of rapid advances in computing technology and cyberespionage. [...]
The following is an introduction to the submission by ASD Intern Amber Frankland In April 2019, the United Kingdom’s Home Office published its Online Harms White Paper, which proposed a regulatory framework designed to address the prevalence of “il [...]
ASD China Analyst Matt Schrader discusses Huawei's massive public relations campaign outside China, and draws parallels between its tactics and those used by the Chinese Communist Party itself at home and abroad. [...]
Thank you Chairman Burr, Vice Chairman Warner, and Distinguished Members of the Committee. I submitted my full statement for the record, but let me highlight key points on the national security context of these activities and steps we need to take [...]