• Resident Fellow

Esteban Ponce de León


Esteban Ponce de León is a resident fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) of the Atlantic Council. Esteban specializes in open-source research, online disinformation, and influence operations, with a focus on developing open-source intelligence tools and research methods grounded in data science. His work focuses in developing methods to integrate artificial intelligence models into digital research workflows to enhance open research, as well as developing methodology frameworks to assess artificial intelligence language models capabilities and risks for the information environment.

July 2024

The sovereignty trap

by Konstantinos Komaitis, Esteban Ponce de León, Kenton Thibaut, Trisha Ray, Kevin Klyman

How the promise of sovereign AI obscures its pitfalls
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June 2024

Another battlefield: Telegram as a digital front in Russia’s war against Ukraine

In this new report, the DFRLab investigates the role of Telegram in Russia since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine
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January 2024

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

by Esteban Ponce de León

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