Virginia US Senator Mark Warner is proposing a new Social Media Data Analysis Center, funded with $30 million. Yes, we need such a center, but not a center totally reliant on high-tech solutions. We need common sense solutions. The language does not include experts on propaganda, disinformation, or fake news. The language does not include… Continue reading Proposed Social Media Data Analysis Center Lacks Common Sense
“A way” is the most important qualifier in this headline. There is no “one” way to detect future influence campaigns nor to counter them. There must be multiple, almost duplicative, overlapping ways, even redundant ways to approach this new problem. This is an interesting way, a publicly available ad ‘database’, which may be examined and… Continue reading A Way to Detect the Next Russian Misinformation Campaign
Anonymous expert compilation, analysis, and reporting. </end editorial> Facebook has resisted regulation like the plague for years. The recent UK DCMS inquiry concluded that regulation would be required. It appears that multiple legislatures see this the same way now, and Facebook’s inability to contain the NZ video recording was likely the last straw for the… Continue reading Facebook’s Backflip on Regulation
Russian Propaganda Film T-34 is appearing in US theaters, please help stop its appearance. Ukraine’s US Embassy is asking the theaters shown at the bottom of the page to reconsider showing this obvious Russian propaganda. Your assistance is requested to contact these theaters and stop this blatant attempt to influence US audiences. I, for one,… Continue reading Russian Propaganda Film, T-34, In US Theaters
Anonymous expert compilation, analysis, and reporting. </end editorial> The DCMS report is excellent – very thorough and very incisive. It should be a template for other democracies to deal with foreign and inappropriate domestic meddling in elections and politics. No less importantly it deals with many serious privacy issues as yet not addressed in legislation.… Continue reading Disinformation and ‘fake news’: Final Report published – DCMS Committee – UK Parliament / Cyber Update
For years, the Soviets, followed by the Russians, called Ukrainians “Banderites”, an intended insult equating them with “Nazi Collaborators”. Their logic is lost on those with knowledge of Stepan Bandera and his life dedicated to the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine. Bandera and the Ukrainian Independence Movement, the OUN, worked against both the Soviets and… Continue reading ‘Banderite’ Rebrand: Ukrainian Police Declare Admiration For Nazi Collaborators To Make A Point
By Kylie Atwood, Michelle Kosinski and Jennifer Hansler, CNN Updated 4:37 PM ET, Thu February 7, 2019 (CNN)The State Department on Thursday announced that a former Fox News reporter would lead its agency in charge of efforts to counter foreign propaganda and disinformation. Lea Gabrielle will become the special envoy and coordinator of the Global Engagement Center, State Department… Continue reading Lea Gabrielle, Former Fox News reporter named to lead counter-propaganda efforts at State
Joe Uchill Before the 2016 election, Western nations’ worst cyberattack nightmare involved sabotage of the electric grid. Meanwhile, the top digital fear among Russians was propaganda campaigns, according to Lincoln Pigman, an Oxford postgraduate researcher who studies the history of Moscow’s political posture on cybersecurity. Why it matters: The idea for the online information campaign that… Continue reading Russia is paranoid about propaganda
While this CNN OpEd is necessary to keep some focus on fake news, the focus on a Big Tech approach to countering disinformation, propaganda, and fake news is disheartening. There is no systemic approach offered, even though Brett Bruen held what should have been a central position to that type of strategy. I am discouraged… Continue reading Review: Big tech’s fake war on fake news
January 19, 2019 William Echols On Thursday, January 17, Facebook announced it had removed 364 Facebook Pages and accounts “for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior as part of a network that originated in Russia and operated in the Baltics, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Central and Eastern European countries.” The company said that the page administrators and… Continue reading Sputnik Falsely Claims ‘Censorship’ After Facebook Removed Hundreds of Accounts
This is an excellent article using an example from the Baltics and proposing it as a possibility in the US. One term is used with which most Americans may not be familiar. Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a… Continue reading Countering Russian disinformation the Baltic nations’ way
The former eastern bloc nation is lavishing money on the arts in border regions susceptible to Russian influence, writes Carmen Gray The conversion of factories into cultural venues rarely raises eyebrows these days, but the Kreenholm complex here is not just any relic of industry. Once the world’s largest cotton mill and a poster child of Soviet might,… Continue reading Estonia is using alternative music to challenge Russian propaganda
[open pdf – 1MB] From the thesis abstract: “The purpose of this research, broadly speaking, is to expose the threat that ‘fake news’ poses to our national security. This thesis answers the question: Can the information laundering model, or a modified version of it, be used to explain how the internet is exploited to spread fake news, and… Continue reading NPS Thesis: Fake News, Conspiracy Theories, and Lies: An Information Laundering Model for Homeland Security
International broadcasting walks a fine line between fair, objective, and unbiased and propaganda. The UK broadcasting regulator determined 7 RT programs were unduly biased and not impartial. In response to OfCom’s investigation, Russia launched an investigation of the BBC. There is almost no doubt that the BBC will be found guilty of some fabricated crime… Continue reading RT broke bias guidelines, UK’s OFCOM says
An announcement from Dr. Emma Briant, </end editorial> Dear Colleagues, I’m delighted to announce my new book chapter published earlier this month: Briant, E L & Wanlass, A (December 2018) ‘A Digital Ménage à Trois: Strategic Leaks, Propaganda and Journalism: Strategic Leaks, Propaganda and Journalism’, in Corneliu Bjola & James Pamment (eds) Countering Online Propaganda and… Continue reading Book Chapter on Strategic Leaks/Propaganda & Documentary ‘The Great Hack’
As my expert Bulgarian source tells me, “These are great insights into chekist propaganda techniques”. As the following Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, aka CBC/Radio-Canada, article explains, there can be multiple interpretations of any situation. Here we see yet another Russian spin on the Skripal assassination. Professor Manoilo, teaching at Lomonosov Moscow State University, blames the British but… Continue reading Inside a former Russian spy’s info wars course. Today’s lesson — the nerve agent poisonings in the U.K.
