information operations – Page 16

Pro-Soleimani messaging immediately floods Twitter following general’s death in drone strike

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Jeff Stone

The U.S. drone strike that killed Iran’s top security and intelligence commander also triggered a wave of social media propaganda apparently meant to sway international opinion on an attack that represents a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Washington and Tehran. Twitter accounts claiming to be located in Iran and throughout the Middle East pushed out many thousands of tweets under a handful of hashtags, such as #HardRevenge and #DeathToAmerica, promising payback against the U.S. for President Donald Trump’s order to eliminate the Iranian commander. The #HardRevenge hashtag was included in 95,000 tweets between Jan. 1 and Jan. 3, according to Kanishk Karan, a researcher at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensics Research Lab. There were zero mentions in all of December 2019, Karan said. The wide availability of propaganda again highlights the difficulty that social media platforms encounter when trying to keep pace with such fraught geopolitical events. Often, social media campaigns are designed to […]

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Twitter removes nearly 6,000 accounts spreading Saudi-backed propaganda

Posted on December 20, 2019 by Jeff Stone

Twitter on Friday announced the removal of 5,929 accounts that researchers say has ties to a man accused of recruiting Twitter employees to gather information on Saudi dissidents. In a blog post, Twitter’s Site Integrity team revealed that the accounts removed this week operated as part of a “significant state-backed information operation” originating within the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The accounts represent the “core” of a larger network of 88,000 accounts, and primarily were dedicated to liking, retweeting and replying to tweets that were favorable to the Saudi government on issues such as officials’ appearances in Western media and Iranian sanctions. Twitter attributed the activity to Smaat, a Saudi marketing firm that managed the accounts on behalf of its clients. “We have permanently suspended Smaat’s access to our service as a result, as well as the Twitter accounts of Smaat’s senior executives,” the company said in the blog post. “Smaat […]

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DNC to Silicon Valley on disinformation: do better

Posted on December 16, 2019 by Shannon Vavra

The Democratic National Committee is calling on companies including Facebook, Twitter, and Google to step up their efforts to protect against disinformation on their platforms in the buildup to the 2020 presidential elections. The DNC’s recommendations, which it issued Monday, range from platforms promoting authoritative news outlets to establishing policies to prevent the automated spread of disinformation. The DNC is also calling on the companies to take a harder line against state-backed media, and to share more details about disinformation campaigns online to try enhancing the research community’s ability to understand political disinformation. “While progress has been made since the 2016 elections, platforms still have much to do to reduce the spread of disinformation and combat malicious activity,” the DNC writes. The recommendations show the Democratic Party, just a little over two months before the Iowa Democratic caucuses, rallying behind the idea that tamping down disinformation can help ensure a political […]

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Russia’s GRU propped up fake media personas, mostly failed at social media promotion after DNC hack

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Jeff Stone

Russian military hackers who stole emails from the Democratic National Committee in 2016 were only acting as one part of a larger, coordinated effort to spread Kremlin-approved messaging before and after the 2016 election, according to new findings from Stanford University. Stanford’s Internet Observatory on Tuesday released a trove of analysis detailing how the GRU, a Russian military intelligence unit, was unable to generate public interest in the data stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign for more than a month. Hackers first linked to the stolen emails in a June 14, 2016 set of Facebook posts, pointing to a set of messages supposedly leaked from the campaign. Facebook engagement to the DC Leaks Page, later attributed to Russia, totaled a mere 834 engagements over 22 posts published over four months. International attention only began when WikiLeaks tweeted a link to a database containing thousands of documents revealing internal strife in the […]

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U.S. officials release framework for notifying public of foreign interference in elections

Posted on November 8, 2019 by Sean Lyngaas

The Trump administration on Friday released a framework describing the process by which it would notify Congress, state and local officials, the private sector, and the public about foreign interference in U.S. elections. The framework supplements existing laws, under which the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security alert victims of cyber intrusions and other malicious activity. The document is recognition that, in cases of foreign attempts to disrupt the electoral process, more communication with the public is needed. One key factor in the notification process, according to a one-page summary released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, is whether public disclosure of a foreign interference operation will deter the activity and protect the public, or instead re-amplify the adversary’s message. If DHS’s cybersecurity agency or a member of the intelligence community wants to disclose foreign interference activity beyond what is required by law, an interagency group of intelligence officials will […]

