• Director of Strategy and Resident Senior Fellow

Emerson T. Brooking

Emerson T. Brooking is director of strategy and resident senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) of the Atlantic Council Technology Programs. In this capacity, Brooking oversees the center’s efforts to identify, expose, and disrupt foreign information manipulation. He also leads the DFRLab’s work to foster information resilience around the world. Brooking regularly advises US technology companies and national-security entities on issues relating to information security.

From 2022 to 2023, he took leave from the DFRLab to serve as cyber policy advisor within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, where he was an author of the 2023 Department of Defense Cyber Strategy. 

Some of Brooking’s publications include:

December 2023

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

by Emerson T. Brooking, Layla Mashkoor, Jacqueline Malaret

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?
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October 2023

Live expertise: The latest insight as Israel prepares for a ground invasion of Gaza

by Atlantic Council experts

Atlantic Council experts are analyzing the Israel-Hamas conflict as it enters its second week.
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August 2022

Chinese discourse power: Ambitions and reality in the digital domain

by Kenton Thibaut

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.
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