George Winston War propaganda is rampant wherein the popular imagination is considered, and at least for western audiences, it really is only in recent years that war has been portrayed either negatively or realistically, including casualties, loss and the true drama of conflict. While most movies may flub a detail or two for the sake… Continue reading Russian War Story Proven to be a Fabrication
Anonymous expert compilation, analysis, and reporting. The Ukraine Orthodox Church is preaching peace and unity. Ukraine has taken the lead and has shown itself to be the polar opposite of Russia. Ukraine is mature, measured, and uniting, everything Russia is not. Now we must watch the Russian reaction to see if Russia and the Russian… Continue reading Russia Loses the War of the Churches (58)
Canada will provide Ukraine with about two and a half million dollars for the fight against Russian propaganda during the elections. These funds will become part of the 24 million package of aid that the Canadians promised earlier. Ukrinform reports. “The Russian hybrid war in Ukraine includes the activities of disinformation, designed to influence the… Continue reading Canada Will Provide Ukraine Millions Of Dollars To Fight Propaganda
Running a marathon is difficult enough, but being handed a wet flag during the final leg may have caused a Chinese racer to lose the lead. He Yinli is being both chastised and supported, in that she was closing in on the lead runner when she was handed the Chinese national flag. She wound up… Continue reading Patriotic Propaganda In China?
I hope that someone from the US is involved in this tabletop exercise, specifically from the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communication’s (DNSA/SC) staff. It is their job to coordinate these efforts on behalf of the United States as well as building a better network of experts in this field. I also hope the… Continue reading Finland and Sweden explore ways to deal with emerging threats in the information environment
The BBC just published an article which contains quite a few examples of Russian argumentative techniques, propaganda ploys, and disinformation. In “Ukraine-Russia sea clash staged, says Putin“, even the headline shows Putin shifting the blame to an alleged Ukraine planned and executed operation. “Blameshifting” appears to be Russia’s best weapon in the war of words… Continue reading How Russian Propaganda Works WRT Ukraine Kerch Straits
If you follow the news, you might have seen a reference to two Tweets by US President Donald Trump about a “Worldwide Network”. I have read a whole stack of interpretations, mostly damning, by the media. The worst version, by far, is that President Trump wants to establish his own version of RT. At no… Continue reading What Of This “Worldwide Network”? It’s Called The Vastly Underfunded USAGM
In one of the most egregious examples of fabricated propaganda, state-sponsored and state-controlled RIA Novosti published an over-the-top smear piece targeting the UK and Bill Browder. Why do I say it’s propaganda? The article contains no documentation. No proof. No evidence. No citations. No links. Zero. Zip. Nada. No corroboration. No verification. Numerous references to… Continue reading Russia’s RIA Novosti Desperately Publishes Really Bad Propaganda Piece Targeting UK and Browder
November 9, 2018 This paper is based upon Ukraine’s experience of facing Russian information warfare, placed into a global context. For the international audience, this document may be useful because it explains how Ukrainian experts have come up with solutions to problems which Ukraine began to face earlier than many other countries in the world… Continue reading Taming the Hydra: How to Resist Kremlin’s Information Aggression?
