Social Media

Fri, May 23, 2025

Online network with French ties promotes election interference claims in Romania

A Romanian news aggregator amplifying claims of Simion’s victory is tied to a France-based company that also targeted Africa and Asia

by Valentin Châtelet

Africa Asia
Supporters watch Leader of the radical right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) George Simion speak on a screen following the exit poll results during the Romanian presidential election, outside the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) headquarters in Bucharest, Romania

Fri, May 16, 2025

From Bucharest to Chisinau: How pro-Kremlin networks shaped Romania’s 2025 election

Russia-aligned actors in both Romania and Moldova consolidate support for George Simion in final days of campaign.

by Victoria Olari

Democracy Democratic Transitions

Thu, May 15, 2025

Pro-Kremlin actors exploit USAID scrutiny to destabilize Moldova’s pre-election landscape

Multiple apparent influence campaigns using USAID cuts to promote election denialism and push for criminalization of Moldova’s ruling party

by Eto Buziashvili, Victoria Olari

Corruption Democratic Transitions

Fri, May 9, 2025

South African influencers-for-hire attack Zelenskyy for declining Victory Day ceasefire

Multiple South African X accounts linked to paid influencer marketplace also participated in previous campaign that advanced pro-Russian narratives.

by Iryna Adam

Content Moderation Policies Deceptive Content Manipulation

Thu, May 8, 2025

How a misleading viral video fueled a Canadian election fraud hoax

Tracing how a viral hoax falsely linked election workers to ballot box fraud

by Digital Forensic Research Lab

Canada Deceptive Content Manipulation

Thu, May 1, 2025

The evolving role of AI-generated media in shaping disinformation campaigns 

A methodological examination of how malicious actors exploit visual generative models

by Ali Chenrose, Max Rizzuto

Artificial Intelligence Brazil

Fri, Apr 25, 2025

Bot-like activity targets Canadian political parties and their leaders ahead of election

Canadian federal election subject to spam messaging from automated X accounts.

by Digital Forensic Research Lab

Artificial Intelligence Canada

Wed, Mar 19, 2025

Cross-platform multilingual campaign amplifies biolabs conspiracy targeting US and Armenia  

Campaign exploits long-running false and misleading claims purporting US bioweapons-related activity in Europe and elsewhere

by Sopo Gelava

Armenia Caucasus

Wed, Mar 12, 2025

Russia-linked Pravda network cited on Wikipedia, LLMs, and X

Pravda network content pollutes sources on multiple platforms, sparking worries of false claims and sanctioned content reaching global audiences

by Valentin Châtelet and Amaury Lesplingart

Artificial Intelligence Platform

Tue, Feb 25, 2025

Scammers impersonated Navalny team, news outlets to promote fake stories and lure victims

Scammers activated dormant pages to defraud a Russian-speaking audience following Alexei Navalny's death in February 2024

by Valentin Châtelet, Kristina Gildejeva

Combating Cybercrime Facebook

Mon, Feb 24, 2025

What the TikTok ban and Xiaohongshu’s brief popularity reveal about US-China relations and their tech sectors

Influx of US users to RedNote amid TikTok ban limbo presents propaganda opportunities and censorship challenges for China

by Kenton Thibaut, Ryan DeVries

China Content Moderation Policies

Thu, Feb 20, 2025

The Musk Effect: Assessing X’s impact on Germany’s election discourse

Weidel-Musk interactions drove a significant portion of AfD's X engagement, with data showing a high volume of English-language accounts contributing to the party's increased reach on the platform

by Mark Scott, Oliver Marsh

Democracy Elections