Last month, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released volume two of its investigation into Russian interference, which details an extensive campaign that aims to sow division and undermine American democracy via social media. One of [...]
Bret Schafer talks online political disinformation on the Ross Kaminsky Show on Denver's 630 KHOW. [...]
In a world increasingly interconnected by technology, democratic governments are grappling with how to defend against and counter information operations targeting their societies. Russia has emerged as the most prolific foreign actor engaging in t [...]
Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow Bret Schafer discusses online disinformation and the ongoing impeachment inquiry in the House on NPR's All Things Considered. [...]
Overview The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has engaged in a prolonged effort to create a version of Russian history free “from internal contradictions and ambiguities.” But attempts to airbrush Russian history have recently become a messa [...]
Western countries should not respond to disinformation campaigns against them with their own disinformation campaigns, Director Laura Rosenberger and Research Assistant Brad Hanlon argue in an article for Progressive Centre UK. [...]
In their first joint op-ed, ASD Co-Directors Laura Rosenberger and Zack Cooper write that Western tech companies’ confirmation of Chinese government efforts to manipulate the information space outside its Great Firewall should serve as a wake-up cal [...]
How to Interpret Hamilton 2.0 Hamilton 2.0 displays outputs from sources that we can directly attribute to the Russian, Chinese, or Iranian governments or their various news and information channels. These channels and accounts often engage with t [...]
ASD Head of Research and Policy Jessica Brandt gives Axios readers a rundown on the latest Facebook, Twitter, and Google takedowns of accounts associated with coordinated inauthentic behavior on the part of the PRC government. [...]
ASD China Analyst Matt Schrader joined ABC’s David Sparks to discuss Twitter and Facebook’s takedown of a Chinese state-backed disinformation campaign targeting the Hong Kong protest movement. [...]
About the Author Nina Jankowicz is a global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Kennan Institute, where she studies Russian disinformation and the democratic challenges of the technology age. Her first book, How to Lose [...]
In his testimony this week, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller III reiterated that foreign interference is “among the most serious” challenges to democracy, and that it “deserves the attention of every American.” The Alliance for Securing Democr [...]
ASD Head of Policy and Research Jessica Brandt was interviewed by Public Radio International, where she spoke about the two-pronged nature of Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. elections: disinformation and cyberattacks. Brandt also praised the [...]
ASD Director Laura Rosenberger participated in a panel discussion, "New Threats from Old Adversaries: Democracy, Misinformation, and Cyber Campaigns," at the Aspen Security Forum on July 19, 2019. Joining Rosenberger to discuss disinformation, cyber [...]
Clint Watts is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is the author of Messing with the Enemy: Surviving in a Social Media World of Hackers, Terro [...]
ASD Non-resident Fellow Clint Watts discusses Russian cyber interference and the Internet Research Agency on the first episode of Lawfare's new Active Measures podcast. [...]
The following is an introduction to the submission by ASD Intern Amber Frankland In April 2019, the United Kingdom’s Home Office published its Online Harms White Paper, which proposed a regulatory framework designed to address the prevalence of “il [...]
ASD Non-resident Fellow Heidi Tworek uses the example of prewar Germany to discuss the problem of government over-regulation of media in The Atlantic. [...]
On October 26, Facebook announced that it removed “82 Pages, Groups, and accounts for coordinated inauthentic behavior” originating from Iran. The information operation targeted citizens of the United States and United Kingdom, often by creating fic [...]
Summary The Russian government’s active measures campaign during the 2016 U.S. presidential election was a watershed moment in the study of modern information operations. Revelations that the Kremlin had purchased divisive political ads on social [...]
Government officials and tech titans could be excused for breathing a huge, collective sigh of relief if next week’s midterms come to pass without evidence of widespread foreign manipulation. But if recent U.S. elections are any indication, the thre [...]
On October 19, the Department of Justice announced charges against Elena Khusyaynova, a St. Petersburg-based accountant, for working as part of a conspiracy to wage “information warfare against the United States of America.” According to the FBI, Kh [...]
On October 4, officials in the Netherlands and U.K. revealed a joint counterintelligence operation that led to the arrest and expulsion of four Russian military intelligence (GRU) officers in April for attempting to hack the Organization for the Pro [...]
ASD Director Laura Rosenberger joined the Morning Joe crew to discuss Twitter and Facebook's testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. After executives from Twitter and Facebook testified before Congress on Wednesday, Lau [...]
Since early 2017, the Swedish government has been training citizens, media, and civil services to be on alert for foreign influence operations, especially from the Russian government, aimed at undermining the September 9 parliamentary elections. Thi [...]
Thank you Chairman Burr, Vice Chairman Warner, and Distinguished Members of the Committee. I submitted my full statement for the record, but let me highlight key points on the national security context of these activities and steps we need to take [...]
ASD Director Laura Rosenberger testified at the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's hearing about "Foreign Influence Operations and their use of Social Media" on August 1, 2018. Rosenberger's complete written statement that was submitted to t [...]
WASHINGTON, DC — In The Federalist 68, Alexander Hamilton described “the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils,” as “one of the most deadly adversaries of republican government.” As President Trump meets with Russian [...]
On June 18, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee releasedaround 1,100 names of Twitter accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA), which is the official name of the Russian troll farm indictedby Special Counsel Robert Mueller for [...]
On May 24, an international team of investigators from the Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, and Ukraine announced that a Russian anti-aircraft missile was directly responsible for the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 (MH17). The following da [...]
As the United States, Britain, and France launched targeted airstrikes against suspected chemical weapons sites in Syria on April 13, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis predicted that there would be “a significant disinformation campaign over th [...]
The European Commission published a communication on April 26 to the European Council and Parliament outlining the “European Approach” to combatting disinformation. The Commission’s report was the result of a several month process including consulta [...]
Russian influence operations exploit the vulnerabilities of social media platforms to disseminate false narratives and amplify divisive content in order to undermine democracies, divide societies, and weaken Western alliances. In conducting these o [...]
Americans continue to investigate, deliberate, and wallow in the aftermath of Russia’s rebirth of “Active Measures” designed to defeat their adversaries through the “force of politics rather than the politics of force.” Kremlin interference in the 2 [...]
Want to combat disinformation? Borrow a page from the anti-money laundering handbook. Russia’s ability to successfully conduct hybrid warfare is predicated on the creation of a fog of ambiguity between the Kremlin’s actions and the Kremlin itself. [...]
WASHINGTON — Earlier this week, representatives from Facebook, Google, and Twitter appeared before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary to answer questions about the use of their platforms in the dissemination of Russian disinformation before [...]
Statement Prepared for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism A decade ago, al Qaeda in Iraq littered YouTube with violent videos. A few years later, Twitter became a playground for al Shabaab’s violent tir [...]
The objective of Kremlin influence operations, part of a larger set of tactics and strategies known as active measures, is to make the target population more amenable to Kremlin wants and desires. They achieve this either by gaining a sympathetic he [...]