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Coronavirus Conspiracy Claims: What’s Behind a Chinese Diplomat’s COVID-19 Misdirection
Chinese spokesperson Zhao Lijian's speculation on twitter that the U.S. army brought the COVID-19 epidemic to Wuhan drew widespread attention. We map the pathways that brought the conspiracy theory to the mainstream.
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Blurring the lines of media authenticity: Prigozhin-linked group funding Libyan broadcast media
Pandemics & Propaganda: How Chinese State Media Shapes Conversations on Coronavirus
Polish Presidential Election 2020: Two Months Out
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Coronavirus Conspiracy Claims: What’s Behind a Chinese Diplomat’s COVID-19 Misdirection
As scientists continue to study how the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in Wuhan, China, and around the world, the infection’s early pathways have proven fertile ground for speculation and conspiracy theories. Although COVID-19’s earliest origins may remain uncertain, the story of one volley in the ongoing U.S.-China blame game shows that misinformation about the disease can be traced to specific speculations, distortions, and amplifications.
Blurring the lines of media authenticity: Prigozhin-linked group funding Libyan broadcast media
The Stanford Internet Observatory has been investigating new facets to the manipulation of the local media environment in Libya: Russian actors who are known to have previously created and sponsored online news media fronts and associated Facebook pages, now appear to be expanding into similar activities in broadcast media.
Pandemics & Propaganda: How Chinese State Media Shapes Conversations on The Coronavirus
The perception of China’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic has been a significant challenge for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over the past two months. The CCP has been attempting to control the narrative and deflect blame since the start of the outbreak, both domestically and abroad.
Polish Presidential Election 2020: Two Months Out
For a broader look at the upcoming Polish election, its stakes and major figures, see our scene-setter.
Poland: Presidential Election 2020 Scene-Setter
This is the third of a series of pieces the Observatory intends to publish on societies and elections at risk from online disinformation. Our goal is to draw the attention of the media, tech platforms and other academics to these risks and to provide a basic background that could be useful to those who wish to study the information environment in these areas.
Taiwan Election: Disinformation as a Partisan Issue
On January 11, 2020, Taiwan held its 15th presidential and 10th Legislative Yuan election. Taiwanese citizens soundly re-elected Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate, Tsai Ing-wen, who won 57.1% of the vote over her opponents, Kuomintang (KMT) candidate Han Kuo-yu (who took 38.61%), and the People’s First Party candidate James Soong (4.26%). The DPP also maintained its majority in the Legislative Yuan, though with a slight decrease of a few seats. Voter turnout was high, with almost 74% of eligible voters casting ballots, up from 66% in 2016.
Taiwan Election: One Day Out
There is only one day left before Taiwan heads to the polls, and researchers, election integrity teams at tech platforms, and press are following the dynamics closely. On January 1st, Taiwan entered into its ten day polling black-out period, a time during which there is a strict ban on agencies and individuals sharing, or citing, any public survey related to a candidate or the election overall.
Analyzing a Twitter Takedown Originating in Saudia Arabia
On December 20, 2019 Twitter announced the removal of 88,000 accounts managed by Smaat, a digital marketing company based in Saudi Arabia, and attributed thousands of these accounts to involvement in “a significant state-backed information operation”. On December 17 Twitter shared with the Stanford Internet Observatory 32,054,257 tweets from 5,929 randomly sampled accounts. In this report we provide a first analysis of the data.
Taiwan Election: Three Weeks Out
Last Friday, December 13, 2019, Facebook announced it had removed 118 fan pages, 99 groups, and 51 accounts supporting Taiwan’s KMT presidential candidate, Han Kuo-yu. Our team at SIO had been observing several of the Groups removed, including one that was prominently featured in media coverage of the takedown: 2020韓國瑜總統後援會（總會）[“2020 Han Kuo-yu presidential support group (General group)”].
Bing’s Top Search Results Contain an Alarming Amount of Disinformation
Bing’s importance in the information landscape of the U.S. shouldn’t be overlooked. While its share of the search market in the U.S. might be dwarfed by that of Google, it has steadily increased over the past ten years.
Taiwan Election: The Final Countdown
This post is an update to our Presidential Election 2020 Scene Setter published August 26, 2019.
New White Paper on GRU Online Operations Puts Spotlight on Pseudo-Think Tanks and Personas
Today the Stanford Internet Observatory published a white paper on GRU online influence operations from 2014 to 2019.
Evidence of Russia-Linked Influence Operations in Africa
Russia’s global strategy for reasserting itself as a geopolitical superpower has led to an increased presence in Africa, where it has broadened efforts to shape the continent’s politics and pursue new economic opportunities to allay the effects of sanctions.
Libya: Presidential and Parliamentary Elections Scene Setter
Political context
Libya has seen continuing violence for several years, with rebel General Khalifa Haftar, head of the Libyan National Army (LNA) forces, controlling large swaths of the country and aiming to take control of Tripoli.
Kosovo Blue Lives Takedown
In the course of assisting reporter Judd Legum of Popular Information on an investigation into a Ukraine-based network of Facebook Pages (recently taken down), SIO researchers uncovered a similar network that appeared to be operating from Kosovo. This network, consisting of approximately 9 pages with 312,000 followers, focused predominantly on “Blue Lives Matter” content – an American social movement that expresses support for police officers.
Should We Be Worried About Election Interference in 2020? Probably, says Facebook’s Former Chief Security Officer
Alex Stamos is “extremely worried” that the upcoming U.S. presidential election will see some kind of interference from foreign adversaries.
“It’s too late for legislation — we start voting in the primaries in February,” Stamos told Michael McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, on the World Class podcast. “And it’s really unfortunate that we as a society watched the ball fly over the plate on this one.”
Taiwan: Presidential Election 2020 Scene Setter
This is the first of a series of pieces we intend to publish on societies and elections at risk from online disinformation. Our goal is to draw the attention of the media, tech platforms and other academics to these risks and to provide a basic background that could be useful to those who wish to study the information environment in these areas.
Stanford Internet Observatory Seeks to Detect Internet Abuse in Real Time
$5 million gift from Craig Newmark Philanthropies will support new program, led by computer security expert Alex Stamos
Talking Election Security in the Nation’s Capital
Is the 2020 presidential election vulnerable to the same kind of foreign interference that took place in 2016? For a group of scholars at the new Stanford Cyber Policy Center at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), the answer is undoubtedly “yes.”
'Securing American Elections' Report Offers a Policy Road Map
Despite the severity of the attack on the 2016 U.S. presidential election, there has been no bipartisan, independent commission to investigate what can be done to prevent election interference in the future — until now.
Facebook’s Former Chief Security Officer Weighs in On the Mueller Report
Former Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos is relieved that the Mueller Report has finally been released, he confessed to Michael McFaul, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI), on an episode of the World Class podcast.
FSI scholars join high-level commission on democracy in the digital age
The Kofi Annan Foundation has tapped four Stanford scholars at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) to help advance one of its top priorities: to shed light on the rapidly-changing role of technology in elections around the world and to recommend ways of ensuring that digital tools strengthen—not undercut—democracy.
Cybersecurity: Media Roundtable Eyes Threats
Whether it’s foreign government meddling or corporate hacking, every day brings a new challenge in cybersecurity for the United States, said experts at a recent Hoover Institution media roundtable.
Cybersecurity expert Alex Stamos joins Stanford University as fellow
Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Hoover Institution announced today the appointment of Alex Stamos as a William J. Perry Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Cyber Initiative fellow, and Hoover visiting scholar.