Category Archives: influence operations

Far-right misinformation on Facebook outranks real news

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Far-right misinformation shared on Facebook surrounding the 2020 presidential election received more engagement than real news, according to research published by New York University Wednesday. “Far-right sources designated as spreaders of misinformation had an average of 426 interactions per thousand followers per week, while non-misinformation sources had an average of 259 weekly interactions per thousand followers,” the researchers said in a blog post on their findings. Overall, misinformation authors on the far right received 65% more engagement per follower than other pages, according to the research. Real news was more popular than misinformation in every other partisan news category examined, according to the study — for the slightly right, center, slightly left and far left, real news outranked misinformation on Facebook. Misinformation outranked real news only on the far right, according to the research. The NYU researchers analyzed posts between August 10 of last year and January 11 of this […]

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Twitter scrubs accounts tied to Russian, Iranian influence operations

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Twitter has taken action against a slew of state-linked influence operations run from Russia, Iran and Armenia in recent days, the company announced Tuesday. One Russian influence operation, believed to be run by state actors, shared information that aligned with the Russian government’s goals and which sought to undermine the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, according to a Twitter blog post. Another Russian campaign appears to have links with the government-run troll farm that interfered in the 2016 presidential elections in the U.S. The takedown of these efforts in recent days is emblematic of a pernicious threat that social media companies face in trying to establish ground truth on their platforms. Twitter has been working for years to oust manipulative influence operations from its platform, and while it has seen some success, it continuously runs into repeat offenders who spread disinformation, including in the case of the Kremlin-linked troll farm known […]

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Misinformation flooded Parler around Capitol insurrection, research finds

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The overwhelming majority of news links shared on Parler in the days surrounding the Capitol insurrection last month were filled with misinformation, according to an analysis by NewsGuard and PeakMetrics. In all, 87% of news links shared on Parler around the Jan. 6 riots contained misinformation, the analysis published Wednesday concluded.  One of the most popular sites shared across the social networking platform was a site that appeared to be an American news outlet, called American Conservatives Today, but which actually was run from North Macedonia and plagiarized stories from The Gateway Pundit. The site, which was created in December of last year, spread lies that the voting equipment maker Dominion Voting Systems was switching votes from then-President Donald Trump to then-candidate Joe Biden. Other popular misinformation-based sites that spread falsehoods on Parler included a video website linked with Alex Jones, InfoWars.com’s founder, which spread lies that Biden was interested […]

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Pro-China influence campaign claiming ‘hypocrisy’ of American democracy gains traction

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A clumsy social media influence operation that aligns itself with Chinese government interests has started gaining traction online, according to Graphika research published Thursday. Social media activity associated with the campaign, known as Spamouflage Dragon, has typically failed to attract many eyeballs. Some recent tweets, though, have attracted attention from Chinese diplomats, prominent politicians in Venezuela and Pakistan, a senior figure at Huawei Europe and a commentator in the U.K. The campaign’s YouTube following has grown as well in recent months, according to the social media analysis firm Graphika. Spamouflage Dragon, a cross-platform social media influence campaign, has been working for years to spread pro-Chinese government propaganda online, is one of many influence operations that seizes on news of the day to peddle its narratives. While it appears to have significant resourcing, it has largely failed to gain amplification due to its overtly spammy behavior and rudimentary execution. Many of […]

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Pro-Huawei influence campaign exploits AI, fake content to prop up firm

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A pro-Huawei network of inauthentic Twitter accounts began a campaign last month railing against Belgium’s recent decision to limit 5G technology vendors it deems “high-risk,” according to Graphika research published Friday. Belgium’s plan on 5G vendors, which seeks to limit vendors that are “subject to interference from a non-EU country,” is widely believed to act as a curb on Chinese companies such as Huawei and ZTE. Governments around the world, including the U.S., have suggested that Beijing could force Huawei to comply with the Chinese government’s requests. The network of 14 accounts has been online since 2017, but only kicked into gear last year when they began tweeting about how Belgium’s plan is bad and how Huawei is a good business partner, according to the Graphika research. The campaign didn’t gain a lot of attention, according to the research. But for Graphika researcher Ben Nimmo, the campaign represents a new […]

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Russia, Iran and China exploit Capitol Hill riot to push information operations, US intel concludes

