TASS: Lithuania’s court rules to block Russian news agency Sputnik’s web portal. “Vilnius District Administrative Court sanctioned to block the Lithuanian web portal of the Russian news agency Sputnik. The Radio and Television Commission that is subordinate to Lithuania’s parliament and controls the activity of radio stations and TV broadcasters reported about the court award on its website Friday.”
propaganda
The Conversation: Russian Twitter propaganda predicted 2016 US election polls
The Conversation: Russian Twitter propaganda predicted 2016 US election polls. “In a statistical analysis published in First Monday , my team and I tracked the activity of Russian social media trolls on Twitter in the run up to the 2016 election. We then compared the fluctuating popularity of this propaganda with that of the two presidential candidates: Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. We found that exposure to Russian propaganda may have helped change American minds in favor of Republican candidate Trump.”
The Next Web: The world isn’t ready for deepfakes. Here’s what we need to do.
The Next Web: The world isn’t ready for deepfakes. Here’s what we need to do.. “But here’s the thing: deepfakes are getting so impossibly convincing, even the best discerners aided with the right technology are having trouble telling the difference between what’s faked and what’s real. This isn’t a parlor trick. In the right hands, deepfakes have the potential to destabilize entire societies—and we’re nowhere near ready to deal with the threat.”
Fake news ‘vaccine’ works: ‘Pre-bunking’ game reduces susceptibility to disinformation (EurekAlert)
EurekAlert: Fake news ‘vaccine’ works: ‘Pre-bunking’ game reduces susceptibility to disinformation. “An online game in which people play the role of propaganda producers to help them identify real world disinformation has been shown to increase ‘psychological resistance’ to fake news, according to a study of 15,000 participants.”
The New York Times: Russia Sought to Use Social Media to Influence E.U. Vote, Report Finds
The New York Times: Russia Sought to Use Social Media to Influence E.U. Vote, Report Finds. “European authorities blamed Russian groups on Friday for disinformation campaigns designed to depress turnout and sway public opinion in last month’s European Union elections, an official accounting that underscored how Russian interference has not abated and that Facebook and other tech platforms remain vulnerable to meddling.”
Ars Technica: Researchers discover “Fishwrap” influence campaign recycling old terror news
Ars Technica: Researchers discover “Fishwrap” influence campaign recycling old terror news. “Researchers at Recorded Future have uncovered what appears to be a new, growing social media-based influence operation involving more than 215 social media accounts. While relatively small in comparison to influence and disinformation operations run by the Russia-affiliated Internet Research Agency (IRA), the campaign is notable because of its systematic method of recycling images and reports from past terrorist attacks and other events and presenting them as breaking news—an approach that prompted researchers to call the campaign ‘Fishwrap.'”
Information operations on Twitter: principles, process, and disclosure (Twitter Blog)
Twitter Blog: Information operations on Twitter: principles, process, and disclosure. “In October 2018, we published the first comprehensive archive of Tweets and media associated with known state-backed information operations on Twitter. Since its launch, thousands of researchers from across the globe have downloaded datasets, which contain more than 30 million Tweets and over 1 terabyte of media, using our archive to conduct their own investigations and to share their insights and independent analysis with the world. Today, we’re adding six additional datasets to our archive, covering coordinated, state-backed activities originating from four jurisdictions. All accounts have been removed from Twitter.”
