Content

Smartphone with the app from TikTok on the flags of the USA and China. (Source: Reuters)

Wed, Feb 14, 2024

TikTok: Hate the Game, Not the Player

How Strategic and Regulatory Confusion Around TikTok Prevent an Effective National Security Response

by Rose Jackson, Seth Stodder, Kenton Thibaut

Americas China

Tue, Jan 16, 2024

Design Questions in the Software Liability Debate

Software liability—resurgent in the policy debate since its mention in the 2023 US National Cybersecurity Strategy—describes varied potential structures to create legal accountability for vendors of insecure software. This report identifies key design questions for such regimes and tracks their discussion through the decades-long history of the debate.

by Maia Hamin, Sara Ann Brackett, and Trey Herr, with Andy Kotz

Cybersecurity Cybersecurity Standards and Requirements

Sat, Dec 23, 2023

Distortion by design: How social media platforms shaped our initial understanding of the Israel-Hamas conflict

Almost as soon as the Israel-Hamas war began, it collided with the engineering and policy decisions of social media companies. On Telegram, terrorist content spread mostly uncontested; on X, false claims proliferated. Accusations of anti-Palestinian bias at Meta and pro-Palestinian bias at TikTok added to the confusion. Can the platforms thread this needle?

by Emerson T. Brooking, Jacqueline Malaret, Layla Mashkoor

Mon, Nov 13, 2023

This Job Post Will Get You Kidnapped: A Deadly Cycle of Crime, Cyberscams, and Civil War in Myanmar

In Myanmar, cybercrime has become an effective vehicle through which nonstate actors can fund and perpetuate conflict.

by Emily Ferguson and Emma Schroeder

Combating Cybercrime Security & Defense
Telephone with messaging apps. “Protecting point-to-point messaging apps: Understanding Telegram, WeChat, and WhatsApp in the United States” cover image.

Mon, Aug 14, 2023

Protecting point-to-point messaging apps: Understanding Telegram, WeChat, and WhatsApp in the United States

A year-long project on protecting users' data and privacy that analyzes the growing use of point-to-point messaging platforms in the United States and the implications their design and governing policies have for user privacy and free speech.

Democracy Derailed report cover art

Tue, Aug 8, 2023

Sudan’s precarious information environment and the fight for democracy

An examination of the time from December 2018, when protests against then-president Omar al-Bashir first broke out, and December 2022, when a framework agreement between civilian and military leaders came into play.

by Tessa Knight, Lujain Alsedeg

A World Map Of China 3D Rendering - Chinese Discourse Power Cover graphic

Wed, Aug 2, 2023

Chinese discourse power: Capabilities and impact

An examination of China's online and offline channels for the dissemination of "discourse power" and the mechanisms of oversight on which such communications rely.

by Kenton Thibaut

Mon, Jul 10, 2023

Critical Infrastructure and the Cloud: Policy for Emerging Risk

Critical infrastructure increasingly depends upon cloud computing. Policy must adapt its approach to risk management accordingly.

by Tianjiu Zuo, Justin Sherman, Maia Hamin, and Stewart Scott

Cloud Computing Cybersecurity

Thu, Jun 29, 2023

The disinformation landscape in West Africa and beyond

A look at West Africa’s information environment, with particular emphasis on local and international disinformation campaigns targeting the region and beyond.

by Tessa Knight, Jean le Roux

Mon, Feb 27, 2023

A Parallel Terrain: Public-Private Defense of the Ukrainian Information Environment

The information environment is a key domain through which the war in Ukraine is being contested. By better understanding the key role that private tech companies play in this domain, the USs and Ukraine can better prepare for future threats.

by Emma Schroeder* and Sean Dack

Tue, Dec 6, 2022

An introduction to the Freedom Online Coalition

The Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) is comprised of thirty-four member countries committed to advancing Internet freedom and human rights online.

by Rose Jackson, Leah (Léa) Fiddler, Jacqueline Malaret

CHINESE DISCOURSE POWER: ASPIRATIONS, REALITY, AND AMBITIONS IN THE DIGITAL DOMAIN

Wed, Aug 24, 2022

Chinese discourse power: Ambitions and reality in the digital domain

The CCP has embarked on a concerted strategy to gain control over the global digital and information environment. Its goal: create an alternative global order with China at its heart.

by Kenton Thibaut