Category Archives: information operations

TikTok says it will do more to slow spread of misinformation videos

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TikTok says it will do more to slow down the sharing of information that can’t be completely fact-checked but potentially could be “inauthentic, misleading, or false.” The video-sharing giant says in a blog post that it will put banners over content that “has been reviewed but cannot be conclusively validated.” The clip’s creator will be notified, and then users will get an “Are you sure you want to share this video?” message before being able to amplify it to their followers. The videos may also be rendered ineligible to be included on TikTok’s For You page, a section that drives a significant amount of traffic on the app. TikTok says that it has been partnering with fact-checkers at PolitiFact, Lead Stories, and SciVerify and removing videos with information that is demonstrably false. The plan to put badges on potentially problematic content is geared toward situations where “fact checks are inconclusive […]

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White House must act now to boost trust in elections, experts say

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There’s a brief window for the Biden administration to boost Americans’ trust in the voting process, and the White House must take steps now, according to a new report from election-integrity experts. President Joe Biden should form a Presidential Commission on Election Resilience and Trust that would spend six months studying the issue and report back before the end of 2021, says the report from the Alliance for Securing Democracy and the Center for Democracy and Technology. “Despite the absence of widespread voter fraud or major cyber attacks in the 2020 elections, false information ran rampant in the pre- and post-election periods,” write David Levine, an elections integrity fellow for the ASD, and William T. Adler, a senior technologist in elections and democracy for the CDT. “The Commission should study and make recommendations about efforts to counter election-related mis- and disinformation, which undermine confidence in our democracy.” The Washington Post […]

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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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US arrests Twitter troll accused of spreading election disinformation in 2016

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U.S. law enforcement officials say they’ve arrested an infamous far-right troll for allegedly using social media to spread disinformation in support of Donald Trump in the 2016 election. Douglass Mackey, a 31-year-old Florida man, is accused of using Twitter and other platforms to disenfranchise voters by encouraging them to vote via text or social media, which are invalid voting methods. Law enforcement officials arrested Mackey, who was better known as Ricky Vaughn on social media, on Wednesday, the Justice Department said in a statement. The arrest shows how investigations into electoral interference can take years, and is a reminder of the din of domestic disinformation that still challenges U.S. democracy. While the Russian effort to sow disinformation among U.S. voters in 2016 gained widespread attention, U.S.-based propagandists were also active. Mackey and other unnamed associates allegedly flooded social media for two months prior to Election Day in 2016, urging people to […]

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Biden administration prepares for a different kind of Iranian cyber threat

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As President Joe Biden wraps up his first week in the Oval Office, his national security team is still gearing up to face a myriad of looming digital security threats from Iran. Just over a year after the Trump administration used a drone strike to kill Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general, Iran is still weighing retaliatory action against the U.S., according to a recent Department of Defense assessment. That’s not the only threat the Biden administration may have to contend with — Iran carried out a number of online efforts meant to intimidate potential American voters prior to the presidential election, allegedly launched a hit list that identified U.S. election officials by name and was behind a reported effort to probe U.S. election websites. “From a geopolitical perspective — with the maximum pressure campaign, the assassination of Soleimani … they are a caged animal and I think they are very […]

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Dominion files $1.3 billion defamation suit against Giuliani over election security claims

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Voting equipment maker Dominion Voting Systems on Monday sued former President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for $1.3 billion for spreading election-related conspiracy theories that the vendor says amount to defamation.   It’s the latest in a series of high-value lawsuits that Dominion has leveled at Trump allies who have promoted false conspiracy theories about the voting machine vendor flipping votes for Joe Biden during the 2020 election. Dominion employees have received a barrage of death threats, and the company says it has “suffered unprecedented and irreparable harm,” because of conspiracy theories stoked by Giuliani, the lawyer Sidney Powell and other pro-Trump public figures. “Dominion brings this action to set the record straight…and to stand up for itself, its employees, and the electoral process,” reads the suit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District Columbia. It follows a $1.3 billion defamation suit that Dominion filed against […]

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Rep. Maloney seeks FBI probe of Parler’s role in Capitol attack

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The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Thursday asked the FBI to investigate Parler’s role in the storming of the Capitol earlier this month, and its possible ties to Russia. The committee chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, also requested that FBI Director Christopher Wray order an investigation into the social media application’s financing, according to the letter she sent to the bureau. Parler has come under scrutiny in recent weeks after rioters used the app to plan and coordinate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol Building. Apple and Google have removed Parler from their app marketplaces, while Amazon has ejected the site from its web hosting service over violent content. Maloney now contends the federal government should embark on its own probe. The FBI should “conduct a robust examination of the role that the social media site Parler played in the assault, including as a potential facilitator of planning […]

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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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YouTube joins Silicon Valley backlash against Trump content

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Despite the widespread backlash against President Donald Trump by tech companies since the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, one big platform hadn’t officially taken decisive action against him until Tuesday night. YouTube announced in a Twitter thread that it was blocking Trump from uploading new content for at least a week for violating its policies. In practice, it’s similar to Facebook’s move last week. Trump’s personal page is still fully available on YouTube, but the president can’t post anything new, for now. Twitter has permanently banned the president. YouTube’s announcement also spoke directly to concerns that major social media platforms have served as organizing points for the extremists, conspiracy theorists and white supremacists who raided the Capitol last week and are expected to try similar attacks in Washington and elsewhere again. The ban by the Google-owned video platform would last, at a minimum, to the eve of Joe […]

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