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in·ter·net ob·serv·a·to·ry

[ˈin(t)ərˌnet əbˈzərvəˌtôrē] n. a lab housing infrastructure and human expertise for the study of the internet

NEW: Free Trust and Safety Teaching Resources

Short videos and accompanying discussion questions from industry outlining real trust and safety cases. Plus slide decks, exercises and more.

African Stream: Russia’s Latest Covert Influence Pipeline Targeting Africa and the U.S.

On September 13, 2024 U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave a press briefing about efforts to counter covert Russian government influence operations. He stated that RT, the Russian state media outlet previously called Russia Today, engages in “covert information and influence operations and military procurement."

miriam delphin-rittmon and jeff hancock sit at a table. A red sign is behind them

Key Findings from Stanford Event with Youth Online Safety Leaders & Federal Task Force

Youth online health and safety leaders urged action, shared accountability and a nuanced approach to empower and protect young people online.

graphic represntations of computers and phones connected to tettering boxes of files and then connected to law enforcement in a complex web on a blue background.

How to Fix the Online Child Exploitation Reporting System

A new Stanford Internet Observatory report examines how to improve the CyberTipline pipeline from dozens of interviews with tech companies, law enforcement and the nonprofit that runs the U.S. online child abuse reporting system.

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Free Trust and Safety Teaching Resources

Blogs November 4, 2024

Free Trust and Safety Teaching Resources

Blogs November 4, 2024

New teaching materials from the Trust and Safety Teaching Consortium

African Stream: Russia’s Latest Covert Influence Pipeline Targeting Africa and the U.S.

Blogs September 17, 2024

African Stream: Russia’s Latest Covert Influence Pipeline Targeting Africa and the U.S.

Blogs September 17, 2024

How Persuasive is AI-Generated Propaganda?

News September 4, 2024

How Persuasive is AI-Generated Propaganda?

News September 4, 2024

This brief presents the findings of an experiment that measures how persuasive AI-generated propaganda is compared to foreign propaganda articles written by humans.

collage of images at the cyber policy center, people testifying, people at events

Agenda for the Trust & Safety Research Conference is now Live!

News July 30, 2024

Agenda for the Trust & Safety Research Conference is now Live!

News July 30, 2024

Speaker line-up for the third annual Trust & Safety Research Conference announced.

Masters’ in International Policy students publish capstone reports on Taiwan’s cybersecurity and online resiliency

Blogs July 8, 2024

Masters’ in International Policy students publish capstone reports on Taiwan’s cybersecurity and online resiliency

Blogs July 8, 2024

Through the Policy Change Studio, students partner with international organizations to propose policy-driven solutions to new digital challenges.

image of people sitting at round tables listening to a speaker on the stage

Update on the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO)

News June 17, 2024

Update on the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO)

News June 17, 2024

collage of trust and safety attendees and speakers

Registration Open for the 2024 Trust & Safety Research Conference

News June 10, 2024

Registration Open for the 2024 Trust & Safety Research Conference

News June 10, 2024

Tickets on sale for the third annual Trust & Safety Research Conference to be held September 26-27, 2024. Lock in early bird prices by registering before August 1.

How Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior continues on Social Platforms

Blogs May 29, 2024

How Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior continues on Social Platforms

Blogs May 29, 2024

Assessing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior on X, Tiktok and Telegram following Meta’s 2023 Q3 Adversarial Threat Report

U.S. Marshals work with the NCMEC during Operation We Will Find You, in 2023 (U.S. Marshals Service photo by Bennie J. Davis III, https://www.flickr.com/photos/usmarshals/52917723748/; CC BY 2.0 DEED, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

Challenges in the Online Child Safety Ecosystem

News April 30, 2024

Challenges in the Online Child Safety Ecosystem

News April 30, 2024

How to improve the system for reporting child sex abuse material online. Originally published in Lawfare.