Katerina received a doctorate and master’s degree in history at the Central European University in Budapest, a Master’s degree in European Union law at the University of the Reding in the UK and a bachelor of humanities from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Also: https://day.kyiv.ua/uk/article/den-planety-nota-bene/yak-pracyuye-zahidna-ekspertna-mashyna-na-sluzhbi-kremlya </end editorial> (Translation from Ukrainian by my Chrome browser) Katerina… Continue reading From Suslov to Surkov – How does the Kremlin’s expert propaganda work?
I attended a conference this past week and I realized that the terminology of IO/IW/Propaganda/SC/PD and every other ‘information term’ is being abused. Seriously abused. Some of the terms receiving serious abuse: Information Operations Information Warfare Propaganda Cyberwar/Cyberwarfare Strategic Communications Public Diplomacy Disinformation Misinformation Malinformation It was seriously disconcerting to hear cyber experts stating they… Continue reading The Use And Abuse Of Information Terms – Solution?
17 October 2018 “Danish scholars conclude that RT has ‘exceptional influence’ in social media”. This was the title of a recent story published by the Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti. A similar story was run by Sputnik, also in Russian. The sensational headline about the “exceptional influence” looks like a pat on RT’s back; however, it’s a… Continue reading Like the Devil Reads the Bible
It’s about time. Note to journalists. It’s Kyiv, not Kiev It’s #PutinInvadedUkraine, not #CivilWar If you want to perpetuate Russian propaganda, feel free to ignore. If you support Russia invading other sovereign nations, feel free to ignore. If you feel Russia is justified acting belligerently to other nations on strategic, operational, and tactical levels, feel free to… Continue reading It’s Kyiv, Not Kiev
SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 / 8:37 AM Tony Munroe BEIJING (Reuters) – A week after an official Chinese newspaper ran a four-page ad in a U.S. daily touting the mutual benefits of U.S.-China trade, the U.S. ambassador to China accused Beijing of using the American press to spread propaganda. U.S. President Donald Trump last Wednesday referred… Continue reading U.S. ambassador accuses China of ‘bullying’ with ‘propaganda ads’
Anonymous expert compilation, analysis, and reporting. Russian “covert ops team captured”. Pssst. *whispering* Russia, covert means nobody knows they’re there and nobody gets caught. The victim survived the attack? *Facepalm* Incompetence. Team fail. Russia fail. #7, below, refers to “Ukraine: “We were born in a great hour” – Russia’s Nightmare – To Inform is to… Continue reading Ukraine Ad Hoc Media Update (34)
Fake videos are now detectable with new tools devised by the Department of Defense. </end editorial> Fake video clips made with artificial intelligence can also be spotted using AI—but this may be the beginning of an arms race. by Will Knight August 7, 2018 The first forensics tools for catching revenge porn and fake news created with… Continue reading The Defense Department has produced the first tools for catching deepfakes
Wall Street Journal, Sept. 19, Pg. A6 | Kate O’Keeffe and Aruna Viswanatha The Justice Department ordered two leading Chinese state-run media organizations to register as foreign agents, according to people familiar with the matter, as U.S. officials ramp up efforts to combat foreign influence operations and toughen their stance on a variety of China… Continue reading U.S. Orders Chinese Outlets To Join Foreign-Agents List
SEPTEMBER 10, 2018 Toronto– The Central and Eastern European Council in Canada, representing the interests of nearly 4 million Canadians of Central and Eastern Euopean heritage, demands that Walmart, Amazon and eBay, immediately cease all sales of items on their online stores that glorify The Soviet Union, Soviet repression, Josef Stalin and the institutions used… Continue reading Walmart, Amazon, E-Bay Must End Sales Of All Items That Glorify Soviet Repression And Terror
Anonymous expert compilation, analysis, and reporting. </end editorial> Every once in a while the Russians surprise with a truthful observation – in this case, the admission that Russia and the West “live in a different reality” i.e. Russia’s alternate reality is a real state of mind in Russia. SECSTATE Pompeo’s Crimea Declaration was needless to… Continue reading Helsinki Summit Media (9)
This should serve as a model for other efforts to counter disinformation for the “online platforms, leading social networks, advertisers and the advertising industry” in locations outside Europe. I am quite certain the lessons learned here and the practices established can easily be applied elsewhere. Watch this effort closely! </end editorial> European Commission > Strategy > Digital Single Market > News… Continue reading A draft code of practice on online disinformation
What I find most disturbing about this story is the not-so-professional attitude of a CNN reporter, Hadas Gold, at the very end of the article. In her tweet she says: What I find fascinating about the several meet-ups social media has had w/ conservatives, is the feeling that there’s an inherent need for these platforms… Continue reading Americans may appreciate knowing when a news story is suspect, but more than a third will share that story anyway
