Content

Fri, Jan 24, 2020

A Facebook drama, act 2: the coordination

Scripted family dramas betrayed a coordinated and cultivated network

Social Media

Fri, Jan 24, 2020

A Facebook drama, act 3: the content

Fake accounts pushed charged political content as a means of gathering a particular audience susceptible to the scam

Social Media

Wed, Jan 22, 2020

COMMENTARY: DFRLab predictions for 2020

DFRLab researchers reflect on what’s to come in the yearahead

Elections

Wed, Jan 22, 2020

Baltnews Latvia’s audience size decreased after domain suspension

Open-source web traffic analysis reveals significant decrease in the Kremlin outlet’s reach

Social Media

Fri, Jan 17, 2020

Russian media pushed U.S. drone conspiracy related to plane crash in Iran

The unfounded theory blamed a U.S. drone strike for downing the Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 near Tehran

Security United States

Mon, Jan 13, 2020

Denial, denial, confession: Iran could not avoid the truth about flight PS752

For 72 hours, Iranian government and media stuck with the same talking points about the crash until the evidence overwhelmed them

Security

Fri, Jan 10, 2020

Alleged hack of Kuwaiti News Agency tweets bodes poorly for real-time Iran coverage

False claims of U.S. troop withdrawal from Kuwait in midst of escalation with Iran vigorously denied by state-run news outlet

Social Media

Thu, Jan 9, 2020

Nontraditional media outlets target former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko

News aggregators and YouTube were favorite vectors to attack Poroshenko ahead of July 2019 election

Government

Thu, Jan 9, 2020

Nontraditional media outlets grabbed Ukrainians’ attention prior to elections

YouTube, news aggregators grow in popularity as sources of political news

Government

Mon, Dec 2, 2019

Repatriation of Maria Butina inspires more anti-American propaganda

Although Butina pleaded guilty to acting as Russian agent, pro-Kremlin outlets doubled down on disinformation about her arrest and prosecution

Government

Fri, Nov 22, 2019

Backlash to controversial peace deal spun on Ukrainian and Russian media

Zelensky’s agreement to the Steinmeier Formula took both Ukrainian and Russian media bystorm

Government

Thu, Nov 21, 2019

Breaking down Sputnik’s Facebook audiences in the Baltic states

While the local audience remained modest, Sputnik still managed to engage a small segment of Baltic users via Facebook

BalticBrief Social Media