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Accounts focused on African politics are linked to a Russian tycoon, Facebook says

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Jeff Stone

A Russian financier with ties to Vladimir Putin was behind three networks of Facebook accounts that worked to interfere in the domestic politics of eight countries in Africa, the social media company said. Facebook took down a total of 66 accounts, 83 pages, 11 groups and 12 Instagram pages for their part in information campaigns meant to manipulate legitimate users, the company said Wednesday. The operations focused on issues like elections in Madagascar, Russian involvement in Africa, Sudanese-Russian relations and U.S. foreign policy, Facebook said. The company’s cybersecurity team traced all of the activity to Yevgeniy Prizgohin, a businessman previously indicted by former U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller in connection with the Russian Internet Research Agency. The IRA is the so-called Russian troll farm that sought to manipulate U.S. social media users before and after the 2016 presidential election. Since then, Prigozhin reportedly has directed his energy into boosting Russia’s presence […]

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Russian indicted by Mueller for alleged troll-farm activities is released by Belarus

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Sean Lyngaas

Authorities in Belarus have released a Russian national whom former Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted for interfering in the 2016 U.S. election. Anna Bogacheva allegedly worked for the notorious Internet Research Agency, a propaganda-spouting company with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. A February 2018 indictment from the Department of Justice alleges that Bogacheva traveled to the U.S. in 2014 “under false pretenses for the purpose of collecting intelligence” to support the IRA’s disinformation campaigns. Bogacheva was released after being detained in the capital of Minsk, according to multiple media reports quoting Belarus’s prosecutor general’s office. Her detention initially raised the possibility that one of the 13 Russians charged by Mueller might see the inside of the U.S. courtroom. Bogacheva immediately returned to Russia upon being released, The Washington Post reported. Belarusian authorities did not find grounds to detain Bogacheva for extradition, according to reports. A spokesperson for the office could not be […]

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NSA director rebukes Beijing for ‘weaponizing’ disinformation in Hong Kong protests

Posted on October 9, 2019 by Shannon Vavra

The National Security Agency’s director issued a rebuke Wednesday of the Chinese government’s recent efforts to spread disinformation online about protests in Hong Kong focused on a controversial Chinese law. “The Chinese government has subverted pro-Democratic demonstrators with fake social media posts, providing us a snapshot of how Beijing weaponizes information,” Gen. Paul Nakasone said while delivering remarks at FireEye’s Cyber Defense Summit in Washington, D.C. As Hong Kong protesters have taken to the streets in recent months to protest proposals on Hong Kong’s extradition laws, China’s government has waged an information campaign on social media platforms to try shaping the narrative in favor of the police. In one instance, Beijing’s state press arm bought ads on Twitter critical of the protests. Twitter then said there was “reliable evidence” that the Chinese government was behind nearly 1,000 Twitter accounts trying to insert political discord about the protests. That same month, […]

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UAE, Egypt, Nigeria cited as sources of latest information operations blocked by Facebook

Posted on October 4, 2019 by Jeff Stone

Facebook has removed hundreds of pages and accounts spreading propaganda on behalf of marketing agencies in Egypt, Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates, in the latest takedown demonstrating how so-called coordinated inauthentic behavior is not just a tactic of governments. The company scrubbed 211 accounts, 107 pages, 43 groups and 87 accounts for engaging in information operations, according to a blog post Thursday from Nathaniel Gliecher, head of cybersecurity policy. Operators of the network relied on fake accounts to spread content, promote local news and generate engagement meant to increase interest in the UAE. The activity was linked to the marketing firms Charles Communications, in UAE; Nigeria’s MintReach; and a company called Flexell in Egypt, Facebook said. Facebook’s action was the result of an independent BuzzFeed News investigation that found the network after Facebook in August announced it had removed more than 350 pages and accounts operated out of UAE and Egypt. No more […]

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