I just read a moving article. It was heartfelt, emotionally evocative, and for someone not conversant in Russian Information Warfare, convincing. I was sent the entire article by a close friend. This is my review of “Our democracy is more important than Facebook’s profits“. While the article contains quite a few very good points, to… Continue reading On “Our democracy is more important than Facebook’s profits”
Russia’s propaganda channel, RT, is under investigation in the UK for… (drumroll) broadcasting propaganda. The challenge is proving bias in reporting, not offering all sides of issues. Russia takes advantage of the West’s belief in freedom of speech and freedom of journalism and pushes the limits to the maximum extent possible. The UK is Russia’s #1… Continue reading UK: Ofcom opens three new investigations into Kremlin-backed TV channel
March 30, 2018 – 23:18 By Kseniya Kirillova, for Defencereport Recently, Russian propaganda has committed another abomination against the dissident Ilya Yashinand his elderly grandmother. The camera crew “Life” broke into a nursing home, where the sick 84-year-old woman lived, and, having written down several of her comments, wrote a story directed against her grandson based on these comments.… Continue reading Propaganda as a drug – even for Putin’s Russia
Guys and Gals of the information warfare community, information operations world, strategic communications, public diplomacy, cybersecurity, cyberwarfare, electronic warfare, etc – InfowarCon is THE event that you should attend. I’ve been to quite a few of these through the years. Founded by Winn Schwartau back when the concept of information warfare was just gaining traction… Continue reading InfowarCon 2018: CALL FOR PAPERS
I woke up writing a new ‘strategy’ in my head. I’ve titled it “Suggestions For Department Of State GEC” in response to State-Defense Cooperation on Global Engagement Center Programs and Creation of the Information Access Fund to Counter State-Sponsored Disinformation. It’s done. It only took three hours to finish. I’ve ‘staffed’ it to a few close… Continue reading What to do…
By Coda Staff 26 Oct 2017 Ahead of its 2018 parliamentary elections, Italian secondary schools will incorporate a course on identifying and debunking fake news. The program, with the support of digital tech giants such as Facebook, will launch in 8,000 Italian high schools later this month. Supporters of the initiative hope that it will… Continue reading Italy to Launch Disinformation Curriculum
Seldom will I carry a full RT story because they are simply painful reading. This time, however, RT names their top ten critics. No, I’m not on the list of these heavyweights. I’m glad to say I’ve chatted with two of them. Not Hillary, however. For her, bashing Russia is all about selling her book… Continue reading RT: Russophobia: RT rates the top 10 Kremlin critics & their hilarious hate campaigns
Published 25 September 2017 It is no use simply telling people they have their facts wrong. To be more effective at correcting misinformation in news accounts and intentionally misleading “fake news,” you need to provide a detailed counter-message with new information—and get your audience to help develop a new narrative. A new study, the first… Continue reading Countering misinformation and correcting “fake news”
Quote: “We don’t know who places ads on Facebook or how” “Russia was never involved in this.” “[W]e have never heard about this.” Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesman, said on a conference call, as quoted by state-run RIA Novosti news agency. Russian official strategy whenever confronted: Deny, deny, deny Attack the messenger Attack the message Say “we have… Continue reading Kremlin Says It Doesn’t Know Who Buys Political Ads on Facebook
It should register as an agent of a foreign government. By James Kirchick September 20 James Kirchick is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of “The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age.” Last week, the Russian government-funded cable network RT announced that its American arm had been asked by the Justice… Continue reading RT wants to spread Moscow’s propaganda here. Let’s treat it that way.
The United States is responding to Russian propaganda with new media efforts aimed at countering “Kremlin distortions” with objective news, Broadcasting Board of Governors CEO John Lansing told a Senate panel. Lansing said Thursday he has seen a “global explosion of propaganda and lies,” and said the government agency he oversees is now actively countering… Continue reading US Broadcasting Exec: We Respond to Russian Propaganda with ‘Facts’
BY PATRICK TUCKER SEPTEMBER 12, 2017 The Global Engagement Center is struggling to keep up with its missions: countering ISIS recruitment and Russian disinformation. The chief technology officer at the U.S. State Department’s anti-propaganda center left last week, along with two other members of its analytics team, Defense One has learned. The departures raise new questions about the Global Engagement… Continue reading Analysts Are Quitting the State Department’s Anti-Propaganda Team
@DPRK_News is the Twitter handle of DPRK News, the North Korean news outlet. In this case, there is no news, it is just commentary about the West. In their comments, they reveal just how little they actually know about the West. It makes for good reading if you need comic relief. Yesterday, @DPRK_News tweeted this.… Continue reading DPRK News Service Provides Hilarity, Not News
To Inform is to Influence 