• 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.

May 2022

Russian War Report: Belarus launches “combat preparedness test”

by Digital Forensic Research Lab

The Belarusian military began unannounced combat drills, the Kremlin drops the term "denazification," and a Latin American RT influencer resigns.
read more
March 2022

Understanding Telegram’s ecosystem of far-right channels in the US

by Esteban Ponce de León

DFRLab analysis of nearly 6,000 Telegram channels identified distinct “communities” ranging from MAGA supporters to QAnon
read more
March 2022

RT and Sputnik in Spanish boosted by Russian embassy tweets and suspicious accounts

by Esteban Ponce de León

RT en Español and Sputnik News catapulted by diplomatic Twitter accounts and inauthentic activity after Russia invaded Ukraine.
read more