Spotlight
Latest Research
March 2023
TikTok in the dock
Whether or not the US bans TikTok, the real issue is the danger presented by all social media platforms as they currently operate, argues Atlantic Council Nonresident Senior Fellow Seth Stodder.
March 2023
How pro-Russia and pro-China influencers cross-promote state narratives
Influencers critical of the West have formed a mutually beneficial community on Twitter, amplifying Russian and Chinese state narratives on a range of issues
March 2023
Russian War Report: Kremlin edits footage of Mariupol visit to remove women shouting at Putin
After Putin was yelled at in Mariupol, the Kremlin cut the exchange from their official video. RIA Novosti published the whole interaction.
March 2023
Russia-friendly media outlets in Global South frame French anti-government protest as anti-NATO
Russian state media coverage of protest in Paris picked up by outlets across the Global South
March 2023
Egyptian Twitter network amplifies pro-government hashtags, attacks fact-checkers
Twitter network targeted the fact-checking organization Saheeh Masr while also promoting the Egyptian government and military
March 2023
Suspicious Twitter accounts promote hashtag attacking Egyptian human rights defender
Veteran activist George Ishak targeted by disinformation campaign after criticizing Egyptian government
March 2023
Russia builds a “special information operation” around Transnistria
Rhetoric increasingly pushes idea of military conflict in the separatist region of Moldova
March 2023
Russian War Report: DFRLab confirms aerial strikes on industrial plants north of Bakhmut
As Russian forces continue their offensive on Bakhmut, the DFRLab examined satellite imagery to reveal the potential of missile attacks.
March 2023
How the Kremlin misrepresented a video to claim Georgian protesters seek war with Russia
Footage from a protest in Tbilisi was presented with false context to accuse protesters of seeking war in the Russian-occupied Georgian region of Abkhazia
In-Depth Reports
December 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.
August 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.
April 2022
China’s discourse power operations in the Global South
An overview of China’s discourse power activities in the Global South, including the regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. It outlines the processes through which China leverages its diplomatic, media, and political positions in these regions to gain influence, and assesses the impacts of these activities for democratic resilience worldwide.
February 2022
Financing & genocide: Development finance and the crisis in the Uyghur Region
A joint report that reveals how the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has significant investments in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where indigenous peoples have been subjected to what international legislators, legal scholars, and advocates have determined to be a genocide.
January 2022
After the insurrection: How domestic extremists adapted and evolved after the January 6 US Capitol attack
This report by the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) provides an overview and analysis of the shifts observed in domestic extremist movements since the 2021 Capitol attack.
July 2021
Information defense: Policy measures taken against foreign information manipulation
A joint report from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab and Europe Center on the policy measures government and private sector can take against foreign information manipulation.
April 2021
Fighting for the hearts and minds of Sakartvelo: The Georgian information environment during the 2020 parliamentary election
Georgian information environment report
April 2021
Digital Autocracy: Maduro’s control of the Venezuelan information environment
A 16-month monitoring report that analyzes the information environment in Venezuela, exploring the Maduro regime’s tactics when promoting influence operations in the country and abroad.
February 2021
Weaponized: How rumors about COVID-19’s origins led to a narrative arms race
A joint research project from the Digital Forensic Research Lab and the Associate Press on information environments during the first six months of COVID-19.
Projects
Russian War Report
As Russia’s aggression in Europe heats up, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) is keeping a close eye on Moscow’s movements across the military, cyber, and information domains.
Foreign Interference Attribution Tracker
The DFRLab’s Foreign Interference Attribution Tracker (FIAT) is an interactive, open-source database that captures allegations of foreign interference relevant to the 2020 election. This tool assesses the credibility, bias, evidence, transparency, and impact of each claim.
Election Official Handbook: Preparing for Election Day Misinformation
As part of the Election Integrity Partnership, the DFRLab has analyzed roughly four hundred cases of election-related dis- and misinformation on social media. This memo gathers the findings and issues recommendations for US election officials: they must prepare for viral falsehoods online that persist for weeks.
Dichotomies of Disinformation
Via the DFRLab’s Github: This project isolates “political disinformation campaigns.” Dichotomies of Disinformation proposes and tests a classification system built on 150 variable options. Our intent is to establish a replicable, extensible system by which widely disparate disinformation campaigns can be categorized and compared.
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