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As America reels from the deadly Capitol Hill insurrection, Russia, Iran and China are using their state media mouthpieces to exploit U.S. divisions and further their interests ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration, according to a new U.S. intelligence analysis obtained by CyberScoop. The Jan. 14 intelligence memo produced by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security shows how U.S. adversaries wasted no time in amplifying scenes from the pro-Trump mob’s siege of the Capitol building. Russian state media has harped on the Jan. 6 riot’s “violent and chaotic nature,” while focusing on the second impeachment of President Donald Trump, according to the memo. One Russian “proxy” suggested that “Antifa,” a loose collection of left-wing activists, was responsible for the storming of the Capitol, the intelligence memo said. Some Republican lawmakers also have mentioned that baseless conspiracy theory. Iranian state media has zeroed in on calls for Trump’s removal from office […]

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China aims its influence operations at incoming Biden administration, top intel official says

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China has increased its influence operations targeting incoming Biden administration personnel and their associates since the presidential election, the top U.S. counterintelligence official said Wednesday. “We’re starting to see that now play [out] across the country, to not only the folks who are in the new administration, but those who are around those folks in the new administration,” William Evanina, who heads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said at an online event hosted by the Aspen Institute. Evanina did not elaborate on what the Chinese influence activity entailed. But another U.S. intelligence official told CyberScoop it included intelligence collection and efforts to shape U.S. policy. Evanina did say that China had engaged in an “uptick” in influence operations since the Nov. 3 election of Joe Biden that were focused on the president-elect’s advisers. Chinese influence activity in the past has included amplification of state-controlled media outlets and other means of […]

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Election-related misinformation is spilling into the real world. Just look at Arizona.

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When a group of pro-Trump protesters surrounded an election center in Arizona in the wee hours of Thursday morning, demonstrators chanted slogans echoing manufacuted narratives amplified by right wing social media users that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was somehow being stolen from President Donald Trump. While calling for officials in Maricopa County to count the ballots, demonstrators parroted the baseless allegations, some of which were initiated by Trump, who earlier tweeted that “we are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election.” In videos of the incident, protesters can be seen holding signs, at least one of which said, “Stop The Steal,” which appeared to be recycled from the hashtag #StopTheSteal, a hashtag that originally began spreading on Twitter on Election Day to suggest, without evidence, that officials somehow were defrauding Trump in Pennsylvania. Our crew being escorted out of ⁦@MaricopaVote⁩ #AZ2020 ⁦@FoxNews⁩ pic.twitter.com/LgiD56drFb — Alicia Acuna (@aacuna1) November 5, 2020 There is no evidence widespread election fraud has […]

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US seizes more domains with ties to suspected Iranian influence campaign

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The U.S. Department of Justice’s actions against alleged Iranian influence campaigns continued this week with the seizure of 27 internet domains, including four that the feds say were targeted directly at U.S. audiences. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unlawfully used the domains in operations to “covertly influence” opinions in the U.S. and elsewhere, the department said in an announcement Wednesday. In early October, the feds seized 92 domains under similar allegations. Later that month, the Treasury Department sanctioned five Iran-linked organizations for spreading disinformation and making other attempts to sow discord in the U.S. As with previous announcements, U.S. officials cited help from Silicon Valley giants. “Thanks to our ongoing collaboration with Google, Facebook, and Twitter, the FBI was able to disrupt this Iranian propaganda campaign and we will continue to pursue any attempts by foreign actors to spread disinformation in our country,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig […]

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US seizes more domains with ties to suspected Iranian influence campaign

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The U.S. Department of Justice’s actions against alleged Iranian influence campaigns continued this week with the seizure of 27 internet domains, including four that the feds say were targeted directly at U.S. audiences. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) unlawfully used the domains in operations to “covertly influence” opinions in the U.S. and elsewhere, the department said in an announcement Wednesday. In early October, the feds seized 92 domains under similar allegations. Later that month, the Treasury Department sanctioned five Iran-linked organizations for spreading disinformation and making other attempts to sow discord in the U.S. As with previous announcements, U.S. officials cited help from Silicon Valley giants. “Thanks to our ongoing collaboration with Google, Facebook, and Twitter, the FBI was able to disrupt this Iranian propaganda campaign and we will continue to pursue any attempts by foreign actors to spread disinformation in our country,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig […]

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