• Associate Editor and Research Associate, Latin America

Luiza Bandeira

Luiza Bandeira is the associate editor and a research associate for Latin America at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) based in Colombia.

Luiza Bandeira is a Brazilian multimedia journalist with 10 years’ experience. She has worked for the BBC World Service, in London, and with some of the most important news outlets in Brazil, such as Folha de S.Paulo and Nexo. During the 2018 elections, Luiza was the leader of El Poder de Elegir Brasil, a fact-checking project focused on WhatsApp. She is currently a researcher for the DFRLab (Digital Forensics Research Lab), a center of the DC-based think tank Atlantic Council. As a researcher, she investigates disinformation campaigns in Latin America. She has obtained an MSc in Social Policy and Development from the London School of Economics.

June 2020

Operation Carthage: How a Tunisian company conducted influence operations in African presidential elections

by Andy Carvin, Luiza Bandeira, Graham Brookie, Iain Robertson, Nika Aleksejeva, Alyssa Kann, Kanishk Karan, Ayushman Kaul, Tessa Knight, Jean le Roux, Roman Osadchik, Esteban Ponce de Leon

A Tunisia-based company operated a sophisticated digital campaign involving multiple social media platforms and websites in an attempt to influence the country’s 2019 presidential election, as well as other recent elections in Africa. In an exclusive investigation that began in September 2019, the DFRLab uncovered dozens of online assets with connections to Tunisian digital communications firm UReputation. On June 5, 2020, after conducting its own investigation, Facebook announced it had taken down more than 900 assets affiliated with the UReputation operation, including 182 user accounts, 446 pages, and 96 groups, as well as 209 Instagram accounts. The operation also involved the publication of multiple Francophone websites, some going back more than five years.
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June 2019

Operation Secondary Infektion

by Nika Aleksejeva, Lukas Andriukaitis, Luiza Bandeira, Donara Barojan, Graham Brookie, Eto Buziashvili, Andy Carvin, Kanishk Karan, Ben Nimmo, Iain Robertson, and Michael Sheldon

A Russian-based information operation used fake accounts, forged documents, and dozens of online platforms to spread stories.
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May 2019

Civilian Militias in Venezuela Coordinate on Twitter

Accounts affiliated with the Maduro regime posted repeated messages in narrow timeframes in attempt to manipulate Twitter traffic
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