How to Fix the Online Child Exploitation Reporting System

Blogs April 22, 2024

How to Fix the Online Child Exploitation Reporting System

Blogs April 22, 2024

Key Findings from Stanford Event with Youth Online Safety Leaders & Federal Task Force

News March 21, 2024

Key Findings from Stanford Event with Youth Online Safety Leaders & Federal Task Force

News March 21, 2024

Youth online health and safety leaders urged action, shared accountability and a nuanced approach to empower and protect young people online.

image of Jesus under water, his arms and torso made of shrimps

How Spammers, Scammers and Creators Leverage AI-Generated Images on Facebook for Audience Growth

Blogs March 18, 2024

How Spammers, Scammers and Creators Leverage AI-Generated Images on Facebook for Audience Growth

Blogs March 18, 2024

A new preprint paper looks at the ways Facebook Page operators are using AI image models to create surreal content and generate online engagement.

Students from the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy Class of 2024 brainstorm ideas for their capstone projects in the Policy Impact Studio at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

Hands on Policy Practice: A Look at the MIP Capstone Projects of 2024

News March 12, 2024

Hands on Policy Practice: A Look at the MIP Capstone Projects of 2024

News March 12, 2024

Taiwan, New Zealand, and Sierra Leone are just a few of the places students from the Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy are headed this year for their capstone projects.

black and white picture of students seated in rows, shot from above. text overlay reads youth online health and safety conference wednesday march 13

Cyber Policy Center Hosts Federal Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force

News March 11, 2024

Cyber Policy Center Hosts Federal Kids Online Health and Safety Task Force

News March 11, 2024

The Stanford Internet Observatory and Social Media Lab will hold a March 13 convening with the Biden-Harris Administration’s Kids Online Health & Safety Task Force and leading experts

Stanford files amicus brief in Murthy v. Missouri pending before U.S. Supreme Court

News March 5, 2024

Stanford files amicus brief in Murthy v. Missouri pending before U.S. Supreme Court

News March 5, 2024

On December 26, 2023, Stanford University filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court of the United States to correct false allegations made about the university and the Stanford Internet Observatory (SIO).

Journal of Online Trust & Safety Publishes Winter 2024 Issue

News February 29, 2024

Journal of Online Trust & Safety Publishes Winter 2024 Issue

News February 29, 2024

The seventh issue features four peer-reviewed articles and four commentaries

six people sit in white chairs on a raised stage in front of a turquoise and magenta background

3rd Annual Trust & Safety Research Conference announced for September 26-27, 2024

News February 15, 2024

3rd Annual Trust & Safety Research Conference announced for September 26-27, 2024

News February 15, 2024

Presentation proposals and abstracts due April 30, 2024

abstract collage of megaphones and numbers

Using LLMs for Policy-Driven Content Classification

News January 29, 2024

Using LLMs for Policy-Driven Content Classification

News January 29, 2024

From Tech Policy Press, by Dave Willner and Samidh Chakrabarti, both of the Program on Governance of Emerging Technologies at the CPC.

Investigation Finds AI Image Generation Models Trained on Child Abuse

Blogs December 20, 2023

Investigation Finds AI Image Generation Models Trained on Child Abuse

Blogs December 20, 2023

A new report identifies hundreds of instances of exploitative images of children in a public dataset used for AI text-to-image generation models.

Research can help to tackle AI-generated disinformation

News November 20, 2023

Research can help to tackle AI-generated disinformation

News November 20, 2023

New work in Nature Human Behaviour from SIO researchers, with other co-authors looks at how generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools have made it easy to create realistic disinformation that is hard to detect by humans and may undermine public trust.

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NEW: Free Trust and Safety Teaching Resources

Featured News and Publications

African Stream: Russia’s Latest Covert Influence Pipeline Targeting Africa and the U.S.

Key Findings from Stanford Event with Youth Online Safety Leaders & Federal Task Force

How to Fix the Online Child Exploitation Reporting System

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