Resilience & Society

Tue, Aug 6, 2024

Pro-Russian Facebook pages spread anti-French, anti-UN content in West Africa

Network of inauthentic pro-Russian pages spread false claims targeting elections, France, and the UN peacekeeping mission in CAR

by Valentin Châtelet

Advertising Africa

Tue, Jul 9, 2024

How Kenya’s tax bill protests spread online

After the bill's withdrawal, online conversations continued to call for President Ruto's resignation

by Digital Forensic Research Lab

Civil Society CrowdTangle
A demonstrator makes a heart-shaped gesture while standing in front of a police cordon during a rally to protest against the so-called foreign agents bill in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 1, 2024. (Source: REUTERS/Irakli Gedenidze/File Photo)

Thu, May 2, 2024

Pro-government Facebook ads target protests against foreign agents bill in Georgia

Dozens of Facebook ads targeted Georgian protesters with anti-Western and anti-LGBTQ+ narratives

by Sopo Gelava

Advertising Civil Society

Mon, Apr 22, 2024

Markets Matter: A Glance into the Spyware Industry

The Intellexa Consortium is a complex web of holding companies and vendors for spyware and related services. The Consortium represents a compelling example of spyware vendors in the context of the market in which they operate—one which helps facilitate the commercial sale of software driving both human rights and national security risk.

by Jen Roberts, Trey Herr, Emma Taylor, Nitansha Bansal

Civil Society Cybersecurity

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Inauthentic campaign amplifying Islamophobic content targeting Canadians

Accounts used AI-generated photos and inauthentic accounts to amplify Islamophobic account claiming to be a new Canadian nonprofit

by Digital Forensic Research Lab

Disinformation Facebook

Mon, Mar 4, 2024

Online campaign targeted Egyptian economist after his death in custody

Suspicious accounts on Facebook and X amplified state narratives about Ayman Hadhoud as human rights groups raised questions about his death

by Digital Forensic Research Lab

Egypt Facebook
generative art rendering of a swarm of bees surrounding the face of an elephant

Wed, Jan 24, 2024

How Ukraine fights Russian disinformation: Beehive vs mammoth

Best practices in countering Russian disinformation, propaganda and information aggression, based on interviews with nearly two dozen Ukrainian practitioners

by Jakub Kalenský, Roman Osadchuk

Civil Society Digital Policy

Mon, Jan 22, 2024

Gang violence and hostage-taking sow fear across Ecuadorian social media

Graphic content related to violent incidents in Ecuador has garnered millions of views on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter

by Esteban Ponce de León

Corruption Ecuador
Hatice Cengiz, fiancee of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, testifies before a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on "The Dangers of Reporting on Human Rights" on Capitol Hill in Washington U.S., May 16, 2019. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Fri, Dec 22, 2023

Pro-Saudi X accounts repeatedly harassed activist and fiancée of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Turkish activist Hatice Cengiz, fiancée of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, targeted with death threats and insults on the platform formerly known as Twitter

by Digital Forensic Research Lab

Human Rights Online Harassment

Thu, Dec 21, 2023

DFRLab research highlights from 2023

From the war in Ukraine to the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, the DFRLab's international team of researchers investigated information operations and online harms around the world

by Andy Carvin, Layla Mashkoor

China Conflict

Mon, Dec 4, 2023

Egyptian social media reacts to calls for evacuating Gaza residents into Sinai

Narratives calling for displacement of Gaza Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula met with rejection in Egyptian social media

by Dina Sadek

Conflict Egypt
People look out of the window of a house on a flooded street following a storm in the village of Pribrezhe, Crimea November 28, 2023. REUTERS/Alexey Pavlishak

Thu, Nov 30, 2023

Russian War Report: Pro-Kremlin surrogates accuse the US of using ‘climate weapons’ in Crimea

Following a severe storm in the Black Sea heavily impacted Crimea, pro-Kremlin sources circulated a conspiracy suggesting the US used a weather weapon.

by Digital Forensic Research Lab