New York Times: Russian Campaign Promotes Homegrown Vaccine and Undercuts Rivals. “Russian news outlets with connections to the Kremlin ran disingenuous Spanish-language stories targeting vaccines made in the United States and Europe, researchers said.”
Business Insider: Google has pulled down a propaganda blog backing the military coup in Myanmar after outcry by online activists. “Google has pulled down a propaganda blog supporting the military coup in Myanmar after the blog was discovered by an online activist this week. The blog was managed and hosted via the Google-owned Blogger platform under the URL seniorgeneralminaunghlaing.com, taking its name from the Myanmar military leader who has seized control of the country.”
MisinfoCon: An introduction to Propwatch — the world’s first visual database of propaganda techniques. “Propwatch uses its pioneering web platform to initiate the inoculation process. Our unique platform catalogs and cross-references embedded video segments, so visitors… can see propaganda techniques being executed in real-time, and not only learn to identify the techniques, but to understand how and why they work.”
Cherwell: Oxford study finds social media manipulation in all 81 countries surveyed. “A report published by the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) has found evidence of organised social media manipulation campaigns in all 81 countries surveyed in 2020, a 15% increase compared to last year’s report. The study points to the rising influence of ‘cyber troops’. This refers to social media accounts that spread doctored images, use data-driven strategies to target specific sections of the population, troll political opponents, and mass-report opponents’ content so that it is reported as spam. These accounts can be either automated or human.”
ProPublica: Leaked Documents Show How China’s Army of Paid Internet Trolls Helped Censor the Coronavirus. “As the coronavirus spread in China, the government stage-managed what appeared on the domestic internet to make the virus look less severe and the authorities more capable, according to thousands of leaked directives and other files.”
BuzzFeed News: This Pro-Trump YouTube Network Sprang Up Just After He Lost. “A network of YouTube channels connected to the pro-Trump media outlet Epoch Times launched after Election Day as part of a disinformation campaign to keep President Donald Trump in office. Only one of the channels discloses its ties to the newspaper, which traffics in conspiracy theories and has become one of the president’s staunchest media allies.”
US News & World Report: Report: Social Media Manipulation Affects Even US Senators. “The conversation taking place on the verified social media accounts of two U.S. senators remained vulnerable to manipulation, even amid heightened scrutiny in the run up to the U.S. presidential election, an investigation by the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence found. Researchers from the center, a NATO-accredited research group based in Riga, Latvia, paid three Russian companies 300 euros ($368) to buy 337,768 fake likes, views and shares of posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok, including content from verified accounts of Sens. Chuck Grassley and Chris Murphy.” The Senators consented to participating in the research.
Reuters: China tweet that enraged Australia propelled by ‘unusual’ accounts, say experts. “A Chinese official’s tweet of an image of an Australian soldier that sparked a furious reaction from Canberra was amplified across social media by unusual accounts, of which half were likely fake, an Israeli cybersecurity firm and Australian experts said.”
The Guardian: Rival disinformation campaigns targeted African users, Facebook says. “Rival French and Russian disinformation campaigns have sought to deceive and influence internet users in the Central African Republic ahead of an election later this month, Facebook said on Tuesday.”
BBC: The dead professor and the vast pro-India disinformation campaign. “A dead professor and numerous defunct organisations were resurrected and used alongside at least 750 fake media outlets in a vast 15-year global disinformation campaign to serve Indian interests, a new investigation has revealed. The man whose identity was stolen was regarded as one of the founding fathers of international human rights law, who died aged 92 in 2006.”
Hong Kong Free Press: Activist sets up online archive to highlight ‘political’ editing of Hong Kong school textbooks. “A pro-democracy activist and his newly-founded group Education Breakthrough have set up an online archive dedicated to highlighting what they describe as politically motivated changes to Hong Kong school textbooks aimed at showing China in a better light.”
Reuters: Exclusive: Twitter suspends Thai royalist account linked to influence campaign. “Twitter has suspended a Thai pro-royalist account linked to the palace that a Reuters analysis found was connected to thousands of others created in recent weeks spreading posts in favour of King Maha Vajiralongkorn and the monarchy.
The Conversation: On Twitter, bots spread conspiracy theories and QAnon talking points. “Americans who seek political insight and information on Twitter should know how much of what they are seeing is the result of automated propaganda campaigns. Nearly four years after my collaborators and I revealed how automated Twitter accounts were distorting online election discussions in 2016, the situation appears to be no better. That’s despite the efforts of policymakers, technology companies and even the public to root out disinformation campaigns on social media.”
Mother Jones: How the Most Toxic, Notorious Pro-Trump Online Community Tricked Reddit and Got Back Online. “Even though their subreddit has been banned from Reddit for over four months, The_Donald’s former members continue to wreak havoc on the site. Mother Jones has gained access to two servers hosted by Discord where former members of the banned subreddit gather, including a private server that requires members to be vetted. Chat messages posted there show how former members of The_Donald have found new homes on Reddit and continue to coordinate and plan the spread of hate, vitriol, and disinformation on the site and in other venues, despite the company’s ban.”
Eurasia Review: ‘Foreign Disinformation’ Social Media Campaigns Linked To Falling Vaccination Rates . “‘Foreign disinformation’ social media campaigns are linked to falling vaccination rates, reveals an international time trends analysis, published in the online journal BMJ Global Health. Every 1 point increase in effort is tied to an average 2% drop in annual coverage around the globe, and a 15% increase in the number of negative tweets about vaccination, shows the study, which forms part of a BMJ Collection on Democracy and Health published for the World Health Summit this weekend.”
